Overview

With more than 130 illustrations, The Photographed Cat: Picturing Close Human-Feline Ties, 1900–1940 is both an archive and an analytical exploration of the close relationships between Americans and their cats during a period that is significant for photography and for modern understandings of animals as pets. This volume examines the cultural implications of feline companions while also celebrating the intimacy and joys of pets and family photographs. In seven thematic sections, Arluke and Rolfe engage with the collection of antique images as representations of real relationships and of ideal relationships, noting the cultural trends and tropes that occur throughout this increasingly popular practice. Whether as surrogate children, mascots, or companions to women, cats are part of modern American life and visual culture. Entertaining, smart, and filled with a collector’s trove of wonderful images, The Photographed Cat pays homage to the surprising range of relationships we have with cats and offers thoughtful consideration of the ways in which we represent them.

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9780815610267

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Reviews

Their treatment of this visual ephemera generates rich insights about our attitudes toward cats, as friends, diversions, mascots, commensals, and symbols of our own identity, and helps to place cats at the heart of modern social life. --Bernard Unti, author of <em>Protecting All Animals</em><br><br> In <em>The Photographed Cat</em>, Arluke and Rolfe brilliantly use photography to explore the multifaceted relationships we have with our feline companions...The result is a treat for head and heart that will appeal to pet lovers and scholars alike. --Hal Herzog, author of <em>Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals</em>

Author Information

Arnold Arluke is professor of sociology and anthropology at Northeastern University, USA, and senior scholar at Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy. He is the author of numerous books on animal-human interactions. His most recent book is Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905–1935, coauthored with Robert Bogdan. Lauren Rolfe is a collector of early twentieth-century animal photographs.

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