5 ms·
What wonderful pictures! I just realized I rarely see people smiling or looking happy in photos taken in the 19th century. I wonder why? Maybe cameras of the t
by ammmir 5y ago
What wonderful pictures! I just realized I rarely see people smiling or looking happy in photos taken in the 19th century. I wonder why?
Maybe cameras of the time were too big and serious looking, and everyone ended up posing.
- ruph123 5y agoThe reason I heard is that it took a long time to take a shot and was expensive. So you did not want to mess up a shoot with a smile. Better go for the safe option and put on your RBF.
- aemreunal 5y agoI once read that it was because the norms of that time were to appear more seriously. Smiling in photos is apparently a new(er) norm.
- jacobolus 5y agoSmiling to cameras is a learned behavior, and not something unfamiliar adults do naturally. (Kids do more smiling in general and are less aware of cameras / less self-conscious about their appearance, so if you go somewhere without a culture of cameras and take candid shots, you’ll get more smiling kid pictures than smiling adult pictures. My godparents are indigenous Maya peasants from southern Mexico, and until the last decade or two no adult in their village would ever smile to a camera, and certainly not in a formal portrait. Nowadays they are more exposed to mainstream Mexican/World culture, and norms are changing fast, but if you tell some adult you want to take their portrait you are still likely to get a very serious expression.
- bserge 5y agoMy first impulse when someone points a camera at me is to show them one or two middle fingers, so yeah.
- yosito 5y agoI stick out my tongue.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoI don't trust most smiley people.
- stef25 5y agoWhen traveling in SE Asia maybe 20 years ago, locals would ask me to have their picture taken. The older people would just stand there stiff as a plank and absolutely no expression on their face. Younger kids would put their index finger & thumb in the shape of a gun and hold that under their chin and they would smile. When I take pictures of my own kids (toddlers) they also have no idea about smiling, you have to "teach them" but then you end up with super fake expressions.
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoLong exposure times require static poses that can be maintained.
- 4ad 5y agoFake smiles, in photos or otherwise, is an american thing.