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French elephant researcher Ludovic Momont keeps steady watch on a viewing platform above Langoué Bai.
"This was in Ivindo. We're in the bai, a swampy, mineral-rich area where animals gather to bathe and socialize. The platform was built to observe the gorillas and elephants in the bai. French elephant researcher Ludovic Momont spends days and sometimes nights on the platform to observe the elephants. He has an identity card for each elephant that has ever come into the bai; the way to recognize the elephant is by the shape of the ears, the tusk, the tail, and whatever other irregularity, tracking where each elephant comes and goes."
—Photographer Nicolas Reynard
Photography Notes
- Camera: Nikon F90
- Film: Provia 400
- Lens: 80-200mm
- Shutter speed: 1/250th
- Aperture: f/8
- Time of day: 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
"You always think of scientists working with numbers and drawings, or studying books or computers, but here's a man who spends hours, days and nights for months just noting little things about elephants while positioned on a small, uncomfortable platform. The results of his work will be very important, but his action is very subtle; that's what I was trying to capture in this quiet photo."
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