Walter Chandoha, often coined “the godfather of cat photography”, began his career as a press photographer during World War II. He went on to major in marketing at New York University in the 1950s. During his spare time he would set off with his camera "I used every free moment I had to photograph daily life in New York City – from Penn Station before it was demolished in 1963 to laundry day in Harlem.”
One night on his way home from university, Chandoha encountered Loco, a stray cat who would become his lifelong companion and muse. "We were truly thrilled with the success of those first pictures of Loco and began to seek out other cats to photograph". Chandoha went on to become a pioneer in the industry, taking over 100,000 photos of animals. “If you went into a supermarket, there would be dog food on one side and cat on the other. Almost all of the photographs were mine!”
After the success of his critically acclaimed book Cats, Chandoha curated a collection of his favourite dog photos for a follow up. The sequel, Dogs, was published in 2020, a year after Chandoha passed away at the age of 98. He left behind a legacy as the 20th century’s greatest pet photographer.
Source: Estate of Walter Chandoha/Taschen