Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study.

THINGS TO think about

Manipulation of Portraits

Fashion and celebrity photography can be criticised for being shallow and throwaway. Rankin is often the subject of much criticism and this project was one way for him to respond to his critics with characteristic wit, allowing his images to be destroyed and the sale of the artworks benefiting a music charity for young people. There is a great deal of skill and craft in creating seductive images that stand out from the crowd. One of the challenges of this task is to study the techniques used by photographers like Rankin and employ these to generate memorable portraits. Students must then select the most successful images to destroy. In the process of this destruction, they must consider which media, techniques or processes will add the most value to the original image, transforming its meanings. 

Below is a list of artists that use portraits as a focus in their work.  The names in RED are the artists I would like you to focus on in this project, but for extra marks, you can select any of the other names for additional research.