The Pet Issue (v.12)

photography. Jennifer Carrillo
For example, Tardar sauce, or famously known as
Grumpy cat, is a dwarf cat who’s mouth is curved downward
causing a permanent frown. The owner uses this
quality to convey a sense of irony to what’s going on
around her. Grumpy cat became famous after a reddit
post of her was posted by Bryan Bundesen. Bundesen is
the brother of Tardar Sauce’s owner, Tabatha and found
her unique disposition as marketable. The relatability in
Grumpy Cat’s ironic disposition led to her stardom. The
ability to relate to a cat’s melancholy disposition became
an inspiration of other animals in human-like scenarios.
These ironic scenarios Grumpy Cat is put through
attempts to convey a sense of normalcy amongst the
disappointments of life . When displayed as a cat, these
seemingly grumpy events come across as light hearted.
“I had fun once, It was awful.”
Jeremy Veach’ instagram positions his pet, Norm the Pug
as though the dog is the photographer. Often engaging
in selfies, Norm the Pug is used to mock the cliches of
instagram. There are a number of individuals on instagram
that use images taken exclusively on a professional
camera in order to ensure more credibility or fan base.
Norm’s owner mocks this sense of professionalism by positioning
Norm as though he was the photographer. The
cliches depicted from the perspective of Norm involves
anything from the trivial daily cup of coffee, to traveling.
The interesting factor about Norm the pug is that despite
the use of cliches and identifiable compositions, Norm
is seen as relatable by his fans.- even though he is a dog.
Hamilton the hipster cat is used as a social commentary
on hipster culture. Hamilton has a birthmark on their
face that resembles a mustache, which is commonly
seen throughout the hipster community. Cats are notoriously
represented as independent creatures, which
is relatable to the hipster scene whose main objective is
to stay from what is normal towards a more alternative,
and seemingly independent path. This process of alienation
and defiance is associated with being, ironically,
socially acceptable amongst hipsters and “cool”. Hamilton
the cat is used as a tool to reveal this irony and point
out the similarities amongst hipsters, which ultimately
destroys their cause. Despite these factors, Hamilton is
seen as a social commentary that is humorous and cute.
In conclusion, these pets are not only cute and relatable
but provide insight as to the various cultural connotations
and characters represented through instagram.
Although instagram is flooded with individuals who
would not consider themselves professional photographers,many
engage with the activity and participate in
the documentative, artistic, and even cultural aspects.
These famous pets typically represent larger ideas about
the culture of instagram. Since instagram casts such a
wide net over society, these alter egos are now ubiquitous.
This results in a new trend of utilizing pets to break
up the mundane, while still referencing the endearing
qualities of these alter egos. Using pets as the image
bearers of our own culture creates a light hearted or tender
approach to the ridiculousness of our own trends.
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