Comments on: Why Don’t People Smile in Old Photos

By: lawyer

lawyer — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:30:52 +0000

also showing teeth in black n white picture won’t look opt. but indeed it a very elite profession those time. now even couple of year old kid also takes a snap using iphone :)

By: Lilly

Lilly — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:44:55 +0000

@J Calm down. it's not that serious. . .

By: J

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:30:38 +0000

You can’t even spell ‘meet’ and you’re professing to be an expert and ‘relate’ to the subject? It has nothing to do with people not being happy and having a hard life. Most of the people who had their picture taken in the 19th century were wealthy enough to afford to do so, thus they had a fine life comparatively.

The fact is the exposure of the film took more than a minute (and as someone said, you had to be still to ensure it didn’t blur the image). Besides which, why would anyone sit/stand there and smile for a minute or two? That would be absurd and it wouldn’t occur to them. You don’t smile for a photo, you smile when you are showing emotion. It was more important to show a realistic (and not blurred) image.

By: Haurowitz/Harris’ Goods and Sundries « Jewish Book Council Blog

Haurowitz/Harris’ Goods and Sundries « Jewish Book Council Blog — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:02:59 +0000

[...] My aunt, Jackie Cohen, put together a history of my relatives. In the only picture of my great grandfather Joe, he is standing proudly in his grocery store, apron wrapped around his prodigious middle, goods stacked to the rafters all around him. Like most people of his generation, he doesn’t smile (when did smiling in pictures start?). [...]

By: Kent

Kent — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:09:29 +0000

@Shanon Bingo. It just wasn't the cultural norm to smile for the camera. While it's true that in the early days of photography long exposure times required people to pose for minutes at a time, technological advances eliminated the need for these long exposures by the 20th century. Clearly it was just not the accepted norm to smile for the camera; people tried to look natural. The movement toward smiling developed as personal camera ownership became more and more widespread and "Mom" wanted "Junior" to smile and look happy.