Cool Hunting

by Russ Lowe

We recently sat down over a tall boy with photographer Michael Cogliantry to chat about his latest book project "Furverts," chopping wood and his first case of hate mail.

The Brooklynite-turned-Portlander, whose work spans hi-fi advertorial shoots for top brands to portraits of Alaskan gold-miners, made the cross-country trek west via caravan last summer. The first Pacific Northwest winter is a traditionally bitter pill for most new arrivals, but by the look of it, it was anything but for Cogliantry. An assortment of hand-callousing man chores, coastal excursions and investigation into Portland's food and music underbelly have clearly kept him warm and dry.

The catalyst of Michael's first encounter with real-life hate mail originated years ago as a benignly satyrical photo interpretation of the Kama Sutra performed by Furries—a diverse subculture comprised of people obsessed with anthropomorphic animals.

Many Furries dress in costumes that personify their inner critter and gather for annual conventions which are typically closed to outsiders, stirring the sort of speculation that originally inspired Cogliantry's "ex-faux-sé." Discussion boards within the Fur community have been lively in response to the work, plenty of which are aimed back at the artist himself.

Portland's Nemo Design hosted a showcase of the artwork from a Las Vegas shoot of Furries last season and the new hardcover photo book published by Chronicle Books is hot off the press.

Colgliantry's latest labor of love, along with the rest of his work, is better viewed than narrated.

Furverts is available from Amazon and Powell's.