{"id":16921,"date":"2025-07-23T02:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/16921\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T02:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:41:11","slug":"marcel-heijnen-captures-loving-portraits-of-feisty-feral-felines-in-city-cats-of-istanbul-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/16921\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcel Heijnen Captures Loving Portraits of Feisty, Feral Felines in &#8216;City Cats of Istanbul&#8217; \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In some parts of the world, stray animals are nearly as beloved as pets. Thousands of dogs roam the streets of Cusco, Peru, for example, and cats pretty much rule the night in places like Athens, Valletta, and Japan\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2022\/12\/masayuki-oki-cats\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cat islands<\/a>.\u201d Local residents often feed and provide shelter for these roving colonies, and for Dutch photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marcelheijnen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Marcel Heijnen<\/a>, this human-animal connection provides endless opportunities to experience urban centers.<\/p>\n<p>Previously exploring cities in China and Hong Kong, where street cats are abundant, Heijnen recently brought his camera to the largest city in Turkey to chronicle some of the most famous feral felines in Europe. A forthcoming book from Thames &amp; Hudson, City Cats of Istanbul, celebrates the area\u2019s local four-legged shop attendants, guardians, cuddlers, and consummate snoozers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-9.jpg\" alt=\"a cat stands on the bars of a balcony\" class=\"wp-image-459000\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Heijnen captures the spirit of Istanbul through portraits of its residents, shops, homes, and serendipitous interactions. While some images focus on cats up-close, other images emphasize the city\u2019s remarkable atmosphere and playfully invite us to seek out where felines are perched or playing. Many cats are documented in moments of calm repose, while others appear as though they\u2019ve been caught red-handed, climbing up architectural elements or embracing all manner of archetypal kitty chaos.<\/p>\n<p>See more of Heijnen\u2019s photos on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marcelheijnen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">website<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/chinesewhiskers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, and pre-order your copy of City Cats of Istanbul on <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/96\/9780500298411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bookshop<\/a>. If you\u2019re in Istanbul in September, stop by the release event at 6 p.m. on September 20 at the <a href=\"https:\/\/catmuseum.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Cat Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-4.jpg\" alt=\"a cat sits on the sidewalk in front of a display of brooms\" class=\"wp-image-458995\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-10.jpg\" alt=\"a cat sits on the sea of a moped on a street in the evening\" class=\"wp-image-458992\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-2.jpg\" alt=\"a cat yawns in a meadow during the golden hour in front of a mosque\" class=\"wp-image-458990\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-5.jpg\" alt=\"a cat claws on a chair sitting outside against a blue wall, next to a mirror and a detached door\" class=\"wp-image-458996\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-11.jpg\" alt=\"a cat sits beside a woman on a bench outside of a shop\" class=\"wp-image-458993\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-7.jpg\" alt=\"a cat sits on a carpet on the pavement\" class=\"wp-image-458998\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-6.jpg\" alt=\"a cat lounges on some records in a book and music shop\" class=\"wp-image-458997\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-1.jpg\" alt=\"a cat sits on the ground in front of a marble with with calligraphic Arabic script\" class=\"wp-image-458989\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-8.jpg\" alt=\"a cat sits on the ground near a food vendor cart\" class=\"wp-image-458999\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1231\" height=\"1279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/heijnen-12.jpg\" alt=\"the cover of the book 'City Cats of Istanbul' by Marcel Heijnen\" class=\"wp-image-458994\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Hide advertising<\/p>\n<p>Save your favorite articles<\/p>\n<p>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Receive members-only newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In some parts of the world, stray animals are nearly as beloved as pets. Thousands of dogs roam&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2851,6225,6485,6486,178,1120,96,11052,11053,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-16921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-cats","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-istanbul","16":"tag-marcel-heijnen","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}