
Portraits of kittens, with their big eyes and fluffy fur, compel the viewer to focus only on how cute they are. But photographer Arne Svenson knows that this isn't the entire story. In his new book, Strays, Svenson visually explores the dichotomy of shelter kittens who are simultaneously adorable and overlooked. He does this by capturing the homeless felines when they're looking away from the camera.
Svenson's project began at a feline rescue called AnimalKind in upstate New York where he photographed a litter of five kittens. He placed the kittens on kitschy fabrics, towels and afghans to create “cat calendar”-style backgrounds and started snapping away. The kittens, however, were still too cute.
And then one kitten turned his head away, and Svenson knew that this was the shot.
“This was the portrait I wanted — a kitten who was more interested in the world around her than in me,” Svenson writes in the introduction to his book.
Strays features more than 120 color photographs of the kittens, and each copy of the limited-edition book is signed and numbered by Svenson. The book will be available for purchase on Nov. 1 at Siman Media Works. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to AnimalKind. Svenson is also the photographer behind Chewed, a book that takes a look at the toys our canine friends so lovingly destroy.
Vetstreet has a sneak peek of 10 kittens in the book and Svenson's stories behind the photo shoot.