James Servin began his career in New York in 1986 with an entry-level job at GQ. After contributing articles in his second year at the magazine, he launched a successful freelance writing career, placing feature articles in a variety of publications, including British Vogue, Allure, Elle, Metropolitan Home, Details, Organic Style and Natural Health. He has written for many sections of The New York Times, including The New York Times Magazine, the “House & Home” and “Styles of the Times” sections. He was a contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar for three years and was executive editor at Nylon magazine. He currently writes for House & Garden and Black Book, among other publications.

The Love Generators
In 2001, I was dealing with a number of health issues that doctors could find no cures for. And then in May 2004, four kittens came into my life. The first one, a female tabby, needed a friend, and so I returned to the building in Little Italy she came from, where the super takes in strays. There I found three newborn boys who looked almost exactly alike. My friend who lives in the building thought they might be ferile, but the opposite turned out to be true: I've never met more gentle, and genteel cats. I started by adopting two, and then eventually a third brother came to join us. I felt extremely overwhelmed that first year, my apartment filled with four exuberant kittens. But over time, these extraordinary beings welcomed me into their private world, a place of peace, sweetness and beauty. Sharing their world in photographs was merely a matter of observing and documenting. Often, the cats held the poses, as if they knew that the pictures would one day generate peaceful energy for others. Eventually, one of my symptoms, chronic anxiety, faded away, and the others have healed considerably. I want to pay tribute to my good friends: Melanie, Toby, Andy and Moses.