Backyard Diaries II

These portraits are of a type rarely seen: in the style of Bruce Gilden, Nikita Teryoshin documents the lives of street cats in big cities like St. Petersburg and Atlantic City, exploring the extremes between cute, reverent and creepy. After the first part of the resulting fanzine sold out, the photographer recently published the second part, for which he explored the back streets of Bangkok.

LFI: You began the project as a change from the socio-political topics you usually photograph. When did the idea of the zine come together?
Nikita Teryoshin: The idea for the zine emerged during the Corona pandemic. There were hardly any jobs and I had too much free time. I was totally amazed at how well the first issue was received by people, even though the cats don't necessarily correspond to the cat ideal of beauty.

What is your interest in taking pictures of street cats based on?
I find the characters of street cats really exciting; also when comparing to breeding cats and house cats in general. Their appearance often speaks of a tough life; sometimes they seem very human to me. In contrast to the arms dealers I photographed in St. Petersburg back in the day, these encounters did me a lot of spiritual good.

What is it like to work on this project in a practical sense? Does it start with aimless wandering through the back streets of a big city, or do you make concrete plans?
I look to see if I know anyone in the city and ask for tips. Sometimes you have to look specifically and know where the cats are. In St. Petersburg, for example, there are countless backyards, but very few residents still have cats. In Atlantic City, I went about with a homeless man I met on the boardwalk, who takes care of the cats. He showed me where the cat homes were under the boardwalk. That was a great help.

What did you consider when designing the zine?
The zine design, as well as the great stickers, was taken on by Ina Bunge of the Ten Ten Team Agency. We did the sequencing together. It thrives on full-format images that immerse you in the hidden worlds of urban cats, and the interplay of the motifs on double pages.

Did your photographic approach have to change depending on each city?
So far, in addition to St. Petersburg and the recently released Bangkok, I've been to Atlantic City, New Delhi and Istanbul, where there are so many cats that I'll be returning soon. On the whole, I've found that cats everywhere respond with equal interest to the sounds I make. I also always try to take the pictures at eye level. As this is an ongoing series, I don't want to change too much in that respect.

Backyard Diaries can be ordered at pupupublishing.