Since birth, I have always been surrounded by cats. The first being who became interested in me after I was discharged from the hospital was a cat. He stood on the bed and stared at me. He had never seen a human child before. Fortunately, he liked me. I had been under his watchful eye ever since. At the same time, my friendship with cats began.
A year ago, I lost a close feline friend. This event made me immerse myself in the memories of cats and reflect on their impact on me and my life.
In this series, I turn to archival photographs of my nonhuman friends, some of which I magnify greatly and try to look at and recall the smallest details in a catlike, far-sighted way. I create still lifes with objects that remember the touches and smell of my friends. I also take screenshots of camera footage attached to cats’ collars to get an idea of how they saw the world.
Nika Sandler is an artist working with photography and text. She studied at the school of modern photography “Docdocdoc” and “Fine Art”. She has been working on personal projects since 2020. Explores the themes of human and non-human gaze, gender, pleasure, creepy and disgusting. She was published in the magazines i-D, Libération, Der Greif, Phroom Platform, Calvert Journal, Metal Magazine, L’Oeil de la Photographie, BROAD, Bird in Flight, FK Magazine, Grandmama’s Print, Float Magazine, ect. She is also the winner of the Small File Photo Festival 2023 organized by The Photographers’ Gallery.