We are all aware of the endangered animals all over the world. But somehow, they are distant – hidden from us. We are quite detached from them and it is only in the news or in some pictures that we get to encounter them. On top of that, we are confronted with the tragic news of their decreasing population due to habitat loss, hunting, smuggling, etc.
But unlike us, Tim Flach, a British photographer, has chosen to go into the wild to actually meet these wonderful animals. He wanted to document their lives and capture them in a frame – a photograph that could surpass time. After two years of roaming among these magnificent animals, he collected these photographs and combined them in a work called Endangered. It’s a beautiful collection which shows the most threatened animals on our planets – portraying the immeasurable loss which seems inevitable.
We are familiar with many species present in this collection, namely, the common snow leopard, cheetah, polar bear, etc. The animals which often come on the news. And then, there are the others which seem to be from some Harry Potter film – Philippine eagle, saiga, olm salamander. Flach just shows how diverse the wildlife is, and how challenging it is becoming for these diverse animals to survive. According to Flach, he is trying to bring a connection between humans and animals through these photos. That’s the reason why most of them are captured with their eyes pointing towards us. Eyes are the window to the soul of both humans and animals.
Now, we can see their eyes and watch the pain in them.
1. Saiga
2. Polar Bear
3. Philippine Eagle
4. Hyacinth Macaw
5. African Elephant
6. Iberian Lynx
7. Snow Leopard
8. Cheetah with cubs
9. Ring-Tailed Lemur
10. White Bellied Pangolin
11. Ploughshare Tortoise
12. Red Panda
13. Fireflies
14. Hippopotamus
15. Giant Panda
16. Red Crown Crane
17. Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey
18. Pied Tamarin
19. Sea Angels
20. Shoebill
21. Northern White Rhinoceros
22. Military Macaw
23. European Honey Bee
24. Egyptian Vulture
25. Scimitar Oryx’s
26. Western Lowland Gorillas
27. Scallop Hammerhead Aggregation
28. Blue Throated Macaw
29. Proboscis Monkey
30. Kaiser’s Newt
31. Indian Gharial
32. Yellow-Eyed Tree Frog
33. Arabian Oryx
34. Marine Iguana
35. Beluga Sturgeon
36. Lemur Leaf Frog
37. Yunan Snub Nose Monkey
38. Smooth Fronted Cayman
39. Yellow Eyed Tree Frog Eggs
40. Hooded Vulture
41. Olm Salamander
42. Siamese Crocodile
43. Partula Snails
Fascinated? We all are. It just makes us wonder how we can keep them alive so that we don’t just see them just like photographs, but know that there are out there somewhere still, wandering aimlessly. Freely.