I am the official "Copyright Police" of the list serves (grin).... It
is a tough job, but someone has to do it. I guess it is my punishment
for "willfully infringing" while I was teaching.... Sigh....I have
been forgiven as lightning did not strike me down.
I would continue to have the students brainstorm on who Andy Warhol
would chose today - that is a good lesson. However, even Andy Warhol
would have trouble doing your lesson today (unless he used photographs
he took himself).
What you are proposing is a violation of copyright law - and even Fair
Use does not protect you (honest - I kid you not). Fair use does not
allow you to manipulate the images you find in anyway (unless those
images are in public domain). Fair use does not allow you to make a
"derived" work. To make a derived work, you must get permission of the
copyright holder - and that is next to impossible for teachers to do.
Granted, no one will find out what you have done and the photographer
would be an idiot to try to sue a child for using his/her work.
I think it would be a much more valuable lesson to have the students
do themselve as a celebrity. Take digital pictures. If you have a
computer lab, show the students how you change to high contrast black
and white - let them do part of the work on them. Then print out the
student photographs on transparency. See if a parent volunteer will
help you. It might be quicker/easier to print the photographs on a
lazer printer if your school has one.
Have the students write why they are a celebrity. What character
traits do they exhibit - or what talents do they have.
Best wishes.....and let us know how the project goes.
I would love to have a student example to put on the self portait
lesson idea page. No detailed lesson plan is needed.
