Ape Shoots

They’re not the easiest models to work with. They refuse to sit still. They pee on the floor. They bite. But something about monkeys and apes captivates Los Angeles photographer Jill Greenberg, which is why she continues to explore her specialty of primate portraiture.

“I think it’s just reminded me that I don’t take myself too seriously, and I don’t think any of us should,” the 39-year-old Greenberg says. “We’re all silly monkeys.”

Greenberg’s passion for primates has struck a chord with the public. Her 2006 book, “Monkey Portraits,” sold quite well, she says, and a paperback edition is on the way, with eight new images, including one of Cheeta, the world’s oldest chimpanzee.

Born in Montreal, then raised in a suburb of Detroit, Greenberg was always keen on photographing animals. She recalls being a fifth grader, taking portraits of her dog.

Greenberg attended the Rhode Island School of Design, then moved to New York, expecting to become an illustrator. But while photographing a capuchin monkey in 2001, she was overwhelmed. “I loved the emotion, the quality of the light on her hair.”

Greenberg does photograph other subjects. Last year she touched off a fierce controversy with her series of portraits of crying children. Calling the series “End Times,” Greenberg said the photos were meant to make a statement about how children would feel if they truly understood the dire state of the world. But critics accused her of child abuse, because she’d gotten many of her subjects to cry by taking away their candy.

In the future Greenberg hopes to work with different exotic creatures. But as long as she’s based in L.A., she’ll occasionally be called upon to shoot the most high maintenance of all creatures: celebrities.

Most recently she photographed Lindsay Lohan. “She wasn’t very prompt,” she says. “Animals usually come early.”