Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci (Donna)

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) is a 16th-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in Florence, Italy. The work is currently owned by the Government of France and is on display at the Musée du Louvre in Paris under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.
The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a seated woman whose facial expression is frequently described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work. The image is so widely recognized, caricatured, and sought out by visitors to the Louvre that it is considered the most famous painting in the world.

Our Interpretation

We decided on an interpretation of the Mona Lisa fairly early on in the brief, as its so well known it wouldn't quite feel right to leave it out! We decided on giving it a modern twist by having the Mona Lisa wear a business suit to represent the modern woman in the workplace.  We used Faye as the model rather than having someone else as she has the right skin tone and hair colour.  The location was at Guide reservoir which was perfect as a backdrop-Da Vinci used an imaginary landscape from an aerial point of view but we wanted to get some landscape in there to mimic the original painting.

The lighting was quite complicated as we wanted to get the detail in the clouds as well as on Fayes face so I used a hotshoe flash for some of the shots so i could decrease the exposure for the clouds to be prominent but still have Faye lit properly.  We also incorporated a picture frame into the image as an experiment as I thought a frame-within-a-frame might give the image some more visual impact.

Contact sheet, showing both the natural light and the hotshoe flash shots, and the various experimentations with composition and props.

My final image choice, side by side with the edit.I chose this one because Faye's expression is pretty much perfect, the angle of her head and everything definitely brings the Mona Lisa to mind.

Final image with the Bloomberg logo inserted.  I am not particularly experienced with photoshop but I am VERY happy with how I edited Joannes hands out of the shot.  I initially thought it would be be beyond my photoshop skills but i think it looks excellent and is a good modern recreation.