Why don't people in old photos laugh?

The wedding, which should be jubilant, looks like a funeral in old photos.

For this phenomenon, many explanations are that in the early stage of photography, the photos are exposed for a long time, and it is impossible for the photographed person to keep smiling for such a long time.

However, the above-mentioned "funeral photos" were taken in the late19th century. At that time, the photography technology was mature enough, and the exposure time was shortened from the first half hour to only a few seconds. It is not difficult to keep smiling in such a short time.

So the length of exposure time is not the main reason. The reason why the characters in old photos all look so "sad" is mainly because the early portrait photos were strongly influenced by portraits.

This can be proved by Mark Twain's letter to the Sacramento Daily Union: "Photographs are very important documents, and nothing is more deadly than passing on a fake smile that is frozen forever to future generations. 」

Mark Twain, who is famous for his humor, is also surprisingly serious in his photo shoot.

Mark Twain's point of view was the general attitude of society at that time: although the cost of taking pictures was much cheaper than asking people to paint their portraits, it was still a big expense for most people. It takes a long time for people to have a chance to take a photo, and some people even take only one photo all their lives.

Therefore, if people want to take pictures, in most cases, it is to take portraits. Early portraits tried to imitate portraits in all aspects, and naturally inherited the serious expressions of people in portraits.

At the same time, photographers in that era tried to capture the effect of classical painting in order to prove that photography was also an art, not a simple mechanical operation.

The picture on the left is a portrait of Lincoln, and the picture on the right is a portrait of George Washington. It can be seen that Lincoln's portrait not only imitates the movements of classical portraits in serious expression and standing posture, but also tries to be similar in the background.

The reason why people don't laugh in classical portraits is also easy to explain: even if the ancients were princes and nobles, there may not be as many portraits in their lives as some people take selfies a week today.

At the same time, the portrait itself is not a random record of a moment, but an overall image that a person wants to show to the world and future generations.

1905 The oil painting portrait of Cixi painted by the Dutch painter Hubert Voss when he was invited to visit China, in which Cixi was a little scary.

In addition, people who have the ability to have portraits often want their images to be solemn, solemn and noble. If it is a smiling portrait, people will think that the owner of the portrait is a willful, casual and even dissolute person.

A serious portrait of Pope Innocent X.

As for the smiling face that appeared in the photos later, it has a lot to do with the popularity of cameras.

In the 20th century, photographic equipment gradually became cheap and easy to operate, personal cameras appeared and became popular, and taking pictures was no longer an expensive thing. People can take pictures anytime, anywhere, just like a camera advertisement said, "You press the shutter and we'll take the rest." Taking pictures has become more convenient and cheaper.

Because we can have more photos, especially life photos, coupled with the rise of movies at this time, let the world know that people can also have normal movements on the screen, and the public's attitude towards taking pictures has become more casual and casual, and the smiles when taking pictures have gradually increased.

Many camera and film companies also follow this trend and promote it, showing more smiling scenes when making advertisements, which further makes people feel that it is natural to show smiling faces when taking pictures.

Screenshot of Kodak TV advertisement