Marian Brickner

Ms. Brickner is a native of New York and graduated from State University of New York, Potsdam in 1958. She moved to St. Louis in 1983 and has worked as a professional photographer since then. Her photographs have been published in: St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis Magazine, Suburban Journal, St. Louis Review, West End Word, St. Louis Symphony Playbill and educational Brochures, St. Louis Business Journal, The Jewish Light, Swedish website for Water striders, Missouri Conservation Magazine, International Journal of Arts Medicine and Annals of Medicine. In addition, Ms. Brickner traveled to Nairobi in the summer of 2001 with a group of Washington University School of Medicine, Neurosurgeons (members of Doctors Without Borders) and photographed surgeries at the Kenya National Hospital. She is currently working on two projects in addition to her ongoing assignments. These include: Big Horn Sheep images in the Arizona Nature Conservancy for their Brochures and a book of "Bonobo Family Tree". Ms. Brickner volunteers for the "Make a Wish "foundation and “Civitas”.

Conversation with Marian Brickner

1. Please tell us why you are interested in making pictures of nature?

I am a minimalist and seem to want to focus the most information into one image for others to quickly be able to see that the image has a life. Before I take a picture, I have in my mind where and how it will be used or shown. I am hoping that when others see it, that viewer will be so taken with it for the fraction of a second that she/he will have a perception shift and have more respect for life.

2. When people see these pictures what kind of reaction do you get?

Usually it's “Wow”! “That's really something” or “It looks so real, (or human)”, “how did you get that shot?” (hundreds of hours practicing of course).”

3. Why are you interested in taking pictures of Bonobos, and what is your book about?

I found out about Bonobos in the late 1990's when Franz DeWaal and Franz Lanting's marvelous book came out; “Bonobo, the Forgotten Ape”. I was impressed because the pictures were gorgeous. Being a very competitive individual, I wanted to be able to take pictures like that! My pictures are now acceptable. I did some research and found out that there is a family tree that is very long in different zoos in the US . I started taking pictures of Linda (the matriarch) and her seven living children and never got to the twenty two grand children and ten great grandchildren, not yet anyway. I wanted to get the word out to children that Bonobos exist and have been working toward trying to get a children's book put together.

Bonobo photo Gallery

Water lillies photo Gallery

Other photos

Would you like to purchase a copy of one of the pictures?

If you are interested in purchasing one of these photographs by Marian Brickner, write to artists@biotrends.org. Please include your full name, email address, postal address and the name and size of the photograph you want to purchase. The photographs come in three sizes: 13'x 19', 8'x 10', 5' x 7'. The artist will contact you to arrange payment and for delivery of the artwork.

Biotrends.org partners with artists to sell their work, taking a modest commission for featuring the artist. Proceeds go to support the efforts of Biotrends.org in raising science literacy. Please contact us at artists@biotrends.org, if you would like us to consider showcasing your work.

What Are Bonobos?

The Bonobo is part of the “great apes”, comprising of the orangutan, gorilla, and chimpanzee. It is known as a pygmy chimpanzee, which was the last of the known ape species to be discovered in 1926. Their habitat is in the equatorial forests of the left bank of the Congo River . It is most closely related to homo sapiens of the ape family, with the chimpanzee the next closest relative. Bonobos and humans share 98% of the same DNA. As a species, they are not protected from extermination or habitat destruction because they have no national park. Their behavior is very similar to ours, such as socializing their young, using tools to extract food. They even laugh when they are tickling each other!

For more information on Bonobos you can refer to one of these pages which we like:

http://www.sandiegozoo.org

http://williamcalvin.com
•