Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Where is their Smile?

The notion that people of old refused to smile because their teeth were rotting. It wasn’t that people didn’t have bad teeth, as dental hygiene really was awful, but rather that bad teeth were so common that seeing them did not take away from a person’s attractiveness at the time.

So what were some of the real reasons people didn’t smile?  803398  U.S. Presidential Portraits...377869 16: Portrait of 16th United States President Abraham Lincoln. (1809-1865) (Courtesy of the National Archives/Newsmakers)  twain The simple fact that nice-looking smiles are difficult to create and capture, one of the main reasons was how smiles were perceived centuries ago.

Although nowadays we think of smiles as being indicative of happiness, humor, and warmth, they apparently had a very different meaning back in the day:

I am so glad that smiles came into Vogue!!!

I have been absent for a long time now. I hope after Bazaar is over there will be more time for us.

3 comments:

NanaDiana said...

Nice to see a post from you! Also, in early photographs it sometimes took several minutes for the picture to be burned into an image. People could not hold a perfect smile that long. xo Diana

Ruth Kelly said...

Welcome back. I also think that photographers did not want anyone to smile because it took to long to process the film.

Elizabeth Golden said...

I am with Diana, it took awhile for them to take these photographs. That is why a lot of them are sitting. I have one of the old cameras and in college my photography teacher was big into teaching us Everything. It took about five to seven minutes. The glass plates were fun, the tin not so much. Glad we have digital now.
Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day. I am glad you are back. You will have to let us know how the bazaar/sale went. Your hair bands were adorable.