Multiple Self-portrait
Take photos of different gestures and expressions

a. Ask students to find a partner and decide who will be the photographer and who will be the sitter. Ask the photographers to take pictures of the sitters using six different gestures and facial expressions as directed by the photographers. Have partners switch roles. 

b. Ask students to download their images to a computer, print them out, and then exchange images with another pair. Ask student partners to study the images and come up with a list of adjectives that describe the persona communicated by the six images.

c. View and discuss students’ photo sets and descriptions with the class.  What roles or personae did the subjects take on?  Did their expressions successfully communicate the intended personae to the other students in the class? Why or why not?

d. For younger students, have the class brainstorm a nuanced emotion that can be captured in a photograph and ask the class to enact it at the same time. Take one group photograph or separate photos of each student that you can then print and display in a  grid format.

e. View and discuss the pictures of your students. What similarities and differences do they notice?

 

 

Colorful artwork of woman faces by Andy Warhol.
Colorful artwork of woman faces by Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol, Ethel Scull 36 Times, 1963. Silkscreen ink and acrylic on linen, thirty-six panels: 80 × 144 in. (203.2 × 365.8 cm) overall. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; jointly owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art; gift of Ethel Redner Scull 86.61a‒jj. © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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