I wanted to photograph a mountain gorilla head on with straight eye-to-eye contact. This is, after all, the ultimate of encounters and intuitively I suspected that a studied portrait could carry more emotion and be more timeless than a rushed action shot. An adult gorilla’s face is enormous and full of often-unexplored detail. This image plays to these themes – I just wish he did not hold me in quite such magnificent contempt. They are awesome animals and Rwanda’s recovery as a country is equally awesome. Maybe this picture will encourage some to visit.