4 ms·

What surprised me was how sad the children looked on the 1915 photo. Like they're in detention or something.

• arethuza 11y ago
  There are cultural differences around smiling so its possible that they are trying to look serious and studious - assuming that the US attitude to smiling has changed over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile#Cultural_differences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile#Cultural_differences NB On my first visits to the US 20+ years ago I was surprised at how you would get big beaming smiles* from people for no apparent reason... but then again I'm from a notoriously dour part of a dour country. [*] I of course eventually realised that people were giving me big beaming smiles because they were paid to!.
  • WorldMaker 11y ago
    Certainly the US attitude towards smiling has changed with regards to camera technology. I'm too lazy to look up primary referents on the subject right now, but long shutter times encouraged people not to smile to avoid grotesque photos and then as shutter times got faster photographers began to eventually "mandate" smiles to prove that they had better cameras until eventually it was weird in the US not to smile in a planned photo.
• thrownaway2424 11y ago
  Considering the picture was taken indoors, at night, with 1915 film technology, all of the people in the picture would have to hold perfectly still for several seconds. That might affect their countenance.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]