Annie Leibovitz's Disney Portraits

Annie Leibovitz is a renowned photographer and has inspired many over the years. I began to appreciate Leibovitz’s work during art in senior school, when I came across her Disney series. Leibovitz creates and photographs beautiful and magical representations of Disney films, which are both contemporary and artistic, with hours of hard work, research and effort devoted to each shoot. I am inspired by the beautiful colours, quality of the images, and overall concept of the modern take of Disney films.

Image from Business Insider

A few examples of the Disney movies Leibovitz has photographed include Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled and Brave. The children’s Cinderella Disney movie was released back in 1950; 50 years on, Leibovitz has been able to take a historical and well-known movie and create a fresh and contemporary interpretation of the modern Cinderella. The Cinderella photograph was the first image that captured my attention in the Disney series, and inspired me to search for more in the collection!

Those posing in the Disney scenes are famous people and actors, including Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella, Roger Federer as King Arthur, Whoopi Goldberg as Genie, Michael Phelps as Merman and Taylor Swift as Rapunzel. Using famous people and placing them into a fairy tale environment, helps viewers appreciate the well-known films with well-known people. Leibovitz’s trend or style evidenced in the Disney collection, is photographing famous people within the Disney environment, where she is able to craft a modern representation of the original Disney characters, with a special twist, to create enchanting and magical images.

Some famous people, such as Taylor Swift, can personally relate to the Disney images and scenes. In a behind the scenes movie clip, Taylor says that ‘when Disney came to me and said we want you to play Rapunzel, I think it was really like a childhood fantasy come to reality for me. It’s one of those things that seem like a once in a lifetime opportunity.’ She also goes on to say, ‘I have so many amazing memories that come from Disney because I started singing Disney songs.’ See the following link for some behind the scenes action! (http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disney-dream-portraits/)

Image from Business Insider

When watching Disney’s behind the scenes movie clips, you appreciate the amount of time, effort and resources required for each shoot. There is a team that appears to be made up of stylists, makeup artists, costume designers and many assistants. The gear and equipment consists of cameras, tripods, triggers, studio lights, umbrellas, fans, tents, backdrops, reflectors, ladders, props, laptops and computer monitors with hoods. These movie clips also reveal that Leibovitz prefers and enjoys to shoot on-location and use movie stills from the Disney movies, as inspiration for creating and framing images. It is also evident in the final images that many hours of post-production are needed to complete the final beautiful and magical photographs.

The following link shows some more photographs from the Disney Collection:

(http://www.businessinsider.com.au/annie-leibovitz-disney-dream-ads-2014-2#beyonc-lyle-lovett-and-oliver-platt-ride-a-teacup-as-alice-the-march-hare-and-the-mad-hatter-from-alice-in-wonderland-1)

Posted by Chelsea