Walter Chandoha: The Photographer With A Passion For Cats

October 27, 2019

Who doesn’t love hearing a heartfelt story about someone falling in love with a cat? This love story begins with a NYC photographer by the name of Walter Chandoha, who was on his way home from NYU one wintry, blizzardy evening, when he happened upon a little, frozen, stray kitten hoping to secure a warm place for the night. It was love at first sight. Chandoha took little Loco (as he named him) home and so began a lifelong passion for cats. 

That night changed Chandoha’s life forever. He was so enamoured of Loco’s grace and poise, he decided to use his skills as a photographer to capture the many moods and attitudes of this amazing creature. He once said:

"Cats are my favourite animal subject because of their unlimited range of attitude, posture, expression, and colouration."

Chandoha was born on November 30, 1920 and lived to the ripe old age of 98. He always loved photography and began taking pictures as a child with his newly acquired Kodak camera. He went onto to study darkroom techniques and worked as a press photographer and combat photographer in the Pacific War during World War II. 

But that night in 1949 when he met Loco, long before the Internet was invented, he decided to give up his aspirations of becoming a businessman and turned his hand to his love of photography and cats instead. It was the best decision of his life and he enjoyed a long and lustrous career.

"I relished the challenge of making photographs of cats and quickly saw the potential of attempting to capture their naturally expressive personalities. The photographic possibilities and challenges seemed endless."

Chandoha became a world-famous freelance photographer of cats, amassing a catalogue of more than 90,000 pictures of cats and kittens. Over the course of his 75-year career, Chandoha's cat photography appeared on the cover of more than 300 magazines. His work was everywhere from jigsaw puzzles to greetings cards. 

His pictures were also popular with pet-food manufacturers, who used them in promotional materials and on product labels. During his career, he authored about 33 illustrated books on cats, dogs, and other animals, and some on the art of capturing animals on film. Today, Chandoha would’ve been an Instagram sensation and a multi-million-dollar petfluencer on social media.

Chandoha was known for using glamorous lighting to highlight his feline subjects’ beautiful fur, making it stand out in sharp relief. His technique was a genre-defining moment for generations of animal photographers to follow. He even inspired the likes of Andy Warhol. Chandoha’s compassion and tenderness for these beguiling creatures can be felt in every charming portrait.

With his death this year, a commemorative 296-page book has been released by Taschen – Walter Chandoha: Cats (Photographs 1942 – 2018) – capturing seven decades of Chandoha’s remarkable feline photography. 

"In all these years I’ve spent making thousands of images of every kind of cat, I’m still surprised to find yet another who is completely different from their peers."

With the holidays right around the corner, it’s the kind of gift you want to buy for the cat lover in your life.