A Century of Portraits

Recently, I had a chat with Betty, Dannii, Leah and Taiyoh in Pelican. We talked about the happiness index in different countries and why people in some countries do not smile often. And then we discussed the old portrait paintings which people were unlikely to smile as well. But now it becomes common among us to smile in our pictures. And I am interested in the idea and would like to know more. So I take a look more about it on another day and I found something interesting.

I found a video giving a brief idea of why people in the past did not smile in photographs.

1. They needed to hold still for exposure to turn out right so it is difficult to smile (TRUE!! I had the similar experience of it when I was doing the photogrammetry for 3D scanning my smiley face. It was so hard to hold the smile)
2. Photo is the most of important document in that time so they should be serious
3. In 17th Centuries, smile for a portrait meant stigmatised as somebody was either poor, drunk or innocent and did not want to bring these attitude to the photograph
4. They didn’t want to look silly. If the foolish smile caught in the photo, it fixed forever in the photograph forever

A Century of Portraits: A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks

Apart from that, I find a paper, about A Century of Portraits: A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks by Shiry Ginosar, Kate Rakelly, Sarah Sachs, Brian Yin and Alexei A. Efros (https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~shiry/publications/IEEE_yearbooks.pdf). They analysed a dataset of nearly 40,000 frontal-facing American high school yearbook photos by computation to glimpse into the historical visual record. From the result, we can see how the style elements, or trends in fashion and social norms changed in every decade. Although the graduation photos could not represent all the photos taken at that time, it is a good way for us to compare the differences and giving us an idea of how their facial expression changed in taking photos from time to time. 

From the analysis, I would like to highlight the changes in the smile during a century. It is significant when we compare the 1900s and the 2010s. Their images are from slightly smile to a smile with teeth. One of the reasons why the 1900s one looked serious is just like point 1 in the previous video. And from photos, I realised even smile has its own history. Our habit or culture to smile are changing too.

Smile Revolution – Colin Jones 

So I go on to research more about the smile history and I found a book, the Smile Revolution in 18th Century Paris by Colin Jones. In the book, Colin took the self-portrait by Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun with her Daughter in 1786 (same as the book cover) as the introduction to explain people were uncommon to smile with their teeth in the paintings at that time. When the painting was exhibited, it caused a dispute among artists and the public. The journalist at that time described it was an affectation which artists, connoisseurs, and people of good taste were unanimous in condemning. Although the idea of the smile with the teeth showing was not exactly new, Vigée-Le Brun actually identified with this gesture is seen as throwing away the rulebook of Western art. However, it also caused a revolution of the smile in the late 18th century. A smile with white teeth presented good health as well. It became the symbol of an individual’s innermost and most authentic self.

Moreover, the book mentioned the history of smile has been started since the prehuman ape. Smiling and laughing are deeply ingrained forms of human communication predated the acquisition of language. Besides, Smile is one of the easiest expression for human to recognize. Colin also proposed smile as socialization and lubricate social interaction. Because smile can influence others and make other people smile too. It is not only subjective and individual, but also collective and social.

It is common for us to link the idea of smile together with laugh and happiness. So I think it is worth to take a look at smile from history. I had never thought of an informal chat will be related to my practice and lead me so far and I am happy about it. The reason I shared these documents is not aimed or wanted to prove people in the past were really never smile in paintings or photos, instead, trying to understand the reasons behind from both technical and historical perspective.

By a facial expression, we can understand the background and culture in certain period. Even just a facial expression, it can lubricate social interaction. And I think that makes sense because a smile can really influence the others. I think emotions or even emotional reactions are more powerful than I thought. Sometimes, they are not only self-feeling but they are also able to affect others as well.