D. Jun-Yu Low: Take Me To The Kittens! (a photography exhibition) March 30, 2012

As part of National Pet Month (www.nationalpetmonth.org.uk), Artlink (www.artlink.uk.net) presents ‘Take Me To The Kittens!’, a series of 15 large-format photographs by local Chinese photographer, D. Jun-Yu Low. Printed in Hull using archival pigment inks and the highest quality fine art paper, limited editions of the prints will be available to buy, and all profits from the sale will be donated to the RSPCA (Hull Branch).

In Britain, we dote on our cats: we often think of them as the ultimate in fluffy cuteness and big-eyed defencelessness. We forget that they have lives of their own, and keen survival instincts honed by generations of evolution.

Inspired by a talk given in Cottingham by renowned feline behavior expert, Vicky Halls (www.fabcats.org), Low travelled to the isolated coastal town of Essauoira, Morocco, home to one of the largest populations of stray cats on the planet. There he found - and photographed – an alternate reality for cats, a place where cats are truly left to their own devices.

On one level, taken with an absolute minimum of equipment, Low’s photographs operate like giant holiday snapshots that are beautiful to look at, recording his meetings with various cats as he encounters them. But, informed by contemporary photographers who also take pictures of animals, including Charlotte Dumas, Elliott Erwitt, Pentti Sammallahti and Tony Mendoza, Low’s treatment of Essaouira’s cats is far from casual.

Low follows his cats everywhere: down backstreets and onto building sites; alongside open sewers, and behind rubbish bins filled with rotting food; under busy market-stalls in crowded souks, staying with them from morning till night.

Meanwhile, the complex geometry of the photographs and the relaxed, wordless understanding of their subjects, recall the heyday of twentieth-century photojournalism. Once reserved for documenting and ennobling human life, that classic genre of photography is now put into the service of these most humble strays.

The utmost seriousness and respect with which Low takes and presents his photographs challenge, head on, the playful familiarity and easiness of the exhibition’s title. In doing so, ‘Take Me To The Kittens!’ asks us to look again at our pets; to see them in a whole new light.