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Overview
In this lesson students will learn discipline-specific language for talking about photographs and, in particular, aspects of photographic portraits. They will be able to identify a portrait and articulate facets of portraiture.
Aspects of photography addressed here include composition, framing, mood, and more.
Essential Questions
● What can portraits show us about the subject of the image?
● Are there limitations to what we can know from creating and/or looking at a portrait?
● Can the composition or framing or style of the image affect a viewer’s response to it?
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
● Identify portraits from the LRA archive
● Incorporate the new vocabulary they have learned about photography in class and group discussions
● Talk through what makes a portrait when looking at examples
● Experiment with taking portraits and seeing what they like and dislike about their images
LRA Ed Glossary Board
● Portrait: A representation, generally of a person, and when visual in form, the person’s face is often central to the image.
● Composition: In photography, the arrangement of elements and their spatial relation to each other within the photographic frame.
● Color Photography: A photograph rendered in color.
● Black-and-White Photography: A photograph rendered in grayscale.
● Foreground: In photography, the portion of the scene in the photo that appears closest to the observer of the image.
● Background: In photography, the portion of the scene in the photo that appears further from the observer of the image, generally behind the main subject or focus of the photo.
● Focus: In photography, the degree to which an image is sharp or “fuzzy.” An image “in focus” is quite clear or crisp. An image with “soft focus” has less sharpness, or less definition, to it. At times, this can shift across planes within a photo, for instance, a foreground can be in focus while the background is out of focus.
● Mood: In photography, the feeling or sentiment the viewer perceives in a photo. Mood can be affected by aspects such as color, composition, or the subject’s expression, among other things.
● Lighting and Shadow: Photography, which is the rendering of light in permanent visual form, reflects variations in lighting. There are lighter and darker areas in given photos and these can be referred to as areas of light or shadow, respectively.
Materials for Instructor
Materials for Students
● LRA Ed Journals
I. Discussion (5-7 min.)
The focus of this discussion is to guide students to understand aspects of taking a photograph and to be able to recognize a photograph that is a portrait. Begin by asking students, “How would you define a portrait?” Have them popcorn their answers and then go to the LRA Ed Glossary Board and write the definition of Portrait: “A representation, generally of a person, and when visual in form, the person’s face is often central to the image.” Then begin the class discussion.
Entry-point questions include:
● Now that we have gone over the definition, what are some examples of portrait images?
● Is your school photo a portrait?
● Has your mom/dad/guardian ever created a portrait of you?
● Have you ever created a portrait of someone else?
Note to Teacher: Guide students to understand that portraits show us who someone is visually, often by portraying their face. But a portrait can also give other details about a person. For instance, a portrait of a dog might include its favorite dog toy to let the viewer know a little more about that animal.
II. Portrait Activity (12-15 min.)
Guide students to understand the LRA Ed Glossary words using the two chosen portraits and information below.
Step One
Project the montage on the screen, begin the conversation with basic questions, and have students popcorn their answers. Make sure they answer all questions for both of the photos.
Entry-point questions can include:
● In one sentence, can you describe one of the images?
● Are these images portraits? If yes, list your evidence.
● Are these photos in color or black and white? Does this does affect the image? Does it affect how the viewer responds to the image?
● What is the mood of these images? (Answers might connect back to the question on color versus black and white.)
● How does the image make you feel?
● What aspects do you learn about the person in the image from the way the photo was taken?
● Do you learn anything about the photographer from the way the image is taken?
Step Two (10-12 min.)
Now it is time to begin to incorporate the new glossary words into the conversation. These questions can be used in any order.
● Describe the composition of image #1 (Girl wearing goggles)
○ Target answers: There is one girl with goggles. She is in an apartment or house. She stands in the center of the image. She is the focus of the image. The other areas are blurred. The background reveals furniture. The image is taken from a vantage higher/taller than the subject.
● Describe the focus of image #1 (Girl wearing goggles)
○ Target answers: The subject is the little girl, and the photographer made her clear, in focus, and centered. Our eyes are drawn to her.
● What color scheme is image #1 (Girl wearing goggles), and what are your thoughts in response to that?
○ Target answers: The image is in color. Color makes this image vivid, alive. The yellow of the goggles stands out, draws one’s attention, makes the viewer pay attention or ask “Who is this girl?”
● Describe the mood of image #1 (Girl wearing goggles)
○ Target answers: The mood of the photo is serious. OR The mood is silly.
○ Ask students to back their responses.
● Describe the composition of image #2 (Mother and child)
○ Target answers: The mother and child are in the center, foreground of the image. The mother is holding the child and they are the focus of the image. They are in front of a tree. The background shows a park.
● Describe the focus of image #2 (Mother and child)
○ Target answers: The primary subject is the child, the most foregrounded, and the secondary subject is the mother. Both clear, in focus, and centered. OR The subject of this photo is the mother and child, and the photographer made them clear, in focus, and centered.
