Look
- Invite students to spend time carefully observing one portrait.
- Ask students to spend one to two minutes looking at their chosen portrait, then record their observations using the sensory prompts. Encourage them to focus on details and imagine the environment within the portrait.
- Sight – what can you see?
- Sound – imagine you are inside the portrait. What might you hear?
- Smell – what scents can you imagine being present in this portrait?
- Touch – what would the textures and surfaces within the portrait feel like?
- Taste – can you imagine any tastes related to the setting or objects in the portrait?
Discuss
- Invite students to discuss their observations as a class while viewing the portraits side-by-side.
- Ask students to compare perspectives and explore how place contributes to meaning and mood.
Discussion prompts:
- How has each artist emphasised the importance of place?
- How are the subjects connected to their environments?
- What mood or feeling is conveyed in each portrait?
- What similarities and differences do you notice across the three portraits?
Connect
- Invite students to investigate one portrait more deeply and reflect on how place is used as a storytelling device in the work.
- Ask students to consider how place shapes personal, cultural and social experiences.
- Students could create a short, written response to record their reflections.
Inquiry prompts:
- How do the artists interrogate social issues related to place in the portraits?
- Do you see any connections between the experiences of the subjects and your own?
- What does it feel like to belong to a place?
Create
- Invite students to create an artistic response that explores the idea of place.
- Encourage students to draw on personal experiences and experiment with different materials or approaches.
Creative prompts:
- Collage: create a collage that represents places that are meaningful to you. Collect images, textures or found materials and combine them to create a physical or digital collage that becomes a ‘portrait’ of places that have shaped your identity or experiences.
- Photography: photograph a friend or family member in a place that is special or important to them. Consider how you will portray mood, story and the subject’s connection to that place.
