@minimaus
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Why haven’t people smiled in photos in the past?
Many people believe that the answer is simply technology, but there is more to it than that. Early photographers had to ask people to stay calm for long periods of time, so it makes sense that many of them chose neutral expressions instead of smiling. Try to freeze your face in a smile, after a while it will become uncomfortable.
However, even when the technology improved and when the photo could be taken in less than a minute, people still refused to smile. Why? Probably because photography was very expensive at the time and was treated as a painting. It was like the historical preservation of a person, and it was preserved for years, usually long after the death of the person in the photograph. Indeed, the usual practice at that time was posthumous photography, in order to preserve the memory of a loved one. Smiles have been appearing more and more in photos since the 20s and 30s. By then, technology had advanced to the point that cameras were not only owned by professionals. As more and more people came to their own camera, more and more unusual and surprising moments of life were recorded.
5 comments
This is so true. In the house of my grandparents there are old photos. And no one is smiling. I am not sure are the reasons true, but its somehow weird that everyone have same faces.
If they have the same face they are family or it's incest. 🤔
If you ask me it was simply forbidden. Same with the photos for an ID. If you add a number to it you look like every criminal does. A photo was expensive and a serious person looked better than one joking around. If it comes to that nothing has changed. I see differences in the faces, the expressions. Some kids look angry or bored. That lady looks happy.
Yes this is so true. I always wondered why everyone in the pictures was so serious
I never thought about it, looking at old photos. Really, no smiles.