Smiling for the camera is a relatively new phenomenon that began at the dawn of the 20th century, and seems to have reached its latest apogee with social media in the 21st. We have never been more open to sharing our lives with friends, sporting more smiles than perhaps at any other time in history.
But it wasn’t always this way. Early daguerreotypes typically depict a grim sea of faces despite burgeoning demand for family portraiture in the 19th century. Getting your photo in those days was....