There are many elements in any given photograph, painting, or static image. For example, color, lighting, words, position of people, anomaly, repetition, symmetry, perspective, foreground and background. Each of these elements do something different in conveying a message. These elements are there to prove something and to enhance the meaning of the photograph, painting or image. Kendrick Lamar’s album cover for “To Pimp a Butterfly” applies a variety of these elements to convey several messages. The image on the cover acquires an iconographic excellence. The design uses monochromatic coloring, precise positioning, anomaly and symbolism to communicate an incendiary message of power and rebellion. 

The choice for the artist to make this image monochromatic is very important. It gives the image a more vintage quality and directs the focus to two main places; the white house and the group of men on the front lawn. This decision to contrast these two things is critical for conveying the message of a difference in power. Everyone thinks of the white house as having a great deal of power and a group of african-american men with little to no power. The white house and the group of men are essentially opposites. Putting these two things together shows this difference. The white house has a lot of power to begin with so taking this group of men and placing them on the lawn in front of the white house makes it seem like they are the most important thing in the image with more power than the white house. If this image was not monochromatic there would not be a distinct separation between the two things, taking away the message of the difference in power between these two things. Color in this image would bring out other things to focus on and that would take away from the focus on the two distinct groups in the image. The dark black X’s over the judges eyes also draws attention to the bottom of the image. These X’s take away power from the judge that he would normally have, giving the power to the group of men in the picture. The decision to make these X’s black also shows that the power is taken away from the judge by the group of men since the men are the darker colors in the picture and the white house and the judge are the lighter things in the picture. 

Positioning plays an important role in this design as well. There is about 25 people in this image, all african-american males, and there are three or four different levels that these people are in. There is the judge who is laying flat on the ground. Then there is a row of men sitting and kneeling and in the back there are people standing and reaching their arms in the sky. And lastly the white house is the highest thing in the image. This positioning creates an upward line leading your eyes from the bottom of the image from the passed out judge to the top of the image which is the white house. This line gives the focus first to the group of men, then second to the white house hinting at an overtake in power. If these people were beside the white house for instance, the message of the overtake in power would not be present. The fact that all of these men are surrounding and on top of this passed out judge gives them authority and depicts a rebellious action. Especially since they are on the lawn of where the president lives which is illegal in real life.

The anomaly in this picture is that there is a gang on the front lawn of the white house. They are all holding money and alcohol which both are symbols of power. There is also a little boy in the front holding up the middle finger which is a symbol of rebellion.  The white house in the image is a symbol of government. The fact that a group of african-american males are standing on the lawn of the white house displays an act of rebellion and an expression of the social movement of Black Lives Matter. They stormed the lawn of the white house because they are angry with the way they are treated by the government. These men are angry that white people and the government have more power over them and this image is trying to show that shouldn’t be the case by giving them the power in the photo. If this gang was placed in a different setting with a new background without the white house, the message of an act of rebellion against the government would not be existing in the photo.

The combination of many elements within this image conveys a message of differing power, rage and revolution within the african-american community. Without all of these elements being present, the same message would not be communicated and the meaning of the image would be something completely different.