CATS PHOTOGRAPHS 1942–-2018

An impossibly gorgeous coffee table book we have fallen in love with! Eleven entranced kittens, a seeming impossible feat, white, grey, black, brindle and ginger are captured on the opening double page spread. On a winter's night in 1949 in New York City, young marketing student and budding photographer Walter Chandoha spotted a stray kitten in the snow, bundled it into his coat, and brought it home. Little did he know he had just met the muse that would determine the course of his life. Chandoha turned his lens on his new feline friend - which he named Loco - and was so inspired by the results that he started photographing kittens from a local shelter. These images marked the start of an extraordinary career that would span seven decades. Long before the Internet and #catsofinstagram, Chandoha was enrapturing the public with his fuzzy subjects. From advertisements for Puss 'n Boots cat food to greetings cards, jigsaw puzzles to pet-food packaging, his images combined his signature glamorous lighting to rim the head and ears, which made each cat's fur stand out in sharp relief. This technique would define the visual vocabulary of animal portraiture for generations and inspire such masters as Andy Warhol, who took cues from Chandoha's charming portraits in his illustrated cat book. Four adorable Siamese kittens peep from a basket (1957), cats leap from this genre-defining artist's archives, featuring hundreds of close-ups and colour studio and environmental portraits, black and white street photography like the stray cat at Rome's Coliseum 1981, images from vintage cat shows, tender pictures that combine his children with cats, barn cats, family pets, and more against stunning scenery. This remarkable photographer passed away at the age of 98 in 2019. Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. 14 x 19.5 cm, 192 pages.