Annie Liebovitz

So, today I watched a documentary on Annie Liebovitz. What an amazingly talented woman. I spent some time googling her work, and I absolutely love her dream/fantasy portraits. The one that I connected to the most was "Where You Never Have to Grow Up", her version of Peter Pan.

  What I loved about this picture is how it is a perfect combination of Disney's Peter Pan and Cathy Rigby's  Peter Pan. Real people with an animated feel.  It's where reality and fantasy collide. Annie Liebovitz likes to recreate and give people what they want, but they don't always realize that that is what they want.

  The lighting is wonderful. Peter Pan, Wendy and Tink are all perfectly lit. The darker backgrounds help to bring out the 3 characters. The picture has a wonderful asymmetrical balance to it. I love how the flowing curtain divides the frame into two parts, Peter Pan and the window leading to Never Land, and Wendy and the room that leads no where. The curtain definitely gives  the picture a  feeling of movement. You can almost feel the wind that "blew" the window open and Peter Pan into Wendy's bedroom. Annie has done a fabulous job of creating multiple emotions within the picture. Peter Pan's half of the frame is blue which evokes feelings of it being cold, dangerous and inviting. Wendy's half is red which creates feelings of it being warm, cozy, safe, familiar and inviting as well.

  I hope that one day I will be as accomplished as Annie Liebovitz. Where I can walk into a set/stuido, take 3 pictures and say "Ok, got it. We're done!" and leave. I can only hope that I can develop her vision, her understanding of her subjects and models.  It'll take years...but maybe, just maybe.