To find out more about the photographer behind Tokyo’s stray cat photographs, Bored Panda reached out to Masayuki Oki. Masayuki, who originally comes from Kobe, now resides in Tokyo, where he spends days (and sometimes, nights) looking for streetwise felines to photograph.It all started in 2013 when Masayuki was having a break from his job.
“I was taking a break in the park near my office. I got fascinated by one cat there, and I started photographing all the felines in that park. Then, I decided to post my pictures on Instagram and 7 years later, I still love doing this.”
Masayuki has been traveling everywhere he could, from Tokyo to Houghton in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Istanbul to take pictures of stray cats. Corona has slowed down his traveling, but he is excited to resume his mission of photographing street cats around the globe as soon as the pandemic is over.
Today, Masayuki has already made himself a name after publishing 10 commercial photo books, appearing on various Japanese magazines and television. “I'm not very good at photos other than cats,” he joked. “I also think that cats are simply very photogenic,” Masayuki added.
“Until I held the camera, I had the stereotype that cats were cool, sleeping all day long, and didn't care about their surroundings.” However, that all changed when Masayuki started taking pictures of them.
“I realized these cats had complex emotions, expressions, and gestures. I also discovered that cats have complex relationships just like humans, and that each cat has their own identity.”
This moment when you understand and appreciate the personality of every cat you’re looking at is something special for the stray cat photographer. “My desire to capture them on camera with all these crazy facial expressions and emotions is the driving force of my photographs.”
Masayuki also said he’s very happy to have people from all over the world praising his pictures in the comments on his Instagram account. “I want to make all the cat lovers of this world happy with my photos,” he concluded.
