Responding to Pop-Culture Photo

By combining our understanding of 'AIMME' which helps us created good photos and 'TEEAC' which helps us write good paragraphs, we can write good paragraphs about good photos which will make us successful communicators both visually and in written responses. 

In the following example, I use the TEEAC structure to respond to the photo above. This is an actual photo of Lil Nas X. You will respond to the recrated photo you have taken, based on a photo of your chosen celebrity / influencer /politician.

Topic = Audience & Intention

Pop-culture photography is a genre of photography that describes photos which draw inspiration from what is happening in pop-culture, including celebrities, influencers, music and politics. This movement began in the 1950s but still occurs in photos today. My photo shows the celebrity Lil Nas X and is created for a social media audience of his fans, which could include young people, fans of rap, pop-rock or LGBTQIA+ audiences. 

Explanation & Evidence = Make, Method & Editing 

To make this photo, I took a head and shoulders image which is a medium close up. I made the photo with my subject opening their mouth a little, like Little Nas X does and their head titled up to display confidence. As I was going to edit the background out, I took the photo in front of the plain black wall in the classroom. To edit the photo, I adjusted the brightness and contrast as well as the threshold to make the photo look more like a stencilled art piece. I then coloured the image using a combination of pinks, blues and yellows. 

Analysis 

I deliberately used pinks and blues as both have a history of being used to identify gender (Britannica, 2023) but Lil Nas X experiments with female and male costuming and colours. I included yellow because this represents power and confidence (Art Therapy, n.d.), which Little Nas X has shown by being a publicly queer person of colour that is proud of who they are. I would improve it in the future by using less dark purple backgrounds so that it appears more varied.

Conclusion 

Pop-culture is an area that meaning has been created in photography, reflecting on celebrity culture and it's impact on society, frequently communicating this through colour. My image reflects on a social group in contemporary society (LGTBQ+) and represents this through the use of colours and their meanings throughout history.