‘Exotic shorthair’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
As the saying goes, ‘dogs have masters, cats have staff’. Tim Flach HonFRPS can attest to the latter, having spent the last couple of years producing his book, Feline. “They know how to work you,” he says.
A compilation of more than 170 images of domestic and wild cats taken in the studio and in the field, Feline is just the latest passion project for the photographer renowned for his work on animals. The book combines Flach’s photography with texts on cats and their evolution from evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos and neuroscientist Morten Kringelbach.
‘Bengal’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
Flach has long used photography to create empathy for the creatures we share the planet with and whose environments we encroach on. His work includes books on horses, birds, dogs and endangered species, offering a fresh perspective on the animal kingdom and conservation.
‘Lion’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
“Empathy is not sympathy,” argues the London-based photographer. He sees empathy as a bridge to understanding and, he hopes, that understanding might lead to action.
Unlike their wild counterparts, of course, domestic cats are not in any danger. Even so, they provoke their own questions for Flach, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing at Linacre College, University of Oxford.
‘Bengal’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
“I was questioning what do companion animals mean as part of a family,” says Flach. “Is it because we’ve lost something that we permit this animal to come in from outside into our homes?”
Perhaps. Or maybe, he suggests, we want to play at being gods through breeding.
‘Leopard’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
“And then why do we breed animals that aren’t healthy? Because part of our evolutionary template drives us to make an animal that is unhealthy, but we feel more bound to it because it needs our help?”
Such contradictions fuel Flach’s work on Feline. “I think it made me think about nurture and nature, and fundamental questions about our engagement with another sentient being,” he says.
‘Maine Coon’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
The resulting book is a vehicle for those questions, as well as a monument to Flach’s curiosity and desire for knowledge. And, of course, a platform for his precise and playful eye.
But the book – substantial as it is – is always only a starting point for him.
“I need that vehicle to then find other vehicles to expand that content out,” he says. “With my Endangered project, the book led to many museum shows around the world. It committed teams to tell the story I put in the book and share that with, I think, a million people in China last year alone.
‘Siamese oriental’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
“I’ve got museum shows in Madrid this year, going on to different places. I’m currently discussing something just outside the Louvre as part of the PHOTOCLIMAT project, so for me that’s a great honour to have a platform to tell the stories.
‘Chinchilla Persian’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
“The book might not make me any profit, but the means to open possibilities forward is definitely there.
“I know if I commit to something I will make the journey. I will chuck myself in the deep end, I’ll somehow come out, and I hope then that I’ve spent enough time with the subject that I can share something useful and interesting.”
‘Persian with hypertrichosis’ by Tim Flach HonFRPS
Feline by Tim Flach HonFRPS is published by Abrams at £50. Flach discusses creativity during the age of AI in the October-December 2025 issue of the RPS Journal.
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