Comments on: Why Do We Say “Cheese” When Having Our Photo Taken?

By: elizabeth-anne

elizabeth-anne — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:58:36 +0000

in iceland, they say “skyr”(yogurt).

By: Hawaii

Hawaii — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:45:54 +0000

Hey Steve you are 100% right! Because it did take a longer time to expose the photo plate (it was a glass plate covered with a silver nitrate solution), subjects not only had a dour look on their faces, they were often forced have clamps on the back of their necks, arms and legs to ensure that they stayed still during the exposure. I image the smiles that occurred after the session would match anything you see today.

By: Ellie

Ellie — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:41:45 +0000

I think the word “Cheese” was explained at the beginning of the article–in saying the word it creates the smile. Interesting article.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:45:21 +0000

Umm…nice article, but doesn’t even attempt to explain the origin of saying “cheese.”

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:40:19 +0000

Sounds like a lot of over-analysis to me. I’d always heard that the reason people didn’t smile in the old photos was because it took so long to expose the film, a relaxed face was much easier to maintain.

By: ugh...

ugh... — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Cultural – critical scholarship … it all comes down to hegemony. You know, I really enjoyed this article/research until the ‘researchers’ starts talking about Kodak as the ‘big brother’ of photograpy, shaping social norms and such…