Often thought of as the seminal photographer of our feline friends, Walter Chandoha took more than 90,000 photos of cats during his lifetime.
These days, some of us might indeed have 90,000 photos of cats on our smartphone camera rolls (and the rest), but considering Chandoha started working in 1949, this is seriously impressive.
His work has graced the covers of hundreds of magazines and appeared in thousands of adverts. If you’ve seen a famous photograph of a cat in your lifetime, it stands a good chance that it’s one of his.
Just when you might think you’ve seen all the photos of cats you ever need (surely this is simply not possible), this book comes along with images that have never before been published.
These cats were Chandoha’s own cats, not the professional models who might have behaved slightly differently in front of his lens. Or perhaps not, who can say exactly how our kitty friends are likely to react in front of a camera – probably the exact opposite of what you want.
In Chandoha’s collection, we meet his original muse, Loco, who was found during a snow storm in New York in 1949. Pictures of this cat went “viral” in the 1940s when they were picked up by picture magazines of the time.
You can really see that there’s trust between the cat and the photographer in these gorgeous pictures. I spend a lot of my time looking at pictures of cats doing this job (it’s tough, but you know, someone seriously has to do this), but I can confidently say these are some of the best, and it’s a great value volume too, making it a great gift for the cat lover in your life too.
Walter Chandoha: Family Cats from the Archive 1949-1962 is published by Damiani and is available to buy now. ISBN: 9788862088589.
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- Tough street cats we photographed – you won’t believe the expressions of these cats!
- From big cats to critters
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