● What color scheme is image #2 (Mother and child), and what are your thoughts in response to that?
○ Target answers: The image is in black and white.
○ Students might feel that B&W is: old fashioned, classic, timely
■ Ask them to talk through these responses.
■ Ask them to recognize how a color scheme can affect their response to an image.
● Describe the mood of image #2 (Mother and child)
○ Target answers: The mood of the photo is happy, joyful, fun, etc.
○ Ask students to explain how or why they detect these moods. What specific elements in the image convey these emotions?
Step Three
Learning to think and talk about one’s responses to images is very useful. This allows viewers to contemplate what connects or separates images, what they can compare and contrast across images, and how this helps in thinking about the images themselves.
Now shift the conversation to comparing and contrasting the two portraits.
● Entry-point questions can include:
○ Do you have a different response when you look at each portrait separately, than when you look at them together? If so, what is the difference?
○ Do you think the photographers knew the people in the portraits? If yes, what is your evidence?
○ How do you imagine the subjects of these portraits felt as the picture was taken?
○ What do you think the photographers feel about these portraits, which were taken a long time ago, feel today?
○ These images are not the same. They depict different people, have different compositions, different color palettes. What do you make of these differences?
○ Despite the differences, how are these portraits similar?
III. Quick LRA Ed journal writing activity (5-7 min.)
Have students take out their LRA Ed Journals and write an open reflection about how they are feeling after learning about portraits and exploring two specific portraits. This will be their first journal entry in which they are responding to the power of photographs.
Entry-point suggestions and questions can include:
● Take a few minutes to write in your journals and explore any personal feelings that may have come up about the portraits or related experiences in your own life.
● Did either of the photos remind you of an event in your life or something you have seen or read?
● Did they bring up any personal feelings you want to write about for a few minutes?
● Do they inspire you to want to take any portraits? If so, of what or whom?
● If you were creating portraits, what would you do similar to these portraits and/or what would you do differently?
IV. Portrait Planning (7-10 min.)
Let the class know that now they will be working with a partner and planning to take a portrait photo after school.
Step One
Break the class into pairs and pass out the Portrait Planning Worksheets, one for each student. Explain that there is information for the preparation as well as questions to answer after they have taken their portrait.
Step Two
Ask students to work with their partner to answer the questions on the worksheet that will guide them to prepare for taking their portrait. Explain that even though they will not be taking the photograph together, they can support each other in the planning session.
Step Three
Ask students to share their preparation plans with the group.
Extension Activity: Everyday Migration
Overview
The fourth LRA Education lesson focused on portraiture. The photos in Everyday Migration include portraits of migrants making their journeys to safety all over the world. Everyday Migration offers photos of "people on the move" and provides students with visual images of the different phases they go through from where they embark to their final destination.
This activity is not only an exploration of portraiture, it also adds a new dimension of the story of migration for students to process, discuss, and analyze.
Share the following background information about migration before students participate in the activity. They can do the activity in the classroom or at home.
LRA ED Glossary Board
● Migrant: The UN Migration Agency (IOM) defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a state away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of (1) the person’s legal status; (2) whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary; (3) what the causes for the movement are; or (4) what the length of the stay is. (refugeesmigrants.un.org)
● Human migration: The movement of people from one place, region, or country to another.
Migration Introduction
Lead a discussion with students about migration. Begin by going over the definitions of human migration and migrant so there is a shared understanding of these concepts that are sometimes used in rhetorical statements. Share with students that the mass movement of people around the world reached 272 million in 2019. (https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/international-migrant-stock-2019.html) This number includes millions of people who are fleeing conflict and persecution around the world, creating the highest level of migration in eighty years. The images they will review in Everyday Migration are from migrants fleeing from conflict and persecution.
Activity for Everyday Migration Images
Note to Teachers: While leading this extension activity remind students to draw upon what they learned in the Caption! activity.
Materials
See: www.Photowings.org, (partner of the Everyday Projects)
Step One
Prior to reviewing the photographs, ask students to step into the shoes of a portrait photographer. Remind them that they have already learned how to identify a portrait and describe its facets in detail. They will need to synthesize their new knowledge to answer the questions in Step Two.
Step Two
Hand out the worksheets and project the images. Guide students through the worksheet questions:
Choose the photograph that sticks out for you the most.
Answer some basic questions:
a. Who is in the photo?
b. How do you feel when you look at the photo?
3. Now investigate the image using the new vocabulary you have learned.
a. Describe the composition of the image.
b. Describe the background and foreground of the image.
c. Describe the focus of the image.
4. If you could ask the person or people in the photograph two questions, what would they be?
5. If you could tell the person or people something, what would you tell them?
6. Write a short reflection on how you think the elements of portraiture in the photo influenced the photographer. And then touch on your own emotional response. Photos can evoke powerful emotions!