IB Visual Arts

Identity Portrait Photography Project

Nikki S. Lee, Projects (1997-2001)
Me and them: the in-between where my identity tends to change
organically. - Nikki S. Lee
The importance of identity
Who am I?
I am
I am
I am
I am
I am
Multiple
Identities
I am
Nikki S. Lee Parts, the men
are missing.

Lee leans on a man, then cuts
him out of the picture.

Painters have explored self portrait
throughout the history of art.
Self portrait- Vincent VanGough Self portrait Frida Kahlo
Definition of Identity:
the reflective self-conception or self-image that we
each derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic,
and individual socialization process (Ting-Toomey).
Nikki S. Lee Projects: The Seniors Project

For this transformation, Lee needed a makeup artist.
Three levels of identity:

I. Personal (what makes us unique)

II. Relational (our relationships with others)

III. Cultural, Communal or Social (large-scale communities
such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, religious or political
affiliation)

Photography by Catherine Opie
Selected Social Identities

Racial Identity a socially constructed idea that still
persists in the United States

Ethnic Identity derived from a sense of shared heritage,
history, traditions, values, area of origin, and sometimes
language

Gender Identity (different than sexual identity) how a
particular culture differentiates masculine and feminine
social roles

National Identity the nation/country one was born into
( or a sense of place)
Ethnic Identity:
The Hapa Project, Kip Fulbeck
Fulbeck began the project
in 2001, traveling the
country photographing
over 1200 volunteer
subjects who self-
identified as
Hapa (defined for the
project as mixed ethnic
heritage with partial roots
in Asian and/or Pacific
Islander ancestry)





The dark side of identity

Stereotypes- categorization that mentally organizes your
experience with, and guides your behavior toward, a
particular group of people.

Prejudices are deeply held negative feelings associates
with a particular group (anger, fear, aversion, anxiety).

Racism an extension of stereotyping and prejudice. The
belief that one race is inherently superior to another; genetic
endowment.

Ethnocentrism ones own culture is superior to any other.





Stereotypes - Gender
Cindy Sherman plays the role of a young woman studying her own reflection. The
photo visually portrays a woman assembling her identity, caught in the act of
constructionshe appears masked through make-up and costume.
Untitled Film Still #14. 1978.
Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still
#43. 1979.
Cindy Sherman. Untitled Film Still #48.
1979.
Cindy Sherman, Continued
Clearly displaying the exaggerated manipulation of her
body, she describes her face as a blank canvas to be
worked on so as to create and unmask the social
stereotypes circulated by the media, often revealing
their decay and almost horrifying aspects in features
verging on the grotesque.
Remember
emotions can be conveyed.
Dorothea Lange. (American, 1895-1965).
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. 1936
Photo by Tom Hoops
Lets look at someone familiar!
What makes President Barack Obama
who he is on the inside and the outside?
Identity- President Obama
bi-racial, Hawaii, Kenya, Indonesia
His love of basketball
His hometown of Chicago
Politician
Lawyer
Father, husband
Harvard graduate
President
1. Who am I on the inside?
2. Who am I on the outside?
3. What do I value?

Identity?


Then.how will you represent this through
a photograph?

1. Clothing, Props?
2. Environment?
3. People/models?