Cats in the Sun [Calendar]

Hans Silvester (Photographer)

Product Details

• Calendar
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (August 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0811843351
• ISBN-13: 978-0811843355
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 10.7 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,887,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reduced to reviewing coffee table books, January 26, 2001

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Cats in the Sun (Hardcover)

My wife and I are the pets of two calico felines, Tessa and Trouble. Knowing that we're cat people, friends tend to give us gifts with that relationship in mind. I wish they or we would snap out of it, because some of the Stuff, while well meant, is way too cute or too tacky, or both. (Instead, Amazon gift certificates are always welcome - hint, hint!) However, one offering, CATS IN THE SUN, was well received, and is much appreciated.

This is a coffee table tome with five pages of introductory text. Then, on each of the following 137, not a solitary word is printed, but rather a single, rich, 5.5 X 8.25-inch color photograph. The images were all taken by Hans Silvester on the sun drenched Greek islands of Mykonos, Milos and Naxos, where large populations of domestic cats run semi-wild. While the islands' inhabitants allow none indoors, the animals are tolerated, and sometimes actively cared for, with a detached affection. In return, the rodent populations are suppressed with a vengeance.

Too many books and calendars featuring kitty pictures are cloyingly cute, usually because they tend to emphasize kittens. Refreshingly, this book is not. It features cats, both kittens and adults, in unstaged, natural situations. Cats on streets, steps, rooftops, harbor quays, walls, tree limbs, rocks, chairs, ledges and pathways. Cats sleeping, lounging, climbing, washing, eating, hunting, leaping, courting, fighting, carousing, watching, sitting, exploring, running and walking. Cats alone. Cats in pairs. Cats in groups. Rarely, cats with people or dogs. Short and long-haired cats, in all sizes, colorations and fur patterns. I think Silvester burned through a lot of film.

Among all the glorious pigments, textures, patterns, sunbeams and shadows, I have two favorite images. One, a group of seven cats, all with tails raised and end-curled, walking along with a local codger who is carrying something edible in a plastic sack. (I know it's edible, because that's what our owners look like at six in the morning as I carry the can of TigerChow to the opener.) The other, a cat standing on its hind legs, inquisitively peering into the lower end of a roof's downspout. Then, there are those two curious photos, one of a man painting the base of a wall, the other of some sun-dappled steps, in which no cat is visible at all. Am I (not) seeing the local Cheshire Cat?

I consider most coffee table books as useful as Christmas fruitcakes. (You know, the ones with those hateful little green bits.) However, if you like cats, then CATS IN THE SUN is worth savoring.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two sides to every story, October 24, 2000

By 

heather tyler (sydney, nsw Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cats in the Sun (Paperback)

This is a lovely coffee table book, celebrating feline beauty in many forms, set in the incomparable beauty of Greece. Hans Silvester's photographs are captivating but only tell part of the story of Greece's cats. They are an integral part of Greece's landscape but their lives are not always beautiful. They are also tales of neglect, disease and cruelty. Anybody who photographs Greece's cats for profit should maybe consider donating some proceeds to their welfare. As much as I enjoyed looking at the photographs, I was uncomfortably aware of the other side of the story, having lived in the region for many years. The book was censorship - a bit like going to Ethiopia and only taking pictures of well-fed children.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsentimental and exquisite, September 19, 2000

By 

Mary M. Lamberson "Peggy Lamberson" (Oxford, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cats in the Sun (Hardcover)

Silvester's photographs capture the essential beauty and character of these cats. He does nothing to sentimentalize them or make them "cute". If you like cats for what they are as opposed to over-groomed and posed in baskets and such, you will love these photographs.