So why do these people look like they're going to a funeral?

為什麼這些人看起來好像是要參加喪禮？

But it wasn't just formal occasions.

但不只正式場合

It was teens, children, and lots of people with mustaches.

還有青少年、小孩，跟各種留鬍子的人

Why didn't people smile in old pictures?

為什麼老照片裡的人都不笑呢？

The simplest explanation is exposure time.

最簡單的解釋是曝光時間

That's basically how much light a camera needs to record an image.

基本上是一台相機拍下一張照片所需要的光

The longer the shutter is open, the longer the film is exposed to light.

快門開啟越久，底片曝露在光源的時間也越長

Early cameras and film did take longer, so the thinking's that it was easier to hold a serious expression than a smile a smile if you were waiting minutes for your portrait.

早期相機和底片皆需較長時間，所以當你拍照得等上幾分鐘時，擺一個嚴肅的表情比微笑簡單多了

See this 1838 picture by Louis Daguerre?

看這張 1838 年路易·達蓋爾拍的照

It's blurry because it probably took 10-15 minutes to take.

它會模糊的原因大概是因為花了 10 到 15 分鐘拍攝

All the people presumably moved during exposure — except for this bootblack and the guy getting his boots polished.

曝光時有人想必都在移動，除了擦鞋童和這個想讓靴子被擦亮的人

You'd pose for a normal picture and a blurry one came out.

你擺好姿勢拍照，照出來卻是模糊的

But that problem was...fixed.

但這個問題是固定的

Rapid advances in film technology, as well as commercial availability, made it easier to take pictures quickly.

底片技術的快速進步，以及商業可用性讓快速拍照更容易了

By the 1870s, bleeding edge photographers like Eadweard Muybridge were taking photographs that could split a second.

到了 1870 年代，使用最新技術的攝影師，如 Eadweard Muybridge，拍出可以分成數秒的照片

To understand the real reason old pictures were so serious, you have to understand what portraits meant to people back then.

為了解老照片為何總是很嚴肅的真實原因，你必須知道人像照對於當時人們的意義

Remember, before there were photos, portraits were…painted.

記得嗎？在照片問世以前，肖像是用畫的

They were time-consuming, long-lasting, and one-of-a-kind.

它們耗時、長久存在且獨一無二

That scarcity made the occasion pretty serious.

這種稀少性讓拍照的場合變得十分正經

And that mentality carried over to early photographs.

這種想法於早期的照片中可見一斑

Mark Twain, a professional humorist, said near the turn of the 20th century that...

幽默大師馬克·吐溫曾在 20 世紀初說過

"There is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever."

沒有什麼比愚蠢的傻笑被拍下來永傳後世更討厭了

This is a guy who wrote stories about jumping frogs.

此話來自一個寫跳蛙故事的作家

But his viewpoint was typical.

但他的看法非常典型

Take, for example, the oddly popular practice of posing dead bodies for "lifelike portraits."

舉例來說，曾有一個奇怪卻受歡迎的作法：幫死者拍攝看起來栩栩如生的肖像

The photos weren't a snapshot.

這些並非快照

They were a passage to immortality.

而是往不朽的通道

A record of one's existence.

一個人存在的證明

By looking at the exceptions, it's easier to understand why most portraits were so grim.

看看一些例外，會更了解為什麼大多數的肖像看起來很嚴肅

There are lots of smiling Victorians, hiding in photo collections around the world.

許多微笑的維多利亞人物照片，藏在世界各地的照片收藏中

As early as 1853, Mary Dillwyn captured a boy's smile on camera.

最早在 1853 年，Mary Dillwyn 捕捉到一個男孩的笑容

Victorians were not constantly miserable —they just usually got serious when they thought a portrait was being taken.

維多利亞時期的人們並非過得悽慘，只是習慣拍攝人像時要正經八百

As cameras became more common and photography improved, aesthetics changed and smiles returned.

自從相機普及以及攝影技術進步，審美觀改變，笑容也回來了

Later movies expanded the possibilities of recording real life.

後期電影拓展了記錄現實生活的可能性

Portraiture broke free from the technology and aesthetics of painting.

人像畫從科技與畫作美感中解放

They discovered the possibilities of a new medium.

他們發現了新的媒介的可能性

People always knew how to smile.

人們一直知道都如何微笑

They just had to learn how to show it.

只需要學習如何展現

So one of my favorite old photographs was somebody smiling, actually comes from an early 1900s anthropological expedition to China.

我最愛的老照片是一個在笑的人，這張照片來自 1900 年代初期一趟往中國的人類學考察

It was taken by Berthold Laufer and the American Museum of Natural History has the photo.

這是由 Berthold Laufer 拍攝，收藏於美國自然史博物館

Which is absolutely perfect.

這張很棒

This photo shows that the attitudes in old photographs really were about aesthetics, not technology.

它展現舊照片追求的是美感，而不是科技

And if you didn't have an idea of a how a photo should look like, it could look like anything.

如果你完全不知道照片應該長怎樣，他就可以是任何模樣

And in this case, that is absolutely perfect

就這張來看是很完美的