What's there not to love about competitive cat shows? Humans and cats in matching patterns, the lady in the corner weaving cat-hoodies and that random guy sporting a mullet with cats named after his favorite rock band frontmen.
In between her work as a commercial and fine art shooter, Holly Andres has become quite obsessed with this special brand of feline pageantry. When she walked into her first cat show in Portland four years ago she was overwhelmed.
'I was giddy,' say Andres. 'A visual buffet of two worlds I love coalescing; the kitsch and cats! Everywhere I looked there was a crazy, surreal, uncanny, endearing moment unfolding.'
Andres' Instagram shots of her wanderings at the recent St. Helen's Cat Show in Oregon caught our eye. Fun, bizarre, colorful and intimate shots of American animal lovers carry the right ingredients for a smile. They're Andres' off-the-cuff observations.
'If I was at assignment at one of these shows, I'd shoot exclusively with my Canon, but there's something endearing about the immediacy of the iPhone and the peculiar moment,' she says.
Andres is known for narrative-spinning photo series that create other worlds and weave stories of macabre discovery. In terms of production, her cat show smartphone snaps are the counter to the stage-set and meticulously costumed images she makes for her art. But she's falling in love with the cat-show-scene, getting know the competitors and even developing a soft spot for a few of the cats.
'I would never raise cats or be a breeder. I'd rather direct my energies toward bettering my photographic work but I think it's amazing that people do it,' reflects Andres.
Growing up on a self-sustaining farm in Montana, Andres' relationship to the animal kingdom was established as one of husbandry. She and her nine siblings were nurtured on the eggs, milk and meat of the animals her family raised. Preening domestic pets for public show intrigues Andres.
'While there's something absurd about raising a cow, manicuring it, holster-breaking it and, in some ways, domesticating it so you can lead it around a ring, there's something even more absurd about doing it with cats,' she says.
Adding to the absurdity is the gutted financial rewards for any win. There seemed to be more competitors than public attendees at the St. Helen's cat show.
'Since the economy has suffered, there's a lot less attendance of both participants and spectators,' says Andres. 'There's not a lot of financial incentive for them to raise these cats and travel around the states to show them.'
And yet cat-owners continue to pound the circuit. Why?
'Honestly, I think it's the little ribbons,' says Andres. 'Pretty much everyone gets a ribbon. It matters what color it is and how many you win. Why would they load their cats up and travel across several states to participate in these shows, with what seems to be the same community of people. I think it's the pride of living with a trophy animal and having an attachment to that.'
Andres, who owns two persian cats, can't imagine taking on the same travel schedule but she greatly admires it.
'Even taking my cat to the vet, what an ordeal it is! Getting her in the cage. She's crying, howling and dying to get out. Somehow, these cat-owners have ways of training their cats to do things that I didn't even think were possible. You walk into a show and it's essentially silent. Silent! And the cats aren't clawing the judges,' she says.
Until recently, Andres taught at Portland State University and Pacific Northwest College of Art, making fine art between terms and class time. Then, a couple of years ago, she changed hats to pursue commercial and editorial gigs ( which she's killing, BTW). But this switch means she is spending a lot more time in front of the computer tweaking images for clients. The iPhone plus cat shows are her recipe for invention.
'Right now, I feel like my Instagram feed is my creative outlet.'
All images: Holly Andres
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