Meet Illumitati—The 19-Year-Old Photographer Shooting Celebs Like T-Pain

This week, TikTok’s For You podcast welcomes content creator and photographer Illumitati. For those just tuning in, the show is hosted by TikTok star Brittany Broski,and features discussions with accomplished TikTokers, as Broski goes in-depth with her guests about the inner workings of their success on the platform.

Broski: Your photography career—where did that passion come from, and when did you figure out that you could do it?

Illumitati Well, it’s kind of a weird pathway to get to the point where I’m at now. It all started in seventh grade,. I was a part of the student council, and part of the job was to be on the tech team making videos of our school rallies and stuff like that. I got to high school and there was this big summer camp that student leadership would go to, and they would throw a big concert at the end of the week. The DJ companies would go all out with the entire setup and perform, and I wound up making a video. One of the guys that worked for the company sent me a DM asking if we could work together, and my dream at the time was to become a concert photographer because I was super into EDM. I built a portfolio and started sending it off to concert promoters. My senior year I was shooting Zara Larsson and T-Pain—it was weird but fun!

Broski: You were one of the first to shoot Lilhuddy and really paint him as the fashion icon that he has become. 

Illumitati: Yes that was cool! I think over the summer I helped people realize the potential that they had by taking them into this tutorial and studio space and making high quality images of them, putting them in fancy clothes, and helping them express themselves which I think is cool because I was like, “Lilhuddy I am going to turn you into a vampire! I want to put you in this big red dress and make you look like a queen!” People started eating it up because it was so new to the scene. This time period has been a beautiful marriage because I think without it, things would have turned out differently for all of us.