Photograph taken in NYC by Vivian Maier, 1954.

This picture is one taken by a famous street photographer named Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier was born in New York City in February of 1926 and lived until April of 2009. As the child of a French mother and Austro-Hungarian father, she spent a portion of her life going back and forth between Europe and America, before eventually settling in the U.S again in 1951. This is when she began photographing the streets of New York City until around 1956, when she moved to Chicago and worked as a nanny, but continued to practice street photography during her free time.

This picture, which to my knowledge has no name, was taken in New York City in 1954 and was able to capture my attention from the moment I saw it. The studium in this picture, is this young boy probably around the age of four, who is petting a cat on the street. I found the punctum to be the warm expression on this cat’s face. Street cats are often thought of as feistier than the stereotypical cuddly house cat, therefore it intrigued me to see this cat looking so satisfied to have this boy petting it. When I look at this picture, I can almost feel the purr of the cat which would signify the happiness the cat feels. This cat is calm, and does not feel she needs to be guarded in the presence of this boy. It seems as if she is comfortable with the boy and that maybe this is part of a daily routine. However, this arises my question of whether this boy and the cat really are comfortable with each other, or does it just so happen he is petting a friendly street cat? It could very well be that the boy feeds this cat, so she returns to see him each day as if she were his own cat. But, with no description to the photo, I cannot be sure of the relationship between this boy and the cat. The real reason I felt that this particular aspect of the photo was the punctum and also why it really animated me is because I have 2 cats of my own, and I also foster cats and kittens. So, as you can imagine, I am very familiar with what is happening here. It just so happens that the cat in this picture looks similar to one of my own house cats, and the expression on this cat’s face is one I have seen on my own cat many times. The expression on this cat’s face animates me because of this, and allows me to picture myself petting my cat while hearing and feeling the soft purring in which she produces as I pet her.