Armed with an Olympus digital camera and a bag full of cat toys, Japanese photographer Hiroyuki Hisakata ventures off to an island populated by stray cats to photograph his feline friends. Hisakata’s specialty? Playing with them and capturing them in dynamic martial arts poses that have earned them the nickname Ninja Cats.
Although he’s based in Kyushu, Hisakata keeps his locations top secret. He often shoots in the evening, and with his bag full of toys, plays with the cats while shooting them with his camera. The results are humorous and playful, and have been compiled into two different photobooks: one featuring adult cats and the other featuring kittens.
Like almost everything these days, Hisakata does have critics, who call his activities abusive. But when playing and shooting the stray cats the photographer takes every precaution to prevent injury. In an interview he talks about some of his techniques and methods, noting that if the cats are getting too excited he’ll call off the shoot and wait for them to calm down.
Hisakata is on Twitter where he posts pictures of the stray ninja cats.
November 4, 2017 at 3:13 pm
Great work.