Portraits of Friends and Strangers due October 10

- September 24, 2019

Portraits: friends and strangers

OCTOBER 3: LAB DAY
OCTOBER 10 : DUE for critique at the beginning of class, 8 prints plus contact sheets

OBJECTIVE:

For this project you will make portraits of people you know very well: a family member, friend or significant other, and people who are strangers to you. The final product will be eight prints, three

portraits of friends and three of strangers and two self portraits.

1. Stranger
2. Stranger
3. Stranger
4. Friend
5. Friend
6. Friend
7. Self Portrait
8. Self Portrait

Experiment with backgrounds, poses, lighting, distance from subject, expression and other ways to differentiate the images. Be as creative and experimental as possible.

MANDATORY: For Each subject, (Including yourself) you need to take
1) Standard headshot portrait
2) Environmental Portrait
3) Faceless Portrait

TAKE YOUR TIME. Once someone has agreed to be photographed, ask them if they can hang out for 15 minutes. If that goes well, see if they can hang out longer. If you are setting up an appointment before hand, ask for even longer. An hour is a good amount of time to really experiment and try new things, and also for everyone to get comfortable and relax. Be respectful and communicative, but try to not feel rushed. When we are nervous and rushed, we don’t tend to make our best work.

This assignment is designed to explore making portraits and to think about what a portrait is. When you photograph a person, the way you relate to them is as important as what you are doing with your camera. How does it affect the photographs if you know the subject very well or if it is someone you have just met? With which do you feel more comfortable? Which resulted in more compelling images?

FOR INSPIRATION:

These artists make portraits of people the know:

Elinor Carucci