WHAT IS A GREAT PORTRAIT?

As I contemplated the assignment, I was unsure of what a "portrait" actually was:

...Does it have to be close up?
...Can it consist of more than one subject?
...How much of the background can be included?
...Does the background need to be out-of-focus?
...How far away can the subject be before it's no longer considered a portrait?

After seeing other students' portraits, I really had doubts that mine qualified as a true portrait. So, I googled it for a definition, and found out that there really is no straight answer, that none of the answers were definate, that like most art, the finished product is the interpretation of the artist.

This link answered a lot for me:

 http://billhurter.com/best-of-portrait-photography.html

The great portraitist is one who sees things others don’t. Portraiture is a visual art form that describes a person’s likeness. The least a portrait will do is to define how a person looked in a given time and space. It is a story-telling device, a sort of time capsule holding treasured totems of a time that may someday soon be lost, a likeness that comes close to the person’s own self-image; flattering and idealized. As important to the portrait as the expression, so are the details of the portrait: the nuances of pose, the blending of tones to form a cohesive palette, and a myriad of other technical and aesthetic details contribute towards the successful fine portrait.

Photographer and author J.J. Allen thinks the definition of a portrait is a bit more complex. In his words, “it is an image that invites your imagination to reach beyond the obvious.”

Tim Kelly, a modern day master, says, “Watch your subjects before you capture the image. Sometimes the things they do naturally become great artistic poses.” For this reason, Kelly does not warn his clients when he is ready to start a portrait session. “I don’t believe in faking the spontaneity of the subject’s expression.”