In old pictures, I notice that nobody smiles at all. But sometime in the early 20th Century, I notice that people start to smile. When did smiling in family pictures become commonplace?
2007-09-16 12:26:47 · 17 answers · asked by Rynux5 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
Taking a picture was a serious endeavor. It was nothing to laugh at. I have pictures of deceased relatives taken in the 1930's and they weren't smiling. Maybe they were not happy. Did anyone mention that?
2007-09-22 12:48:53 · answer #1 · answered by Joann N 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Good Question! Early photographs where serious business. When people got a photo taken, they got all dressed-up, traveled many miles to go to a studio, and pose for a long time usually with a clamp at the back of the neck to hold the pose. The film/plate exposure took several seconds.
After all that, you wouldn't feel like smiling either, not to mention the old belief that photographs captured a person's soul.
2007-09-24 10:38:03 · answer #2 · answered by Duchamp 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yours is a good question and it certainly made ME smile. I hadn't even thought of it before. I would think it had something to do with the depression or war and such, when people were more serious and had less to smile about. It was probably considered bad form to smile for photographs because you could still keep as still smiling as not.
2007-09-23 15:05:27 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the early days of photography people didn't know that smiling makes them look nicer by a mile.
Also - they never said anything . Now they say cheese or cut the cheese or sex that of course makes everyone smile
2007-09-21 20:12:08 · answer #4 · answered by Maka 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some of you are missing the obvious... People had bad teeth in the old days and they had nothing to smile about.
With modern dental care, teeth looked better and people had a reason to smile.
In Victorian days, not only was such expression frowned upon, and photos took long to process, but teeth were not pretty at all.
2007-09-16 19:48:04 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 11⤊ 1⤋
/agree with Frootbat... they even had clamps they could put your head in to help keep you still enough for long enough. Film exposure time was VERY long... the first permanent photograph took eight hours! This was shortened considerably, but still, not the instant snap we get today.
2007-09-16 19:39:31 · answer #6 · answered by Katie W 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
After the Great Depression.
2007-09-17 12:22:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Taking a picture back then required people to remain PERFECTLY still or the photo would come out all fuzzy. In addiction, they had to remain still for quite a while. Smiling would simply be exhausting so they remained expressionless.
2007-09-16 19:32:32 · answer #8 · answered by Frootbat31 6 · 15⤊ 1⤋
I gave you a star this is a good question sorry I do not know the answer
2007-09-23 19:16:56 · answer #9 · answered by ღKrissyღ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They had to stay still for a really long time and it was very uncomfortable.
2007-09-17 12:21:57 · answer #10 · answered by ghds 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