The image becomes a photograph when we transmit a feeling
Today after taking this picture that you are seeing, I started to wonder why whenever we take a picture we have to smile.
It seems that it is normal and necessary that we smile in front of a camera. There are even tricks at the time of taking a picture, such as saying the word "whiskey" or one two three to be ready and smile.
It has already become a habit. And many times, as in my case, the smile is true and genuine. But in other cases, however, even in these cases we tend to smile and it is to see that we are happy, so that you see the beauty of the moment, not to appear sad, because we believe that we see ourselves better, as a gesture of generosity, or because in reality the best we can do is not show our true feelings.
But they have not asked where this custom comes from. Well, a few centuries ago it was not common to see portraits of people smiling and this was due to the following reasons:
To be able to take a picture, people had to stay at least 10 minutes while the camera picked up the light otherwise the picture would be bad.
The smile was a gesture that was attributed only to children. It was not well seen that adults smiled openly, and unless their faces were immortalized in a photograph.
This belief that showing off laughing was stupid and in bad taste went back to much earlier times. Already in 1600, the smile was reserved in the paintings of drunks, prostitutes and spectacle people. The rest of the portrayed preferred to be solemn, since the objective was to capture his image for posterity and capture his "true face", and not reflect a fleeting expression like joy.
Teeth was another important aspect, at that time people did not have orthodontic care as at present, so it was to be expected that their most attractive part was not their teeth.
But thanks to GOD years later in the angels change everything when actors and actresses used to always be happy, projected success and were the ultimate expression of glamor. It was they, together with the graphic press and the film industry, who popularized the fashion of smiling and posing before the camera, which by then had evolved in such a way that it was able to record every moment.
Not always what we reflect is the reality of our feelings, for which I recommend that you always express your true feelings or state of mind when taking a picture or just do not take it if you do not feel in conditions because the worst is to be or pretend something that we are not