Sanja Ivekovic - double life series // Signs

Sanja Ivekovic's Double Life Series shows image from women's fashion magazine framed next to an image taken on Ivekovic before these images came out.

The website www.moma.org wrote "For this series, the artist juxtaposed pictures of herself culled from her private albums with commercial ads clipped from the pages of popular magazines and newspapers. One part of each pair depicts Iveković through distinct periods of her life, enacting for the camera different poses, while the other part shows models advertising in women’s magazines such as Elle, Grazia, Brigitte, and Svijet. If you look closely, you will notice that sets are paired on the basis of similarities in appearance, gesture, props, locations, and situations. All images are dated, making clear that in most cases the artist was not simply mirroring media constructs of femininity but in fact was predating them—many of her remarkable self-portraits were taken before those in the ads to which they are matched. Probing mass media and its identity-forging potential with a sense of criticality, Iveković offers in this series an investigation of representation by exploring her own life retroactively." about her Double Life Series.

The images below I found from this website

The images above could be related back to my project with Disney, as the actors in the character costumes are trying to mimic the characters that they're trying to portray from Disney films. This is like what Ivekovic has done using herself and pictures from women's fashion magazines. As Ivekovic has used facial expression, gesture, and pose for her images the actors have done this with the Disney images that I will be doing for my project.

Research & Planning Disney // Signs

Through my research, I looked at the Parks times for meeting characters and parades. This helped me work out which characters I was most likely to meet. This helped me conduct research by looking into the character's that I was most likely to meet and their typical facial expressions (if they don't wear a mask), gestures, stances, and poses. 

Jirka Väätäinen Research // Signs

Artist Jirka Väätäinen has re-imagined the Disney prince and princesses in real life. 

This is quite interesting as Disney imagined them all as animated cartoons, so he has taken his own spin on them. 

With Disneyland having real people dressed up as Disney characters (not ruining the magic of it haha) and not using cartoon statues or holograms, this is quite interesting in my research and prep for my project.

Most of them include some type of gesture, which is what I'm basing my project on. With this I can see some of the ways in which Väätäinen thinks are their main poses and gestures.

website - "real life" Disney characters project.


For Rapunzel, he has created her with her hair loose and not plaited like it is in most of the movie. 
Her gesture is one hand on her hip, and one hand holding her hair. This is striking it's focusing on her hair which is 'really' long.



Cinderella has been created wearing her 'servant girl' clothing, compared to her ball gown that she has for the Royal Ball.
Her gesture is one arm bent across her waist, with her other elbow resting on it and that hand touching her neck. Almost as if she's thinking.



Snow White's gesture is her hands out to the side with her arms bent at the elbow, which is almost as if she's looking at something.


Tinkerbell is staring straight at the viewer with a smirk on her face, which is typical of her character as she is supposedly a 'cheeky' fairy


Flynn Ryder from the movie Tangled, is pictured here looking to the left side of the image, smirking with his right hand on his neck.


Prince Naveen (from The Princess And The Frog) is pictured here grinning into the right side of the image, with his gesture looking almost as if he is thinking.


Peter Pan is leaning on his left arm and looking out to the right of the image with his eyebrows raised, almost as if something's caught his attention



I can relate this to the photos for my project by the idea that they're all in 'human form' and they're gestures and expressions have been made to fit the character that they're each supposed to be. This is what I was aiming at capturing in my project at Disneyland Paris as they're 'real life, human sized' characters who have to portray the character that they're dressed as. This is through their body language, such as gestures, facial expressions, and poses; this is what Väätäinen has also done through his images.

Annie Leibovitz // Signs

Annie Leibovitz created the Disney Dream Portrait series, where she worked with 'celebrities' to create a campaign for the Disney Parks in magazines, on billboards, and online. 
Some of her images can be found below, with the rest on this website


Taylor Swift as Rapunzel from “Tangled”


Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz as Beauty and the Beast


Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony as Jasmine and Aladdin


Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens from Sleeping Beauty


Rachel Weisz as Snow White


Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella

She used 'famous' people all highly recognised within society to play different characters. Each subject has used their body language of facial expression, stance, pose, and gestures to portray these characters. The background for each image has been used to help portray each character, though they are very recognisable without focusing on the background. Most of these images seem to have a phrase related to Disney and to sell the parks to consumers. Each of the phrases starts with 'where' (on the images that have phrases wrote on them), which is a typical word used in advertisements for Disney Parks by their marketing department. 

Kevin-Davis-Photography Research // Signs

 Kevin Davis is a photographer that I found on flickr who took photos of Disney characters. I have researched due to my project being about Disney characters, their body language and also how he photographed them.

 The image above is of Flynn Rider from the Disney film, Tangled. He is sat on some sort of float from a parade, looking straight into the camera as well as pointing at it. He has one leg down, with the other bent up.
He has been photographed diagonally on to the image. He isn't positioned central within the image, but his leg is in the centre with his body nearer to the right side of the image. Though this is how he is positioned, he is still the point of focus for the image. 

 The image above is of Rapunzel, who is from the movie Tangled. She is grinning at the camera, with her hands clasped together in a hopeful position. Her body is turned to the right side of the image, which is a typical pose for the character of Rapunzel.
She has been photographed in the very centre of the image taking up most of the frame,this has made her the point of focus for the viewer due to her taking up most of the image.

This image is of Ariel, from The Little Mermaid. She has been photographed on a float, where she is sat inside a clam which is typical of the sea - so contextual to the movie. She has her tail down , while staring up at her hand that's in the air.
The composition of the image is made up of the subject being in the top half of the image within the centre, with her tail going out the right side of the image.

Drick172 Research // Signs

Drick172 is a photographer that I found on flickr who has photographed Disney characters.

 The image above is of Donald Duck, in one of his classic poses. This is through his facial expression being controlled by a mask, his gesture and stance is what is controlled by the actor. This is through them knowing the characters and making sure that they represent them through exaggerated gestures and poses.
The photo has been taken with Donald central within the frame, creating him the point of focus for the viewer.

 The image above is of Goofy, who also consists of a mask and the actor controlling the stance and gesture of the character. Since these are all that the actor is in control of, they are exaggerated, this is through him putting one finger on his mouth while his other arm is out to the side and outstretched one leg
The photo has been taken with Goofy central in the image, with his arm and leg outstretched creating him the point of focus for the viewer, this is also because he is the subject within the image.

Mickey Mouse also consists of a mask, also meaning that the actor has created an exaggerated gesture due to that being one of the few things they can control. They have outstretched both their arms into a 'welcoming' pose, with one leg turned slightly to the side on the heel.
He is also central within the image, creating him the point of focus for the viewer. This is striking as Mickey Mouse's costume is made up of bright colours, which makes it very eye catching to the viewer.

Disneyland Paris Project Choice // Signs

Due to this year's exam project going on during the period in which I go away with one of my college course's, I thought that would be the perfect opportunity for them to coincide. Leaving on the 5th March, and getting back home on the 8th March is the ideal period for me to make my project happen. I would be going to Disneyland Paris for two full days around the parks. With Disney characters being so unique and interesting, it would work well for a completely unique project.
I will be taking pictures of the characters on their own, with asking them to stand in their classic poses. This will be looking into how the characters are portrayed through signs such as gestures, stance, pose, facial expression, and more.
I'm hoping to capture a wide range of characters from different films, so there will be a diverse set of images showing many characters all with different 'signs'.



credit: http://sunshinestacey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/disneyland-paris-logo-400x280.png