In the Year of the Tiger, the images exude majestic grandeur.

Release Date:

2022-02-23

作者：

Sixty-nine-year-old photographer Li Li showcased some of his tiger photographs at a photography exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei Province. [Photo provided to China Daily Online]

At a recently opened exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei Province, 69-year-old photographer Li Li showcased 40 of his tiger photographs.

Over the past 22 years, this tiger enthusiast has traveled to zoos across China to photograph these animals.

As a child, he had heard his grandmother tell the tale of how a woodcutter was repaid by the tiger he had once saved.

“That was when I first started to like tigers,” said the retired editor.

At the end of the 20th century, China’s wild tigers were on the brink of extinction. This prompted Li to take photographs while he still could. He spent many weekends at the Wuhan Zoo, becoming familiar with the names and distinct behaviors of the tigers there.

His favorite is a woman named Niuniu.

Photographer Li Li showcased some of his tiger photographs at a photography exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei Province. [Photo provided to China Daily Online]

“She is quiet, aloof, and proud, exuding a noble elegance,” Li said. “Like humans, tigers each have their own distinct personality.”

Starting at 5 a.m. on the day of the visit, he usually waits for about an hour, giving Niu Niu time to wake up with a yawn. He has been following the tiger for roughly ten years.

Heilongjiang Province’s Northeast Tiger Park has built a large-scale wild‑training facility to keep the tigers in touch with wildlife. In winter, Li visited the park numerous times to photograph the tigers playing in the snow.

“It was minus 30 degrees Celsius at the time,” he said. “My eyelashes had frozen together.”

Li said that tigers prefer to live solitary lives, and if several of them gather in the same area, they are likely to fight.

“If a person approaches another, it means they’re about to attack. So I immediately raised my camera,” he said.

He noted that in recent years, researchers have detected signs of the Amur tiger in the wild, indicating that, thanks to the country’s efforts to protect the ecological environment, the species’ conservation status has improved.

This year is the Year of the Tiger. In China, this species is known as the “King of Animals.” Organized by the Hubei Provincial Photographers Association and the Wuhan City Photographers Association, the exhibition will run until mid-March before moving to other cities.

Photographer Li Li showcased some of his tiger photographs at a photography exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei Province. [Photo provided to China Daily Online]

Photographer Li Li [Image provided to China Daily Online]

Photographer Li Li showcased some of his tiger photographs at a photography exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei Province. [Photo provided to China Daily Online]