Look
- Invite students to spend time carefully observing one portrait.
- Ask students to look closely at the portrait for at least one minute before responding to the prompts below.
- Describe the subject’s gaze in one word.
- Describe the subject’s expression in two words.
- Describe the subject’s pose in three words.
Discuss
- Invite students to discuss with someone who chose the same portrait as them.
- Ask students to share what they observed and consider how they perceive the subject.
Discussion prompts:
- How are your observations and interpretations different or the same as each other’s?
- Does simply looking at the portrait give you a true understanding of the subject’s identity?
- What would you like to know more about the subject?
Connect
- Invite students to investigate the subject and artist further through research.
- Ask students to consider how the artist has chosen to represent the subject’s identity and experiences.
- Encourage students to start by reading the artist’s statement before conducting broader research.
Inquiry prompts:
- What aspects of the subject’s identity does the artist seek to represent in the portrait?
- How are subject and artist connected? Does this influence how the artist captures the subject?
- How is the subject’s identity celebrated in the portrait?
- How does the artist explore their own identity through their practice?
- How do personal and shared experiences shape our identity as an individual?
- What connections can you make between the portrait and your own experiences, interests or identity?
Create
- Invite students to explore the multiplicity of their identity through a photographic exercise.
- Ask them to create a series of photographs that communicate their identity through visual cues, rather than direct portraiture.
- Encourage students to consider how they might display their photographic series such as in a photobook.
Creative prompts:
- What personal qualities make you, you?
- What interests you? What are you passionate about?
- What significant memories, people or cultural influences have shaped you?
