A photographer who usually reserves her lens for dogs embarked on a project focusing on rescue cats and their stories.
Traer Scott tells PetaPixel that rescue cats are an invisible problem as 3.2 million of them enter animal shelters each year and almost half of those end up being euthanized.
“There aren’t enough homes so spay/neuter education is critically important,” Scott says. “Unlike dogs, I think there is also still a widely held perception that cats are interchangeable, replaceable, and that has to change.”
Scott’s project, which is now a book titled Rescue Cats, saw her follow a selection of rescue cats mostly working inside people’s homes with minimal equipment: just a DSLR, a flash, and occasionally a portable background.
“Although some cats travel well, most don’t and I wanted to be able to photograph them when they were feeling as relaxed as possible,” Scott explains.
“Dogs can generally be won over with food but cats are much tougher to convince. One of my three cat gurus accompanied me to every shoot and helped wrangle and cajole the subjects. Together we determined where the best place to shoot was, usually a compromise between where the cat was most comfortable and what seemed most aesthetically viable.”
Scott shot the project over the course of eight months around New England. In total, there are 22 cats featured in the book, plus a litter of kittens that “the reader gets to see grow up.” She says that she “learned a great deal about all of the cats’ histories and many had truly heartbreaking stories”.
“The one thing that they all have in common is of course the rescue factor,” Scott says.
“One or more people cared enough to fight for them, to intervene, to foster, to adopt, and ultimately save a life. I don’t know that I could pick just one favorite but some of the ones that really stuck with me were Forrest, Juliette, and Linus.”
Rescue Cats is published by Chronicle Books and available here. More of Scott’s work can be found on her website and Instagram.
Image credits: Photographs by Traer Scott
