Your Portrait - A Picture of You

Is this my photograph? Is this my portrait? If one of my students had not given me permission to post this photograph, would I have been allowed to use it? 

When is it OK to plagiarize? Was Robin Hood a thief? Are pirates thieves? Are teachers pirates? Are pirates good or bad?

How similar are these three images? Does it matter? If I take one person's photo and I edit the image slightly, does the image become my image? Who owns the pirate image in the background?

Cartier-Bresson encouraged photographers to have their subject forget about the camera. Unfortunately, there is a disadvantage to his success. People believe that taking portraits is easy. Writers believe that taking pictures is easy. So what to writers do with pictures?

Writers will take your pictures and they will accuse you of plagiarism if you take their words. (Farleyism)

The Photo 1 students are taking their first portraits at the same time that the Advanced Photo students are photographing students from other groups. All my photo students are exploring Cartier-Bresson's apparently simple advice to portrait photographers. I helped the Photo 1 students. The Advanced Photo students chose location and subjects.

You will post five of your favorite photos. Share the blog link with the people you photograph. Comment on their post about your experience being photographed. DISCUSS HOW IT FELT BEING PHOTOGRAPHED AND PHOTOGRAPHING.

If you have completed your assignment, begin studying Walter Peterhans Portrait of the Beloved. Your next assignment will be similar.

4.5 Employ the conventions of art criticism in writing and speaking about works of art. 
5.2 Create a work of art that communicates a cross-cultural or universal theme taken from literature or history.

Post Script

After we took these photographs, I went to Washington, D.C. for the National Epilepsy Walk. While in D.C., I visited the National Portrait Gallery. Yesterday, Lens published a story about the new exhibit "American Cool."