How can we get round this problem in gcse art?

[Smithermetimbers]

Ds has adhd, asd (demand avoidance). He is doing AQA art gcse.
So the art exam ‘brief’ is self portraits and identity. Teacher has said they need to take photographs of themselves to use in the 5 hour art exam. Ds is incredibly anxious about this, he is really self conscious. I spoke to teacher over the phone, she said most students are very reluctant to take and use photos of themselves but that it would be fine to obscure face behind hands/mask or similar. Ds has tried but cannot take a photo that he is happy with and is massively stressed out about it. The exam is looming and he has no photos.
I’m thinking that the exam board surely cannot be specifically requiring that all students take photos of themselves? And is there not more to the brief than ‘self portraits identity’ that they’ve been given? If I can find out what the brief actually is then I could spend some time with ds figuring out a way he can meet that brief without it causing him massive anxiety. (Ironic as drawing has always been a way for him to calm himself up until now!)

DD is also studying GCSE Art. She's also working on the theme of identity.

some things she's done to get photos.

• put both hands over face with fingers spread (one on lower face; one on upper face)
• wearing a Covid face mask so you can pretty much only see eyes
• selfie in mirror (like they do on TikTok) so you can see mirror image of her face but partially obscured by phone.
• phone behind her taking a photo of the back of her head (she produced a tonal sketch of her head and hair)

Hope one of these may work for you.

Thanks. I asked for any briefs at the very beginning of the year so we could have time to mull this over and work out any issues in advance but teacher just fobbed me off.
I think she just doesn’t understand that ds needs a LOT of freedom and options due to his demand avoidance. He masks quite a lot at school but is part of a autism specific ERP unit (within a mainstream secondary) and has an echp so it’s not like he doesn’t have identified needs. I had a meeting with autism outreach today and they said that art teacher should be making “reasonable adjustments”.
To be honest I think the whole concept of self and identity is massively challenging for most teenagers, especially those with extra needs. It just doesn’t seem like a great option to me. Ds struggles enough with being assessed. He also struggles so much with his self esteem, his identity and his diagnoses so delving into this is difficult enough, let alone having to produce a piece of work on this theme to then be evaluated. I’m exhausted just thinking about the issues it presents to him!

How about he could explore an alter ego? He could look at artists who might do this...even comic book artists if that might appeal?

He might feel more comfortable with an abstract approach. I've noticed with my students self referential work seems to be harder for many of them with anxiety and various conditions. We tend to steer away from it nowadays.

I've noticed with my students self referential work seems to be harder for many of them with anxiety and various conditions. We tend to steer away from it nowadays

Totally agree. I was just thinking myself, there will be students with anorexia and body dysmorphia, self harm problems, all sorts and teachers are making them almost look into the abyss with this sort of thing. I’d steer clear if it were my decision for sure!

One of my GCSE art projects (many years ago) was based around my hands. My final piece was a sculpture. Could he maybe do something around his hands and how they relate to his identity?
Alternatively, I did a project where I photographed my face with light from below. Used tracing paper to draw around only the dark parts of the photograph and did a pop art style screen printing project.
I would never have used a clear picture of my fave but didn't mind this as it was so obscured.