Walter Chandoga – the man who 70 years photographing cats

It is called the "pioneer", "king" and "the godfather" pictures of cats. Walter Chandoga deserve such title that 75-year career made more than 90 000 cat pictures that were published in magazines such as Life and National Geographic, adorned with banks with the myriad brands of cat food, produced in calendars and books. It all started on a winter night in the late 1940s, when Chandoga picked up on the street homeless kitten.

Walter Chandoga in a home Studio, long island, 1955.

Walter George Chandoga (Walter Chandoha George) was born in 1920 in new Jersey. Taking pictures started as a child on family camera Kodak, then joined the club in Bayonne, where he learned to develop film and print photos.

After school he worked as an assistant Illustrator. During the Second world Chandoga served as a photojournalist. After the war he studied at the School of business, Leonard N. Stern at new York University, got married and moved to Queens, new York.

Frisky Loco, 1951.

One winter, returning to practice, Chandka saw in the snow shivering kitten, put it in his pocket and brought it home. Pet, be warmed, were restless. Like a man possessed, was racing around the apartment, fighting with shadow and his own reflection in the mirror.

Chandoga became fascinated with photography a new pet and soon his images appeared in Newspapers and magazines. Shooting Loco has brought so much pleasure, it is a career marketer Chandoga decided to become a freelance photographer, specializing in shooting cats.

By the mid-1950s he was established as the most authoritative commercial pet photographer of his time.

Later he and his wife moved to a farm in Annandale, new Jersey, where he made one of his most famous shots with five cats ("Gang"). Chandoga photographed plenty of fruit and flowers, street scenes in new York, dogs, horses and other animals, but is primarily known photographs of cats.

His images have appeared in more than 300 magazines and have been used in several thousands of promotional campaigns, and was published in greeting cards, puzzles, t-shirts, posters, calendars and packaging of pet food.

"Gang", New Jersey, 1961.

He has released more than 30 books, including "the Book of Walter Candoni about kittens and cats" (1963) and "How to photograph cats, dogs and other animals" (1973).

Chandoga and his work was repeatedly featured on book and Museum exhibitions. He said: "I like to take photographs cats because they have infinite range of poses, gestures, expressions, and colors".

Walter Chandoga died in January 2019 in Annandale, leaving the archive of over 225,000 photos, including about 90 000 – pictures of cats. Almost all of them made long before koteyki became viral favorites social networks.

Chandoga raised cat portraits to the level of art. This month, Taschen is releasing a book "pictures of cats. Walter Chandoga. 1942-2018".

The daughter of a photographer of Sex and the kitten, 1955.

Trio in new Jersey, 1982.

At the pet shop, new York, 1961.

Siamese cat, new Jersey, 1984.