What is a portrait?

When you think of a portrait i guess you would imagine the head to about mid shoulder or mid torso of a person. I would say the more traditional aspect of portraiture, that's what people see when they think of a portrait.

To me a portrait can be taken to a more creative level. Instead of capturing the face of a person you pick out something that defines them and seperates them from everyone else. Something that shows who they are, like a tattoo, a scar, their hands to show hard work maybe, a tear, their hair anything that shows their differences with other people, their individual characters.

So to me a portrait is the identity of a person, as long as it portrays who they are and has a piece of the person/persons in the image its a portrait. 

Images are just from Google images.