Meet The Author

Richard Watherwax has more than 30 years experience in advertising, editorial, and wedding photography. After 25 years in Manhattan shooting for clients such as Coca Cola, TWA, AT&T, Buick, and Nabisco, to name a few, Watherwax found his home in Key West He took to the easy, laid back atmosphere of Key West like a duck to water. Without the high pressure of pleasing his Manhattan clients, he developed his own style that many have called "Watherwax Whimsy." He is probably best known for his renown poster "Fat Cat Capsizing" which has been reproduced in the form of t-shirts, tote bags, towels, coffee mugs, etc., and sold world wide. Among his accomplishments are authoring 3 books, Cat Tales (1978) . . . The Cat Who Drank Too Much (1979) and Tales of Old Key West (1989), a farcical and humorous history of the island. But his most impressive achievement would have to be entering his cat Willoughby in the 1989 Key West mayoral race, where she won 37 write-in votes.

What do you like best about photography?

The opportunity to use the medium to display whatever creative ideas I have. There are picture "takers" (Bresson, Winogrand, Weegee), and there are picture "makers" (Annie Leibowitz, David Lachapelle, etc). I prefer to be in the "makers" camp . . . utilizing models, props, costumes, to tell a story in one frame.

Richard Watherwax