"Art Portrait Critique

How is this and Art Portrait and how do the elements of Photography help create this photo to be meaningful, you ask?
            My photo is an Art Portrait because it depicts how the subject feels; head bent down between his hands. You could say he's frustrated or sad about something. I didn't take a simple snapshot of him in his everyday atmosphere, but rather one that tried to capture emotion and bring the subject to a more real state of manner. This helps the viewer of the photo come to grips with how it must really fel to be sad or disappointed, or frustrated.



1) What I learned and what I still want to learn:
              I learned how to start to taking pictures in a portrait mode instead of simple snapshots and how to make the individual express emotion through facial expressions and body language. The one thing I want to learn more how to do is how to position a subject in better lighting, better stances that help bring out the meaningfulness of the photo, and how to better express emotion.

2) How did preplanning/brainstorming help get better images:
             When planning the photo shoot, I wanted to get certain placements of the subject, my friend Joe, to try and get a specific emotion out of him. Not by what he was saying, but how he acted; his body language and facial expression telling the story/emotion. Because I planned out these acts for the photo shoot, it was easy to place him and all I had to do at the time was getting the right lighting and composition.