Narrative Character Portrait: A Narrative Character Portrait by Tanvi Sehgal (2015)

The character depicted in the photograph, Jennifer, is a teenager who is juggling many activities and extracurriculars along with school. She can't focus on just one activity and has to constantly switch up her routine. Since Jennifer doesn't focus or stay set on one goal, she is often caught up in this frenzy and stressful situation. The picture I chose of Jennifer depicts one aspect of her life, that being her school life. Oftentimes she gets behind with the multitude of assignments and projects and isn't sure how to go about completing all of her work. The image shows her being very stressed surrounded by all of her schoolwork.

I shot the image from a slightly higher angle, looking down on the subject, to portray the feeling of helplessness and feeling small among all the stress the character is feeling. I made sure my model wore bright colored clothes to stand out against the black background. I used many books and binders and assignments and scattered it around my model to help get my message across. One problem I encountered was with the lighting; on the day I shot, the lights were not working properly and were not firing, so I had to try to correct the exposure with lower lighting. Although it made shooting more challenging, by changing the aperture and moving the lights around, I was able to make it work.