Campo Real 2023/1

The following text refers to question

People ‘Never Smiled In Old Photos’ For Some Very Bizarre Reasons.

If you’ve ever looked at an old photo, perhaps you ____________ that nobody ever seems to be smiling in them. Did you ever wonder why that is?

Times were hard back in the day and there wasn’t much to smile about.

Money was tight, the world was a blackened and polluted mess and stood on the brink of global conflict.

OK, so maybe it wasn’t that different to now after all, but that _______________ today’s modern photo subjects from baring their teeth in a grin regardless.

First off, people were scared of photographs. It was a new technology that people ________ really ___________, and probably could have seemed a bit like a trip to the dentist.

Furthermore, beauty standards were different back then. Having a small mouth was actually a desirable thing – which brings us onto another problem – dental hygiene wasn’t quite what it is today.

Another thing you’d want to avoid was looking like you had some sort of mental illness.

Having a wide smile was construed as a symptom of ‘madness’ back in the day, whereas standing still and emotionless wasn’t at all weird.

Lastly, there’s the simple operational reason that photographs just took ages to take back in the olden days.

From front to back, taking a picture on an old camera could have taken up to 15 minutes, meaning that holding the one facial position rather than your resting face would probably end up getting a bit painful and tedious after a bit.

(Available in: https://www.ladbible.com/community/psychology-expert-breaks-down-reasons-why-people-fall-for-conspiricies-20220320.)