Happy Friday! Mark Zemel’s short film The Purrtraitist follows renowned, eccentric cat portrait photographer Larry Johnson around the Central Jersey Cat Fanciers show in Parisppany, New Jersey. Based in Louisiana, Larry Johnson is considered the “Bruce Weber” of cat photography, and flies around the world to take cat pictures, charging hundreds of dollars each time. Sounds like a dream job for certain people in the agency.
New York-based director Mark Zemel has said that: “We chatted a bit and I watched him work, and that’s when I knew I wanted to make a doc about Larry. Initially, I was just surprised [the job of a cat photographer] existed. But, of course, it makes perfect sense if you think about it. Show cats need glamor shots. Larry is definitely well known. People would ask me what I was shooting, I’d say a doc about Larry Johnson, and they all knew him, had had photos done by him, and loved his work. He is definitely a cat whisperer.”
Vice interviewed Larry Johnson after the film:
When I called Johnson up from his home in Baton Rouge to find out more about the life of a top cat photographer, one thing shone through: His absolute, unabiding passion for what he does. He reels off the list of the characteristics of individual cat breeds like health nuts can recite the E numbers in candy. He has a whole sound bank of feline sounds to communicate with his subjects: Soft approving purring, a tsk-ing clack of the tongue, and a breathy sibilant whirr that I can only assume means, in cat-language, Look right here for the money shot, honey.
“It’s an art in of itself,” Johnson said. “You need to have a rapport with the animals, otherwise they won’t cooperate with you. They have to like you, and you have to like them. Naturally though, I’m good with animals.” Controversially, he grew up with a dog, though he now admits that he prefers photographing cats. “They have these very subtle personalities to them. Not like dogs, who are like, ‘HERE I AM!'”