Ursula from The Little Mermaid is one of the most visually and conceptually rich characters I've had the chance to photograph, because she embodies theatricality in its purest form. Part octopus, part diva - Disney's scheming sea witch from The Little Mermaid (1989), brought to life on screen by the legendary Pat Carroll - her lavender skin, swirling tentacles, and theatrical jewelry combine into a presence that feels deliberately commanding, exaggerated, and unapologetically expressive. What makes her especially compelling is that her power is not just physical or magical, but performative; she controls a space as much through personality and spectacle as through any overt force.
For this shoot, I wanted to build an environment that felt like a submerged stage rather than a literal underwater world. The concept centered around Ursula as a performer in her own domain - part ritual space, part theatrical lair, where everything feels slightly exaggerated and intentionally staged. We worked in a dim, enclosed set environment with layered translucent materials suspended around the subject, creating the illusion of depth and drifting movement without relying on traditional aquatic imagery.
A defining moment in the session came when we introduced a slow-moving haze machine to the set. The airflow in the room was uneven, and instead of dispersing cleanly, the fog began to curl and pool in distinct layers around certain lighting angles. As we adjusted the lighting height, those fog layers started behaving almost like underwater currents, breaking and reforming around the subject in ways that felt unexpectedly organic. It gave the entire scene a sense of living atmosphere, as if the space itself was responding to her presence.
Lighting was treated as a form of theatrical direction rather than simple illumination. I used strong under-lighting in certain compositions to exaggerate facial structure and create a sense of dramatic upward projection, while side lighting carved out bold silhouettes that emphasized her scale and authority. Deep purples, cool blues, and sudden pockets of green created a shifting tonal environment that felt unstable in a controlled way - like the set was constantly transforming between moods.
One of the most interesting framing choices involved allowing reflective surfaces and curved distortions in the foreground elements to warp portions of the image. Rather than presenting a clean, symmetrical view, I leaned into visual disruption - refractions, partial obstructions, and layered transparencies that made the subject feel larger than the frame itself.
What I find most compelling about photographing Ursula is that she demands presence. She doesn't disappear into an environment; she dominates it, reshapes it, and turns it into part of her performance. For me, this shoot was about embracing that theatrical intensity - creating images that feel less like portraits and more like scenes from an ongoing, larger-than-life production where she is always in control of the stage.
