The Big Idea:

What can a portrait tell you about a person?

Activity overview

To make her portraits, Imogen Cunningham typically sat back and observed the subjects of her photographs, waiting for key moments that best represented the people she was photographing. In this activity you will select a subject, watch him or her, and try to identify how best to represent that person.

Look closely

Click on each artist button at right to view detailed screens about the artist and his or her works. Be sure to click on all images, view all videos, read all documents, and look closely at the works of art.

In this activity you will:

1. observe a person at home in a typical setting
2. record that person's actions through text and sketches
3. create a comic book that represents your subject's personality
4. present your comic book to the class

You will be graded on:

1. effort in creating observation sketches
2. creativity and style of comic book
3. class presentation

New terms:

portrait, narrative