Kumi Oguro’s submitted work for the Neko Project is an exact antithesis to the phenomenon of kawaii cat photography. First of all, she claims that she is not really a cat-lover (despite her tenderness for the two cats of the gallery where she works), and absolutely no fan of “kawaii” cat photography. Her participation in the Neko Project was quite a challenge, but the result is unexpected and astonishing enough to draw your attention. Her images “of” cats are rather “about” cats, about what she personally associates with them. For instance she refers to: the fact that she used to …

Tadahiro Kumagai has been interested in photography for about thirty years. At first he mainly photographs landscapes and events but by chance he discovers the photography of the famous wildlife photographer Mitsuaki Iwagō. Tadahiro Kumagai is straight away inspired by those images and he begins to take pictures of cats. “The photos I proposed to the Neko Project are photos of subjects (like models) that I see evolving in life and that I photograph as a series. I wait for the best moments when the subjects and background are in osmosis, when they are the most beautiful.” For the project …

I met Jun Fujiyasu in 2014 through a book contest – ShaShin Book Award with his book entitled DZ dizygotic twins. In real life I met Jun with his twin. The circle was complete. So when Jun decided to apply to Neko project, I could not imagine that Jun will make a simple picture of a cat, it needed to be at least a double cat; cat twins or cat doppelgänger! Jun writes about his project: “I thought about the expression : “twin cats”. Cats that are multiple, animals often have in themselves two or more animals at the same …

The garden cats A house in Japan is always open towards the outside. The garden is part of the interior of the house through the play of window openings and layout of rooms. This observation reflects the work of photographer Sachie Abiko in her proposal submitted for Neko Project. We are at her parents’ house in a suburb of Tokyo on a stray cats street. The garden is abundant and beautiful. The colour green is omnipresent. The mother of the family has the green hand and cats are welcome. There are cats from inside and cats from outside. In particular, …

Shinichi Yokozawa, born and raised in Saitama (north of Tokyo) is a graphic designer working at home. He spends most his time inside and has very few opportunities to leave his home. One day he started to walk around a lot in his neighbourhood to keep fit. This habit, those walks, make him realized that the world is not as he thought it was so then Shinichi Yokozawa begins to photograph everything around him. He collect all those pictures together thinking that one day he will be able to use them as a material in his job and that’s how …

Nekojigoku – the hell of cats Shoji Ogawa is a photographer from Osaka. He was born in that city and spent his whole life photographing “Naniwa” (former name of Osaka) and especially the districts of Kamagaseki and Shinsekai. Those districts are the heart of Naniwa and are also called “Kindai deep Osaka” (the modern deep Osaka). In an environment – apparently hostile, wild, messy and violent, Shoji Ogawa wanders in the streets and photographs all he can see around. His photography tells us about the human warmth he finds over there, despite the appearance. His photography is not fake, truly …

banri is a photographer driven by his feelings, what comes in front of his lens might finish in his camera and this is how he began to shoot cats with his iPhone. Taking photos is a life style and the photographs of cats are a healing practice done. Pochico, mother of three sons, all living in banri’s home, was crying in front of the door when she was 3 weeks old. Her mum left her and by a rainy day banri finally let her in. She was so cute… He is living in Osaka with his cats and he publishes …

“My work is portrait photography of people. I always think that I would like to capture, to represent the personality of the subject which I feel. When I take photos of my cats, it is the same.” Question: In a world saturated with « kitsch », where photographs of ‘kawai’ are rarely considered art, what do you think is the value of cat photography, a subject that so often becomes ‘kawai’? What were the difficulties for you to take a picture of a cat and not be « only » kawaï ? Answer: One is “kawai” of the imagination that came out of movies, …

Yasushi Mori – Hey! Hattori! Yasushi Mori is part of the jury’s top ten choice. He is one of the participants who published a book from his project proposed for Neko project, please check: http://www.libroarte.jp/hattori.html Yasushi Mori has never been really interested in photographing cats. At his house those last years he got a cat named Hattori-kun, fled from Futaba, a town in Fukushima, when the Great East Japan Earthquake devastated the area in 2011. Yasushi Mori gradually starts to pay attention to Hattori-kun, overwhelmed both by his solitariness and his loveliness. Let’s listen to the unexpected experience that Yasushi …

We will start this week with Yu Hirai, a photographer that we cherished since her series « Entre chiens et loups », who is also a talented drawer. She has this month an article about her another series MADAME ACTION in NIEPCEBOOK10 magazine: https://www.corridorelephant.com/ For Neko project she proposed us a project started a while ago: Maya Neko. The animal, the cat, is metaphoric and real. On the way from her mother’s home to the metro station, the old lady encounters the cats from the neighbourhood. This usual walk shows her physical independency but freedom of mind despite her old …