Mincefluencer Wrangling
When I visited Winston Churchill’s underground bunkers in London with my wife and daughter a few months ago, I did not imagine that it would be background research for my latest assignment.
The Broadway musical Operation Mincemeat tells the story of a mission to misdirect the Nazis during World War II. Imagine absurdist performance art enacted by theater kids.
The show is a success, but within its audience is a core group of obsessive fans, referred to as the “Mincefluencers.” New York Times writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner found herself one of them, and wrote a fantastic piece for the magazine looking to understand how she ended up seeing the show over half dozen times and ready for more!
I joked with magazine senior photo editor Amy Kellner that this was an ad job with poor pay. It needed adept touch to convey the wacky humor and joy of the show, while also executing a complicated technical maneuver: aligning a cast of five, a manic audience of hundreds, with strobe lighting and in-house theatrical effects, all reenacting a climatic moment of the show.
I’m happy to take my photo credit for these dynamic pictures, but as much as any other job I’ve done, this was a group effort. Including the show’s Broadway publicist, the lighting and tactical team from the theater, my photo crew, the cast themselves, and the enthusiastic audience members who volunteered to flesh out our photographic love letter to their favorite musical.
It’s always nice to get some words of appreciation after a session, but the feedback through email and Instagram DM’s has been a flood of good vibes and warmth. Mostly from the Mincefluencers, people I barely made contact with. But of course that’s what makes it great!
To manage an audience of volunteers in the hundreds, all the team leaders stepped up and interacted with the fans. The microphone got passed around between our photo producers, the cast, and even The Times story’s writer, a perfect conduit for the audience enthusiasm.
Once we got to shooting the photographs, I stepped up and took the mic. I made an unplanned speech, telling something of my own origin story of becoming a photographer because of my passion for celebrity and pop culture.
It’s a special breed of audience member who becomes the obsessed fan, and these are my people. Unembarrassed about dressing up in costume, or screaming from the rooftops that this is your favorite musical, rock band, or movie. For those who feel special, yet unappreciated by their peers, the oddball corners of pop culture speak to us in a way that little else can.
Top Image: All roads led us here. The cast jumps while the confetti falls and the audience is on their feet.
Second Image: Chris talking with cast members Clarie-Marie Hall, David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson and Jak Malone. BTS photo by Ariel Pacheco.
Third Image: Behind the scenes of the jumping shot - all hands on deck. Left to Right: First Assistant Po Ewing, Chris, Associate Photo Editor Amy Kellner, Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and Broadway publicist Marie Bdhara. BTS photo by Ariel Pacheco.
Bottom Image: The Operation Mincemeat Broadway cast with fans. Cast members, clockwise from left: Natasha Hodgson, Jak Malone, Zoë Roberts, Claire-Marie Hall, and David Cumming.