Why do ancient people taking portraits always cold and serious?

All the old photographs often have a common feature: the character in the picture never laughs and instead looks cold and serious.

Many of us have seen so many photos from the last century, almost all of these pictures have one thing in common: the character in the picture never smiles and instead looks cold and serious.

For example, in 1852, a girl sat down to take a portrait of the Daguerre process , when her head was slightly tilted, her posture was stern, confident and not smiling, this is still the picture today. Many people call "serious girls".

Portrait of astronomer John Frederick William Herschel, a work by photographer Julia Margare Cameron.

This type of image is not unusual in the Victory period (around 1837-1901). Even Charles Darwin, a gentle, warm and affectionate person, also appeared on the photo with a frown on his face. In the famous portrait of astronomer John Frederick William Herschel of photographer Julia Margare Cameron in 1867, his melancholic expression made the viewer feel as heavy as in the tragedy of King Lear.

Charles Darwin with a cold look in his portrait.

So why did the previous predecessors, from celebrities to family memorial photos, they "seemed unhappy" in front of the camera?

One of the simplest reasons to explain this problem is that the early photographic conditions were still very rudimentary, all portraits need to be exposed for a long time, thus they were forced to keep their faces for the entire time they took to get their best picture.

Besides, old photography is also very rare, not as big as ours. So the people who were portrayed in the old period, especially the middle-class families, understood that taking photos was an important moment for them to retain their wealth and affirm their status . For many people, this may be the only one moment in their lives, so they attach great importance to the image created.

Designing the actual lens is not much different from posing for painting, but it is less expensive, faster and means that those who do not have the opportunity to paint will see this as an opportunity to get their own picture, and they are serious when taken as they are when portraying portraits. This is not just a photo for fun, for them, it is like a drawing to retain its beauty over time.

In addition to the old paintings, most of the works at the time did not show the characters' smiles, only Leonardo da Vinci 's Mona Lisa was an exception when she put a smile on her portrait. His contemporaries were surprised to see this work. In the 18th century, there appeared a few pictures of smiles of some artists, Houdon sculptor even carved Voltaire with a smile on marble, starting a new chapter in the Enlightenment Period. .

Mona Lisa's drawing.

However, in general, the level of melancholy and "silence" still haunts oil painting portraits and of course it has seriously affected photography this time.

So the next question is asked: Why do old photos often give viewers more emotions than today?

Portrait of Charles Darwin, another work by Julia Margaret Cameron.

Today we often take a lot of photos with smiles, photography also partly recreates contemporary society, we want to communicate with each other like happy people, so we laugh and laugh non-stop in Selfie photos to share everywhere.

A selfie photo with a grin contrasted completely with a serious portrait photo. The "selfie " picture is just a momentary moment that captures happiness in the image, in addition to its profoundness and artistic value, it is only a zero. Data of mankind, these pictures are only worth throwing away or speaking in the digital age - it is only worth erasing.

In any case, the old photos still have traditional beauty and are more likely to haunt us than today's selfies. Although the old ancestors did not smile, but did not mean they were unhappy, they just felt there was no need to show the transition in a photo. Instead, when posing in front of the lens, they think of time, death and memories. It is these facts that "colorize" their portraits , because they want to keep things alive over time, and it may be the only picture in their lives.