Annie Leibovitz
Queen Latifah
Background History
This portrait is apart of the Disney Dream portraits, all done by Annie Leibovitz. This one is featuring Queen Latifah as Ursula, from the Disney movie, The Little Mermaid. The studio was in Los Angeles, around thanksgiving in 2011. All the photos in the series include celebrities as disney characters, and they are promoting Disney. This photo was taken with a green screen-type backdrop, and the tentacles/costume was propped up by cables. Then, Queen Latifah was shimmied in through the back, and put on a white hair wig. Afterwards, a lot of photoshop and editing was used to get the effect of her in the water. Queen Latifah was very excited to do this portrait, as she says, she has "Always wanted to be a villain." The crew and Latifah had a lot of fun at the shoot.
Opinion
I really like this portrait, as well as all the other photos in the series. I find the pictures really artistic. They give a different feel from the classic Disney, and more of a dramatic image. This one in particular is really cool, cause it makes you wonder how the photo was taken. Queen Latifah was a good choice for Ursula, and you can see she was having fun with it. I think some would say that this picture is too fake, but I really like how it looks, and I think it makes it look even better. I think Annie did a really good job at making Queen Latifah feel comfortable at the shoot, and it looks natural.