Smiling to cameras is a learned behavior, and not something unfamiliar adults do naturally. (Kids do more smiling in general and are less aware of cameras / less self-conscious about their appearance, so if you go somewhere without a culture of cameras and take candid shots, you’ll get more smiling kid pictures than smiling adult pictures.

My godparents are indigenous Maya peasants from southern Mexico, and until the last decade or two no adult in their village would ever smile to a camera, and certainly not in a formal portrait. Nowadays they are more exposed to mainstream Mexican/World culture, and norms are changing fast, but if you tell some adult you want to take their portrait you are still likely to get a very serious expression.

My first impulse when someone points a camera at me is to show them one or two middle fingers, so yeah.

I don't trust most smiley people.

I stick out my tongue.

The reason I heard is that it took a long time to take a shot and was expensive. So you did not want to mess up a shoot with a smile. Better go for the safe option and put on your RBF.

I can't square this claim with the pictures of birds and other animals... :(

What am I missing?

Photos of alive birds from the same period and with same technology?

In this set, are photos of a man holding a hawk and hugging a camel.

But in this set, people are smiling and having fun.

Fair, your point is that many of these are just newer?

What’s RBF?

Resting Bitch Face: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resting_bitch_face

Reserved Blank Face?

Resting B*tch Face

>Resting B*tch Face

Did you censor yourself? Just curious.

When traveling in SE Asia maybe 20 years ago, locals would ask me to have their picture taken. The older people would just stand there stiff as a plank and absolutely no expression on their face.

Younger kids would put their index finger & thumb in the shape of a gun and hold that under their chin and they would smile.

When I take pictures of my own kids (toddlers) they also have no idea about smiling, you have to "teach them" but then you end up with super fake expressions.

I once read that it was because the norms of that time were to appear more seriously. Smiling in photos is apparently a new(er) norm.

Long exposure times require static poses that can be maintained.

Fake smiles, in photos or otherwise, is an american thing.