Annie Liebovitz

Between 2007 and 2014, Annie Liebovitz published more than 10 Disney creations portrayed by todays biggest stars. The series includes portraits of Jennifer Lopez, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Black and Will Ferrell who portrayed famous Disney characters such as Cinderella, Captain Hook, Peter Pan and Rapunzel. As a photographer who is highly interested in portraiture, fashion, over-all styling and a big lover of Disney, I think this series is phenomenal. I looked at this series when researching for my character shoots as these photographs cover a large variety of personality and identity. In these images I have decided to look specifically at the facial expressions and the way the image is composed to make the viewer think in a certain way.

The first image I have chosen to look at is the one to the left of Julianne Moore as Ariel. I chose this image as the character is a very determined, sweet, bubbly, positive and romantic. I feel like this image portrays the character very well as her facial expression and setting gives you ideas of what to think about. The bright blue water surrounding her makes you very calm and makes you feel pretty positive. When you look at her face you feel a lot of positivity coming from her smile and upward looking expression. In a way she looks hopeful. You get most of the personality from her face and her movement.

The next image I've been looking at is the photo to the right of Olivia Wilde and Alec Baldwin as the Evil Queen and Magic Mirror from Snow White. The image shows the mirror looking vulnerable and the Evil Queen as the opposite. The facial expression and stance of the Evil Queen shows off a powerful, dark personality. Her eyes are slightly squinted which can be quite a devious trait as well as her looking up in an evil manor. She's stood with quite an enforcing stance to portray strength and power. The costume in this piece also contributes highly to the character traits and identity as she's got a lot of power and wealth from being queen.

The last image I've been looking at from this series is the one of Russell Brand as Captain Hook. The image itself is very creative in the sense of composition (especially character composition). This piece stands out to me the most as you its very dynamic. I love how you can feel the character when you look at it for a brief second. The character is showing courage through his actions but also regret by facial expression.

From looking at these images I have been able to pick up a range of tips about positioning a person to portray a trait or characteristic as well as focusing on facial expression. You get a large feeling of the characters personal traits and identity specifics which I'll definitely try to use as inspiration in my shoots.