WILD - LIFE

The Pingtung wildlife Rescue Center (PTRC) was founded in 1993. It occupies 4 hectares of land on the campus of the University of Science and Technology in Pingtung. Today, this rescue center hosts about 1500 animals of 100 different species.

Most of these animals are protected species and have been abandoned by circuses for example or confiscated at customs because they were the result of the wild animals traffic. While legislation is sometimes in favour of endemic species, the government does not invest in their preservation from a financial point of view. Rescue centers such as the PTRC therefore rely entirely on donations and volunteer action. As a result, the living conditions of the animals are far to be ideal. It is impossible to offer them lands that would look like a natural reserve, so they must be put in cages to be cured and preserved.

I offer you an immersion in the daily life of Taiwan's biggest wildlife rescue center for wild endangered animals.

The shelter is a hyphen – a link - between wild freedom and life. In the best of cases, it is a stage of repair before a return to mother nature, but more often, it is a prison paved with good intentions. Through this project, I wanted to give back their majesty to these wild animals robbed of their honor, constrained in their instinct, whose eyes cry out all the thirst of freedom, empathy and nobility of soul they are made of. I wanted these photographs to be aesthetic in order to pay homage to the beauty of all these fallen queens and kings, and hard, raw, not to hide the tragic destiny that lies behind the portrait of each individual. I wanted Megan Kuo, who was then a passionate carer at the Pingtung rescue center for wild endangered animals, to tell the story of each animal through her own experience at the shelter. She has put her soul into each of her texts to pay tribute to these individuals that she has been in daily contact with for several years and I thank her warmly for that. You are now in the cage, ready to plunge your eyes into those of our wounded brothers and sisters. Let's begin the encounter.

The book “WILD-LIFE” will be available from April, do not hesitate to reserve your copy by sending me an email : jimmy.beunardeau@gmail.com