Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer. She has a huge range of styles that she moves between with ease, however in relation to my project I will be focusing on her more fantasy inspired images, particularly the series in which she was commissioned by Disney to create, where famous people are dressed up as characters in magnificent scenes. The series was used to promote the theme parks, but I have always found them to be incredibly inspiring.

I think that Leibovitz has been inspiring me for a long time, as I have known about her work for a lengthy period. She reinterprets classic characters who are well known by her audiences and makes them her own. I am inspired by the way that she uses these pre-determined characters in order to create imagery that we recognise but also is something new. I feel that this is relevant to my project because of this, as I use the personalities and appearances of the Goddesses determined up to hundreds of years previous, in order to create my work.

These images create something that is both familiar to us and unfamiliar at the same time. Familiar, because they are recreations of scenes from films that we grew up with and know well. However, they also have a certain sense of unfamiliarity due to slight differences in appearances and scenes that we know. These images actually end up more multicultural, less youthful, and more diverse than the scenes they were based upon.

Take, for example, this recreation of Alice in the mad teacups- a ride in the disney parks. Leibovitz has not used the typical pale, blonde 14 year old model, but instead a black woman. The Mad Hatter is no longer a thin, lanky man that we all know but a more wide and fuller man. the March Hare has been humanised, and yet these three characters project the same aura and personalities that the originals do. We understand the context, just with new visuals. It's interesting to note that this partcicular image doesn't actually reference a scene from the Alice films, but instead a ride - after all it is used as marketing for the parks.

This image positions the viewer very much within the scene, as the background is blurred with movement, so we feel more like we are spinning with the three characters, and while the characters are clearly posed, it also seems kind of natural - Alice is slightly taken aback, the mad hatter is excited and the march hare is impartial. Alice making eye contact with the viewer also helps with this feeling of being a part of the scene. It could also be said, however, that this spinning sensation also creates a dream-like state, which goes well with the narrative of Alice as she wakes up and believes it to all be a dream. Therefore, we could be positioned to not only be in the dream, but the one having the dream (as Alce makes eye contact with the viewer instead of being the viewer). The colours are vibrant and bold, yet the contrast is high, which increases this feeling of being in a dream. Leibovitz has used the story of Alice to create a very relevant image to the narrative. I particularly love the flow of movement with the image as it creates a very active scene.

This image is another example of using familiar scenes with unfamiliar aspects. We are used to Peter Pan being a young boy, and Wendy a young girl. Leibovitz has cast Mikhail Baryshnikov, a Latvian born, Russian/American actor, choreographer and dancer as Pan, and Gisele Bündchen as Wendy, a Brazilian model, actress and author.

 Tina Fey, American comedy actress also makes an appearance as Tinkerbell, who is now stripped of her blonde bun on top of her head. And yet with these casting differences, we still know the exact scene that Liebovitz is referencing. The lighting is incredible cinematic here, and colour has been used to create mystery and depth- the cool tones indicate moonlight, which in itself offers a sense of enigma. It's also interesting to note that the cool tones are mainly on Wendy, and then as we look towards the right where Peter Pan is, it becomes more warm tones, as if he brings warmth and comfort to Wendy, and therefore to the image. With the use of colour she has creates a story of saviour. The images are more than a film-still, as a singular image has to tell us so much more as we only have one image to look at rather than multiple. Therefore everything within the scene becomes important, and so we have Wendy in her nightgown, and bed with the striped bedding and the enhanced textures to tell this story. These enhanced textures also add a lot of depth to the image, as there is a lot going on for the eye to look at, rather than just blurring into one flat image.

This image used Disney's 1963 animation film 'The Sword in the Stone' as the basis for the narrative. This scene is the most pivotal and important moment in the film, where Arthur pulls the sword from the anvil where is has been stuck for centuries. Leibovitz cast Roger Federer, the renowned tennis player, to play Arthur in this image. The first thing we may notice when comparing the film still to Leibovitz's image is the ages, yet again, the age difference between the Disney version and Leibovitz's version. Arthur in the film is just 12 years old, as opposed to the then 31-year-old man cast. The scene has been dramatised immensely, from a snowy, magical setting to an intense clifftop scene. The waves are harsh and fierce, the contrast in lighting is great, cold tones have been used and the armour and facial expressions on Federer's Arthur creates a whole scene of mystery, determination, manliness and drama. The intense scene, however, is still recognisable. This may be because Disney films are so well known, but I think it also helps that the stories of these films come from other tales and myths that even if you haven't seen the film you know of the narrative.
Leibovitz cleverly uses leading lines in order to bring the eye towards her version of Arthur, note the mountain on the left sloping towards her model. The darkening of the clouds at the top of the image frames and encapsulates the image, again bringing out attention to Federer. She uses light to her advantage. She has turned the scene from a young innocent boy who doesn't believe in himself, into a heroic man who is determined.

While Leibovitz's images more relate to the initial idea of mine of more fantasy images creating to novels, such as Alice, I think her influence has been in my work all along as I have been aware of it for many years. Her use of lighting particularly inspires me, as she uses it entirely to her advantage in order to create a story. As my images often seem to be focussing on Goddesses of forces such as sunset and sunrise light, this is highly influential and relevant to my work - the way that light can be used to exaggerate a mood or feeling or narrative should not be ignored.

Leibovitz recreates scenes from classic Disney movies as a part of a marketing scheme for Disney, and I recreate paintings for my own person exploration of the self, however the two sets of images are not entirely dissimilar in the way that we both use other art as inspiration and still make it our own. Leibovitz actively goes against conventions of what we associate with these films, and my images use a whole different visual medium.

Overall, I am very inspired and influenced by these images, and I would personally love to be able to use the huge sets and lighting and editing skills that she possesses. My operation is on a much smaller scale, and yet I can find similarities between the two.