Blue Lotus Gallery is delighted to launch Marcel Heijnen’s new exciting book and exhibition project: Hong Kong Shop Cats. Hong Kong’s shop cats are the little emperors of their retail kingdoms. When photographer Marcel Heijnen moved to the city he was immediately drawn to these photogenic mouse-hunters, and this book is the charming result. While the cats are undoubtedly the furry celebrities of his photographs, each shot delivers an insightful context of Hong Kong’s traditional trades. From dried fish and rice to paper offerings, the backdrop of each shot presents a portrait of Hong Kong’s local culture. Marcel Heijnen is a photographer, designer and musician. Originally from the Netherlands, he has called Asia his home since 1992. Self-taught in nearly everything he does, Marcel’s creativity is driven by a general curiosity about life and its meaning. He works, often concurrently, on a number ofphoto series, capturing vastly different aspects of life in Asia, but with urbanisation and impermanence as underlying themes. This is his second photography project bundled in a book, and the first in the Chinese Whiskers series.