Portraiture: Others & Self

Portraiture is one of the most common uses of photography. Yet, even with this ubiquity of the genre we rarely consider the connection between what we see, how we see, and how the camera will affect how we understand the subject. We rarely question the issue of identity when looking at or making portraits. For this project I was tasked with using the photograph, and the photographic process, to make portraits of different individuals. Throughout the process, I was allowed to explore self and others for portraiture, but the final 5 images had to be entirely of either others or the self. I decided these images were the most compelling and had the most interesting compositions. All images were shot in color using a DSLR camera, but the nature of the course this project was for is to utilize black and white photography, so the final images presented were edited to reflect this.