Urban Co-Habitation in Exposure

Abstract

Recognizing the urban wildlife of stray animals as the invisible residents, this paper addresses the relationship between visualization of street cats and urban renewal through examining a set of photographic images taken in Hong Kong by photographer Micros Yip. While photo graphing street cats is often understood as a habit of voyeuristic pleasure for many urbanites and tourists, Yip’s collection captures the disappeared, spectral lives of street cats who struggle to survive in the concrete jungle, offering a critical juxtaposition between the fragmentary (omni)presence of these feline residents and the ruin-like environment of the old urban districts in mutation. The full title of this essay is: 'Urban Co-Habitation in Exposure: Feline and Human Dwellers in the City of Mutation'.