“Why So Serious?” a new exhibition explores expression in early photographs. Memorial Hall Museum opens the season with an intriguing exhibition that focuses on the question, “Why do people in early photographs wear such solemn expressions?”
The special exhibition, “Don’t Smile for the Camera: Another Angle on Early Photography,” at the museum through November 2, has 75 early daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes and albumen prints exhibited †including 26 platinum prints by Deerfield’s Allen sisters †feature an intriguing assortment of unsmiling people and idiosyncratic poses.
“Today we’re conditioned to smile for the camera, but early photographs reveal a different social convention, one that frowned upon excessive familiarity,” explains Memorial Hall Museum Curator Suzanne Flynt. “A smile, particularly a teeth-revealing smile, could be perceived as unbecoming or inappropriate.”
With the advent of photography in the Nineteenth Century, people from all walks of life could have their likeness taken. But traditional portraiture shaped the way people presented themselves. Having a portrait taken was considered a serious matter and there was little spontaneity in the experience. Deportment, expression, clothing and surroundings were all carefully scripted.
When photography entered the sphere of the art world, pictorial photographers such as Frances and Mary Allen saw their subjects differently. They did not ask people to smile, but used poses and lighting to capture an idealized scene or evoke a mood, sometimes even facing their subjects away from the camera. It was not until photography was made accessible to all through new technology, when the camera was taken out of the studio and put into the hands of family and friends, that people were encouraged to ham it up and “put on a happy face.” Now people rarely have to be told to “smile for the camera!”
“Don’t Smile for the Camera” also includes an iron head brace used by Jonas Patch of Shelburne, Mass., albums, and early photography advertisements. The exhibition will be on view daily from 11 am to 5 pm. At the Old Deerfield Summer Craft Fair on June 21 and 22, tintype photographer John Bernaski will demonstrate his craft for the public. Admission to the 19 exhibition rooms on art, history, and culture in Memorial Hall Museum, 8 Memorial Street, is $6 for adults, and $3 for youth and students 6′1.
For more information, 413-774-3768, extension 10, or www.deerfield-ma.org .
