Our instinctive portraits project is inspired by the works of Moroccan photographer Hicham Benohoud and his time spent creating a sequence of images taken in schools in Morocco. He uses the strict nature of the nations education system to make playful performance portraits of the students. Benohoud creates a contrast from the front of the class to the strict and studious back.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
From 1994 to 2000 Benohoud worked as an art teacher in the city of Marrakech, during this time at the school he developed a project of over one hundred images of his students partaking in performative activities at the front of the classroom that involved physical restraints being placed on the students, the most famous image shows a boy with cardboard tubes stuck to his legs. The image is interesting for a number of varied reasons one being the context of shoot, the education system in that specific country pushes the idea of a strict schooling environment, this is shown in the back of the classroom where the rest of the students (for the most part) are focusing on their studies, this is contrasted by the foreground where the boy is shown with the cardboard restraints holding his legs. The image is composed in a way that sees the subject just off centre, despite the main focus being the centre of the foreground the background is equally as interesting, the boy sitting at the far left of the image peers forward shooting a cheeky smile towards the photographer.