MARCEL HEIJNEN

I thought I saw a cat

How did you get the idea to make a photo series on Hong Kong’s cats?

It was quite serendipitous, really. I moved back to Hong Kong (after 18 years in Singapore since I lived in HK last) and found myself living without cats for the first time in about 40 years. So when I noticed a cat sitting proudly on the counter of a shop nearby my new place in the Sai Ying Pun area, I went over to pet it and took a few casual photos. I shot a few more of other shop cats nearby and put them on Facebook. People seemed to like them and a lady who works at AsiaOne (the publishing house that published my earlier photobook called Residue) commented ‘This should be your next photo book project!’. And that was it. I started taking more shots and made a deal with AsiaOne to publish it as a photo book series.

Which aspect is the most curious, for you, about the relationship between the cat ad its owner. Is it true that the cat looks like its owner?

Yes that’s kind a true and I’ve been looking and waiting for opportunities to show that. I’m generally quite tickled by the fact that these cats are really part and parcel of the store and it seems to be a very normal thing. What’s also really funny is when they sit right next to the maneki neko (luck cat) sculptures that most shops in HK feature.

What fascinates you mostly about this country and how does it orient your artwork?

Hong Kong is a city with plenty of grit and grunge and I find that quite beautiful. My earlier series is all about weathered walls and urbanization, but this new series about the shop cats features a more macro level view into the daily life and the organic chaos that exists all around. Hong Kong is a city that is visually rich and one never seems to run out of possible visual stories to tell about the city, as a photographer.

Who would you suggest to follow on Instagram and why?

@life_of_susu : documentation of an apartment-bound cat, beautifully taken by my photographer friend Patrick van Dam, based in Singapore.

I also like Jonas Chan (@jonaschanch) who takes great shots of cats here in HK.

BIO

Marcel Heijnen is a photographer, designer and musician. Originally from the Netherlands, he has called Asia his home since 1992. Self-taught in nearly everything he does, Marcel’s creativity is driven by a general curiosity about life and its meaning.

He works, often concurrently, on a number of photo series, capturing vastly different aspects of life in Asia, but with urbanisation and impermanence as underlying themes.