![]() ![]() Photography quickly became part of happy times and special occasions, so the smile evolved as an expected element. When did a smile go from psychologically off to mainstream? It seems this may have been an American-made phenomenon thanks to a post-WWII 1950s Kodak advertising campaign featuring cameras, film, and lots of photos of people sporting wide smiles. And now, when we see a photo of someone who isn’t smiling, we assume something must be wrong. ![]() Isn’t that fascinating? At the time, a smile was interpreted as a potential problem. In fact, a big smile in a photo or painting during that period was an indication that the subject might be mentally unstable, drunk, or simply a clown. A Time magazine article theorized that in the early days of photography, people didn’t smile because they were trying to re-create a painted portrait in which subjects rarely smiled. In my quick research, there seems to be some explanation for the smile as a default in photographs starting with technological advancements in the late 1800s (the photo could be taken faster, so holding a smile wasn’t as tedious). In my most Carrie Bradshaw moment of this book, I couldn’t help but wonder, when did the smile become the default expression? When did we societally start having to smile in photos? When did we have to smile when we didn’t feel like it? Even at the beach, with their arms around each other in the late 1940s and early 1950s, they are at best, “smizing.” She and the people around her were not posing with fake smiles. The square black-and-white photos feature my grandmother in her late twenties right after World War II, gorgeous and natural, far from skinny, and unquestionably confident. I love leafing through my oma’s photos from the Netherlands. ![]() The obsession with happiness or the expectation that happiness must rule our lives is a major problem. I think we should all learn from these clichés and realize that that smile, that broad, unwavering smile, is often the calling card that something is wrong. Really? At this point in our world, we don’t know that people who are suffering use a smile to cover their pain? C’mon. And so many of the comments said: You would never know that under that brilliant smile there was such pain. How she had bravely suffered through it all with a smile. They spoke of the profound loss she had experienced when her teenage son had died by suicide just two years before. Under the image of Kelly Plasker, a morning meteorologist at the NBC affiliate in Lubbock, Texas, the messages with heart emojis and prayer hands filled the comments section. I can’t say that with stats, but there does seem to be an anecdotal correlation. I can’t say with confidence that there is a propensity for folks in broadcast meteorology to take their own lives due to hours, PTSD from storms, or just overall rejection and lack of self-worth in this business. I say another because we have lost several in the last few years. On August 31, 2020, I saw a Facebook post from our female meteorologist group: TEXAS FORECASTER, "A SMILE AS BIG AS TEXAS" suddenly dies was the headline.Īnother broadcast meteorologist had died by suicide. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |