THUNDERCAT !]!
Photographed by Denzel Golatt, a New York City-based portrait photographer.
Pictured here is Stephen Lee Bruner, an artist commonly known as “Thundercat.”
Golatt’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denzelgolatt/?hl=en
Thundercat’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thundercatmusic/?hl=en
Let’s run this image from top to bottom.
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The hair: it has free will, with the portrait subject allowing the strands to lay anywhere they want on his face. Looking closer, one can see certain strands of hair have an attachment of sorts. Seemingly, there is a pendant of symbolic meaning (or it just looks so cool that he likes the look) attached to a ring threaded throughout Thundercat’s hair. Altogether, the hair itself communicates that the human displayed is unbothered by social norms. By inviting the hair into his eyes and somehow finding a way to pimp out a Homosapien head of hair, the subject makes it clear to the audience that they’re doing it their way, and no one else’s.
The eyes (glasses too!): Thundercats’ eyes are closed, sending a message that he is not threatened by what lies before him. Additionally, he has glasses on! Typically someone would wear these and get laughed at because the glasses are goofy, but not Thundercat. This is because when worn on Thundercat, the once mysterious shades make every bit of sense. Reflecting his image-presented character, they are both vibrant, random, and genreless. Perhaps when wearing these glasses, the dreamlike shades make beautiful peculiarities in our world a lot easier to see.
Mouth and friends: The mouth defines the image. Without the lackadaisical tongue-out look Thundercat gives us, the picture could be inferred in many different ways. With a closed mouth and a neutral facial reaction, neither a smile nor frown, he could look tired due to him resting his head on his shoulder, almost leaning back. Yet, with the tongue out and openly bearing his teeth, our focal character enables us into giving him the label of a fun, laid-back guy. On top of that, inside the mouth are two colorful 1-tooth grillz’. In fact, these blue, diamond-encrusted Grillz match the color scheme of his glasses, introducing a stylistic rhythm. Basically, as an audience, we can tell, even more than before, that this is one swaggy specimen. Also, not to mention, he is not alone! Propped up on his left shoulder is pokemons’ legendary Pikachu. Adding on to the image’s consistency, Pikachu also has a tongue sticking out! At first glance, the subject could appear as chaotic and “over the top”. Yet, the more one plunges into the photo, the more aware one becomes of the perfect storm Thundercat casts upon viewers.
Head-down: Due to being a portrait the focus is on the subject matter’s face, but a little more harmony lies below. I am not going to do a deep dive on each and every chain he is wearing, but they are there, and there are a lot of them. There is this steady theme throughout the portrait of “not caring.” The average person wears one chain, maybe none. Hell, there is even an artist named, “2 CHAINZ” with the joke being no one else is doing it like him, because he is so cool that he’ll wear numerous chains. Here, Thundercat is representing a countless number of chains and pendants. Not only is he cementing the fact that he loves accessories, but he is reinforcing the fact that he loves to represent what he likes. From a limited perspective looking at Thundercat’s pendants, one can see “Goku” from the animated show Dragon Ball Z, A (seemingly, I’d hate to assume) pretty angry dragon, and a Comedy Central logo. EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE! Thundercat is a human who loves to love what they love, which means if he has a chance through visual representation to express himself, he will take it. Self-expression is vital, for everyone, but especially for artists like himself. Hopefully, anyone can look at Thundercat through Denzel Golatt’s portrait and know they can do the same. It does not matter the conventional way of doing things, it is 2022, there are no (expression) rules anymore! If you want to dye your hair, pierce something, tie something into your hair, paint your nails, draw on yourself… DO IT!
Personally, I look at this picture and see, “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!”
