Galerie de Zoologie

Nature, third prize stories

1994

In 1989 the great nave came alive with a spectacular sound and light show. The Galerie de Zoologie, a collection of preserved animals, finds its origin in the 19th-century fashion of displaying an exotic, stuffed mammal as a status symbol. A vast, monumental building, it provided an appropriate setting for the giraffes and elephants sent there when they were no longer in vogue. In time, it became home to some 80,000 birds and mammals, a million fish and countless invertebrates. By the 1960s, when the exhibits had cracked and crumbled, the public had moved on to other amusements and the gallery had to close. But in the summer of 1994 the new Galerie d'Evolution reopened, and provides a contemporary context for the zoology museum. The restoration of the animals was a massive project, but the inhabitants have now returned, a fresh glint in their eye and a new shine on their fur or feathers.

Commissioned by: Rapho

Location: Paris, France

Photo Credit: Francios Le Diascorn

François Le Diascorn (Born January 10, 1947 at La Flèche, near Mans, Sarthe département) is a French photographer, close to the humanist school, who has developed a poetic vision of the world through his unusual images in which a dream-like world seems to superimpose itself upon reality.

He has received a number of awards and grants for his work, among them a national grant for research and creation (for a year in the United States) and a Leonardo da Vinci grant (for a project in Japan). His photographs have been shown in museums and galleries in Europe and the United States and are in a number of collections including that of the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the French National Center of Plastic Arts, the European Center for Photography in Paris (MEP), the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Nicephore Niepce Museum, the Réattu Museum in Arles….