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Guest Blog Post: Doreen Ooi from Neko Nikon

When I moved to Berlin, I found myself unemployed, almost no friends and not knowing the language at all. This was a pretty big shock for me and I became homesick. I missed my friends. I missed being able to communicate with people properly. I hated being cold ALL the time.

So what was my saviour?



My Nikon D3100. I'm not kidding! I started taking photos of everything: street graffiti, exhibitions, concerts. The streets of Berlin are like a work of art – even the crumbliest apartment can look like an installation.



When I got tired of taking photos of buildings I began making pictures of my cat and that slowly became an obsession that developed into my blog, Neko Nikon. Soon my cat pictures were becoming a bit wearisome (who wants to see 29 photos of the same old ginger cat?) so I started advertising for cat subjects. I approached people at the vet. I auditioned for a film and asked a director if I could shoot his cat if he shot me. I even asked a friend who lived in a squat if I could photograph the cats that lived in his building.

As the weather got better, I learnt how to ride a bike for the first time so I could ride to meet my cat subjects. Now, along with cat photography, I'm obsessed with biking. (Berlin is awesome for biking by the way – it's super flat and there are bike lanes everywhere).


Meeting cat owners has been fascinating. Everyone has a really interesting story about their life in Berlin – the people I've met have either been foreigners (I love listening to what drew them to Berlin) or they were true Berliners who were around the Wall came down.

But what I found the coolest thing about doing this project is photographing the cats and capturing their personality. I honestly think cats tell the best stories.