Portrait Photography
Assignment #5 – The Extended Portrait


Please hand in this sheet in a protective plastic sleeve together with your proof sheet(s), your prints, and acid-free conservation board.

Assignment Description:
Collaborate with your subject.  Make three or more images, taken on more than one occasion, in various different life situations, that relate to their reality and sense of self.  Together the fragments should add up to a rounded portrait that hints at who they might be.

Related Reading Assignment:
The Adventures of a Photographer by Italo Calvino
extra credit:
Excerpts from Criticizing Photographs (Sally Mann) by Terry Barrett

Assignment Objective:
This assignment is intended to challenge the modernist assumption that a single photograph can reveal the essence of an individual's complexity, or penetrate to a deeper self.  Having recognized the limits of a photograph, we will endeavor to go beyond those limits.

Suggestions:
Try to help your subject feel OK about being vulnerable in front of the camera by generating an atmosphere of trust, so as to picture the private rather than the public face.  Avoid working with infants and pets for this particular assignment.

Evaluation Criteria:
Craftsmanship - Sharpness
Exposure (full shadow and highlight detail)
Contrast (a solid black, a bright white, and a full range of gray values)
Value (appropriate lightness / darkness)
Needs dodging and/or burning
Cleanness (no dust, water spots, scratches)
Print damage
Aesthetic / Conceptual refinement (accomplishes assignment description and meets objective)

Grade ___________


Student Name_______________________________


Teacher Comments: