Walter George Chandoha (November 30, 1920 – January 11, 2019) was a prolific photographer, known especially for his photographs of animals and particularly of cats. Additional subjects for which he is known are fruits, vegetables, flowers, and New York City street scenes. Over his long career, his archive grew to more than 225,000 photographs including approximately 90,000 photographs of cats. '' Hyperallergic'' called him "the one cat photographer to rule them all."

Early life

He began taking photographs as a child using his family's Kodak camera and later joined a camera club in

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

where he learned

darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, make Photographic printing, prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including ...

skills. After graduating from

Bayonne High School Bayonne High School (BHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in Bayonne, in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operated by the Bayonne Board of Education. As of the ...

, he worked as an assistant to illustrator Leon de Voss.

Career

Chandoha was drafted into the army during World War II where he served as a press photographer and then as a combat photographer in the Pacific War theater. In 1949, he was graduated from N.Y.U. School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance under the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

. That same year he married Maria Ratti and they moved into an apartment in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, New York. On his way home from classes at NYU one night that winter, he found a kitten shivering in the snow. The kitten, Loco, became one of his favorite subjects. His enjoyment of photographing that cat prompted him to become a free-lance photographer and he eventually specialized in photographs of cats. His preferred method for photographing cats was to meet them at their eye level. The couple later moved to a farm in New Jersey where they raised their six children, often adding his children to the photographs to portray the interactions between young kids and cats. His photographs have been used on more than 300 magazine covers and in thousands of advertisements. He authored at least 34 books, including ''Walter Chandoha's Book of Kittens and Cats'', ''Walter Chandoha's Book of Puppies and Dogs'', ''How to Photograph Cats, Dogs, and Other Animals'', ''How to Shoot and Sell Animal Photos'', ''All Kinds of Cats'', and ''Mind Your Manners!''. He and his work have been the subject of many books and museum exhibitions. Chandoha was once quoted as saying, "Cats are my favourite animal subject because of their unlimited range of attitude, posture, expression and coloration."

Death

Chandoha died on January 11, 2019, in Annandale, New Jersey, at the age of 98. His last cat was Maddie, a rescue cat the family adopted from New Jersey in 2018.

References

External links

chandohaphotography.com (archived)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandoha, Walter George 1920 births 2019 deaths American male non-fiction writers American photographers Bayonne High School alumni Writers from Bayonne, New Jersey New York University Stern School of Business alumni People from Clinton Township, New Jersey Writers from Hunterdon County, New Jersey