Why did we let cats into our homes instead of keeping them outside where they belong? Arnold Arluke and Lauren Rolfe tell us why in The Photographed Cat, Syracuse University Press. John Grady reflects on the context of this cultural change in the forward.

This observational ethnographic film (“ethnografilm”) chronicles the daily lives of Diablo Steve and Sapphire Pam, a homeless and heroin-dependent married couple.

In the 1970s and 1980s, young activists discovered video as a new medium and used moving images in their struggle for access to cultural expression for the many, not the few. They were researching and developing new forms of independent and participatory media work – an important step towards realizing the utopian promises of the digital age.

“What shall we do with our girls” is a personal narrative that tells a little of the journey that emerged as a result of uncovering “The Amazons” and subsequent images. The photographs were generative of other creative works. As a result of the photographs, I collaborated with costumier Gracie Matthews to reproduce the operational and dress uniforms of The Amazons. These were then paraded by contemporary female fire fighters as part of my key note address to the Australasian Women in Fire Fighting Conference, Sydney Australia, June 2006.