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I suspect a large part of it is caused by facial expressions and how the people pose. Having your picture taken was very serious business, so no smiles were all
by frederikvs 5y ago
I suspect a large part of it is caused by facial expressions and how the people pose. Having your picture taken was very serious business, so no smiles were allowed. Show your most serious, regal pose.
If you look at the "Happiest man in China" photo, it doesn't look like an old photo - it looks like a modern photo of somebody dressed up in old time clothes. There is no hard evidence, but many people believe that the man just wasn't aware of how people were expected to pose for a picture.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/09/story-behind-photo-happiest-man-china/ http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/09/story-behind...
- JSTucker 5y agoAnother older example of this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_LAUGHING_VIOLINIST.PNG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_LAUGHING_VIOLINIST...
- kristofferR 5y agoOriginally shutter speeds were very, very long (and that lasted decades for more budget equipment), so smiling was generally a bad idea as people couldn't hold their smiles for so long and would just be blurred weirdly. That probably influenced how people thought photos should be posed for, even when shorter and more reasonable shutter speeds were the norm.