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‪An individual can both portray and be portrayed, that is, as the portrayer, producing, directing, editing the photograph; as the subject and recipient of portraiture, analyzing it, making it its own, even rejecting it. Our relationship with portraiture has become both ordinary and expansive, unattached to a particular discipline, comprising a complete experience in synchronic harmony between object and subject. Without going as far as erecting modern portraiture as a field (champ constitué), the present paper explores the broad and, sometimes, contradictory approach of portraits, in their visual or textual forms. They can draw from social sciences, offer alternative perspectives and occasionally assist in conveying subtleties and nuances that what would otherwise be challenging to transmit. This introduction aims to examine some socio-historical constants of portraiture, as well as its contemporary changes and variations. It seeks to pay attention to who or what is deemed worthy of being portrayed, the reasons for such selection, and the mediations that come into play.‪