After photographing cats through carefully staged portraits that explored the way we project human emotions onto animals, this new series shifts its focus to the world surrounding them. The work was created during a TICA cat show in the Netherlands, where I was given access to photograph both the judging rings and the moments behind the scenes.

For a long time, I associated cat shows with an almost mythical image of American culture—extravagant, theatrical, and slightly surreal. Discovering that this world also exists in the Netherlands challenged that assumption and sparked my curiosity. Rather than documenting the event as a reporter, I approached it as an observer fascinated by its rituals, aesthetics, and the dedication of everyone involved.

The series combines formal portraits of the show cats with candid photographs of exhibitors preparing, grooming, waiting, and interacting. Together, these images reveal a world that feels both familiar and strangely theatrical. Grooming tables become backstage dressing rooms, judging rings resemble performance spaces, and every participant contributes to a carefully choreographed spectacle.

What interested me was not the spectacle itself, but the sincerity behind it. Beneath the polished presentation and theatrical rituals lies a community shaped by patience, devotion, and care.

As a continuation of my previous work, this series shifts the focus from the way we project meaning onto cats to the people who have built a world around them. The cats remain at the centre, but they become a lens through which to observe human behaviour, ritual, and belonging. By moving between portraiture and observation, the series explores how fascination emerges from looking beyond the surface, allowing an unfamiliar world to become both intimate and unexpectedly human.