Back in 2022, Dan Rimada started documenting the “bodega cats” of New York City. If you’ve ever been to the city, you might be familiar with these felines, reclining in the neighbourhood bodegas (convenience store) and not given them too much thought.
But there are hundreds of them, sprawling out across NYC’s five boroughs – and this collection aims to give you a beautiful, whimsical and heartfelt overview of these working cats and their special lives.
Fast forward four years, and the Bodega Cats have made it into their very own book. Featuring more than 60 cats over 240 pages and 150 photographs, the imagery is led by Turkish photographer Gulce Kilkis.
Of course, if you’ve been reading our channel for a while, you’ll know that Istanbul is the cat capital of the world, so Gulcis – who grew up in the city – was the perfect person to lead such a project.
To find the cats in the book, Rimada would talk to store owners, customers and word of mouth. He’d visit the stores to learn more about the cats from the people that know them best. He’d discover their history, their routines, what they like, what they don’t, while Gulcis would photograph them – it sounds like a blissful partnership to me.
It was important not to stage the cats – not like you can pose cats anyway – and you get a feel for the street cat type photography that Gulcis will be used to from her time in Istanbul when you look through this remarkable collection.
The book takes a look at small business life, animal welfare, public health rules and the decline in numbers of neighbourhood stores without going over the top and romanticising the conditions for the cats.
Two measures regarding cats in food stores are currently in committee in New York, so it comes at an interesting time for the city’s feline population. A new bill would establish humane and sanitary standards, which includes veterinary care, vaccinations, spaying or neutering, food, water, rest and sanitation requirements.
Moving through the book, you realise that these cats are far from mascots, but a part of the routines of the people that surround them. The legal uncertainty that store owners and the working cats face makes it a poignant time-capsule of a specific point in history, too.
It is in fact this project, and these photographs, that have helped turn the legal grey are surrounding cats and their rights in bodega stores into a public campaign and legislation in New York City, with Dan Rimada regularly sharing stories, visiting cultural venues, exhibitions and public programmes to talk more about the project and the work that it is doing.
The book documents 150 books, but there’s many more out there. If you happen to know of one yourself, you can even submit a bodega cat on the BCNY website and if the cat is really lucky, it might get interviewed (along with its nearest spokeshuman).
If you want to see Dan Rimada in person talking about the book and the project, there’s plenty of opportunity to do that over the next few weeks, with events taking place across New York and beyond. Visit the BCNY website for more details on that too.
Bodega Cats of New York is published by Epic Ink. It’ll become available in November, but you can pre-order a copy now – go on, you know you want to. ISBN: 9798317901585.
For now, indulge yourself with a look through this gallery of extremely charming bodega cats, you definitely want to do that.
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