“City Cats Of Istanbul” Photobook Features Feisty Felines Courtesy Of Marcel Heijnen

Feral cats casually lounging about the city during everyday moments in Istanbul is an ordinary sight for the residents. The city of Istanbul is extremely welcoming to these silent citizens who stray about like they own the place. So much so that one photographer, Marcel Heijnen, dedicated his efforts to capturing the symbiotic relationship between the charismatic street cats and the people who they charm. 

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

When asked about how long he has been working on his photography, Heijnen said, “Feels like all my life. My dad was an amateur photographer and we had a darkroom at home to develop black and white photos. My granddad gave me an Agfa box camera when I was 10 or so and I got my first SLR when I was about 15 I think. But I got more serious with photography when I took a sabbatical from my graphic design day job in 2008 and started working on series rather than individual shots”.

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

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Explaining the decision to shift into this particular art form, Heijnen explained, “I guess that it’s a fairly logical step from graphic design as many of the aspects and skills learned doing design (composition, communication, rhythm, colour, texture) can be applied in the photography field as well. But it’s way more autonomous, as I don’t really do commercial photography but only series that are close to my heart. I love that it’s generally related to travel and capturing culture in some of my favourite places on Earth – nothing makes me get into a flow state more than exploring a new city (like Istanbul, or cities in China) with a relatively defined goal and outline for a series in mind. And then just trying to find the right scenes and images and let the world come out and surprise me”.

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

Talking further on what goes into his creative process, Heijnen elaborated, “It’s often a tension between restricting myself and finding the creativity and freedom within the set boundaries of a series. Like with the ‘cats in cities’ series (I’ve done this in Hong Kong, mainland China and Istanbul now), the objective always is to capture the cultural DNA of a city visually, while having cats in there as a common thread, something that ties it all together. Then within that clearly defined theme, I’d look for sub-categories, and these can be different per city. Like creating subsets about people, architecture, vehicles, etc. The process is often like a funnel – I start with a side exploration of a city and see what is there and how I can turn that into a narrative. There is so much more to it than pressing the shutter – the planning, the collaboration with the publisher, the editing, managing the writing for the book, and the layout of it too”.

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Image Source: MarcelHeijnen

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Each loving portrait in the photobook captures the unique character of Istanbul’s beloved street and shop cats. The evocative images offer charming glimpses of the city’s rich history, which for centuries has been considered home by these enigmatic cats and will likely continue to be no matter where they roam.