Smiling: It’s a Cultural Thing

Posted on August 16, 2010

Being a photographer is so many things. It’s fun, challenging, exciting, rewarding, hard, demanding, labor-intensive, artistic, liberating, inspiring……..I could go on and on.

But perhaps one of the most unexpected things is this: it facilitates learning on so many levels.

When I first set out, I swore I’d never be one of those photographers who callously demand their clients, “Smile” and “Say Cheese.”

And yet, somewhere along the way, I noticed I began asking people to smile. As I reviewed candid shots, I’d consider those featuring beaming grins and uninhibited outbursts of laughter to be the holy grail, the shining gems, the ones my clients would undoubtedly fall in love with.

But why the change? I searched deep within.

Reflecting on the images I found most meaningful in my own family, almost none of them involved smiles, and in fact, very few of them featured expressive faces at all. The images I treasured most spoke to a “moment,” an “emotion,” a “milestone,” a unique characteristic or aspect of a relative’s personality. Smiling just wasn’t required.

As a photographer I’ve shot a bunch of weddings reflecting a wide array of cultures. I haven’t failed to notice that while at some weddings, groups stand at attention, waiting for their pictures to be taken with grand smiles on their faces, in others, people stand with unexpressive faces, facing the camera, waiting for the image to be taken, their presence to be formally documented–all smile-free. Even when I tell them to smile (thinking this is surely what the bride and groom must want) I’m met with the same unexpressive faces.

And then I recall an article I read some time ago…in my former life as an ex-HR girl, corporate trainer and leadership development consultant…(gosh that feels like forever ago). Anyway, in the article, an American girl of Korean ancestry shared her experience traveling to Korea. She was consistently recognized as an American and they’d tsk tsk as she went about her way, behaving in an oh so American manner. It was surprising to her. Wasn’t she Korean after all? Didn’t she look 100% Korean? Sure she was and sure she did. So how did they know she was American?

Long story short, it was her smile that gave her away. Culturally, Koreans don’t smile as much as we Americans, she wrote. In a culture that values reserved displays of emotion, smiling constantly is just not cool. And so it is that smiling for the camera is just not part of the equation.

Over the years, so many photojournalists have captured amazingly beautiful images depicting citizens of other cultures going about their daily life. They provide us with a peek into other cultures, other ways of thinking and being. Smiles aren’t always present or expected in those images. Why? Because on some level, we get it. Life isn’t easy for everyone around the globe. And we find deem these images more real, more honest. But why then do we expect fellow Americans to smile all the time? Life isn’t easy all the time for everyone in America either.

It simply comes down to culture.

It’s just what we do.

Put a camera in someone’s face and the expectation is that they’ll smile. Place our children before a camera and we tell them to smile.

Well, for the record, I think it’s great when people smile. But I also think it’s great when they don’t. I see my job as capturing the spirit, the truth, the essence of someone’s personality. And sometimes, at a particular point in time, smiling just doesn’t tell that story.

So I won’t push you to smile. Don’t push yourself to do so either. Just be yourself and enable your children to be themselves as well. A person’s unbridled spirit is always, always, always going to be much more compelling in images than an obligatory smile would be.

Trust me on that one!

: )

Have a great week!

Susan

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A Wedding at Leonard’s

Posted on August 11, 2010

I met this lovely couple over a year ago during their search for a photographer for their wedding which was to take place July of 2010. Can I just say, the past year flewwwwww by!

All of a sudden, here it was! Their big day!

Following are a few of my favorite images from the event.