Prints for Sale | Catlife Photography | Deirdre Drohan Forbes

SILL LIFE

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:43:45 -0500

I'm not sure what these guys were gazing at but I suspect that squirrels were gathering nuts.

CAT MOUSAM RD.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:02:43 -0500

You've got to love the droll Yankee wit behind the naming of this thoroughfare in Kennebunk, Maine.

YIN YANG

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

These two beefy red tabbys—Herman and Henry—were often inseparable brothers with distinctive personalities. Herman purred as loud as Henry meowed. Yin and Yang. Evidently they shared a taste for dance magazines.

LAUNDROCAT

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Macavity just plain loves laundry—dirty or clean—but the warmer the better.

OUT OF HIS SHELL

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Pokey the box turtle is not shy about this opportunity to pilfer some cat food.

PEEK-A-BOO

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Elliott likes to hide out at the top of the media center, seven feet off the ground.

COP CAT, 46th PCT., THE BRONX

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Talk about pleading a case.

EASY DOES IT

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Nina takes literally one of my favorite 12-step slogans: "Easy does it."

DOG, CAT, GIRL

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

I love this picture because everything is aligned, physically and metaphysically.

BOO!

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Something unexpected and mysterious happened here, but if I told you what it was, it would ruin the suspence.

BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Nina had just come home from the ASPCA when she found this flowerpot on the windowsill. Her ability to adapt to her new environment reminds me of the 12-step slogan to "bloom where you're planted."

"HE'S AT IT AGAIN!"

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

John Moon always took a few samples from Indo's dinner. A well-trained Guiding Eyes for the Blind brood mare, she'd stand by indulgently.

ACCEPTANCE

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

In earlier editions of Alcoholics Anonymous, the "Big Book" of the 12-step program, page 449 had a wide following for its wisdom about acceptance.

"Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today," it says in part. "When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – is unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment."

MEMORIES, BROOKLYN, NY

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

The haunting show stopper from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats came to mind as I was shooting these two beat-up alley cats in Park Slope, Brooklyn. What were they doing on the roof of a beat-up convertible? Well, as everyone who lives in that neighborhood knows, you never give up a good parking space unless you have to.

DREAMS OF THE BARRE

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Elliott's contortions are worthy of a premier danseur—in his dreams.

YOUNG'UNS

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

An interspecies encounter on the grounds of the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, Bronx, New York.

I GO WHERE IGUANA

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

This fellow belong to the boyfriend of a teenaged neighbor. When I saw him creature crawling across a gearbox, he reminded me of a young man with his first set of wheels: "I go where iguana whenever iguana."

BASKET CASE

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Cats who sleep with their bellies exposed seem to be without a worry in the world. Or maybe they're just plain nuts.

NIXON AND THE DEMOCAT

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

Whatever Tricky Dick was selling, this cat wasn't buying it.

I shot this while attending journalism school at the University of Missouri in the early Seventies.

A SPOT IN THE SHED

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:05:00 -0500

Spot News, a city cat, loved his weekend trips to the country from the get-go.

MUFFS ALONE

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:04:53 -0500

While her brothers nap on top of photo albums, Muffs snoozes by the window.

PEACE ON EARTH

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:46:38 -0500

We used a vertical version of this image as a hoiiday postcard with a "Peace on Earth" message superimposed in 1982. Spot News (bottom) and Muffs were a just a few weeks old when they fell asleep on top of some old photo albums after a romp in the fields.

Thom and I had recently left the New York Daily News and were spending a lot of time at my parent's farmhouse in upstate New York—writing, photographing and enjoying nature and our four new cats (including the three kittens of an underaged mom, Nina).

THE BIG YAWN

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:05:41 -0500

When I was exhibiting at shows, this print was popular with dentists (and dentist's wives and patients). I suppose I should have called it "Open Wide." Or "Say, Ahhh," to extend the market to family practitioners and eye, ears, nose and throat specialists.

MOON DANCE

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:16:28 -0500

John Moon, the poster boy for Catlife Photography, has the soul of Nijinsky and the heart of Astaire. He disappears for days at a time during the summer; we think he has a cottage (or girlfriend) in the country. In winter, he likes to nestle by the furnace in the basement.

"I'VE GOT THE NUTS, BOYS"

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:15:30 -0500

This photograph reminds Thom of a poker-playing crony of his who likes to announce that he has an unbeatable hand by saying, "I've got the nuts, boys"—meaning, "I'm holding the winning cards here and there ain't nothin' you can do about it." Kind of sums up the situation on the back porch, too.

LOVE

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:15:23 -0500

Gracie, the kitten, with John Moon. Need more be said?

BAT CAT

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:12:47 -0500

These two stuffed birds have survived the best efforts of many a ravenous feline over the years. Here, Emmett gives it his best shot with a sneak attack from outside. By clawing up the screen, he's about ten feet off the ground.

SURPRISE

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:11:55 -0500

Spot News' first Christmas. In later years, he's found swatting ornaments off the tree to be more amusing.

CHRISTMAS TIDINGS

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:11:55 -0500

Spot News loves the aftermath of Christmas morning gift-giving.

I've been experimenting with my new "darkroom" tools and am printing this with a Photoshop filter called Poster Edges, which gives the print a slightly pointillistic—some would say grainy—effect. It's different than my usual straightforward style, but I like it.

CATLIFE

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:12:53 -0500

This is the photo that started it all. Luni, whose name was Homer when I found him at an animal shelter while attending the University of Missouri at Columbia, was one of those cats who always seemed to have something on his mind. Being part Siamese, he'd express it vocally, too. I like to print Catlife with a sepia tone, which gives it a warm, homey feel.