The idea that there’s something wrong with portraiture because people aren’t smiling (here’s another such post)… Where to start?
I’ve thought a lot about portraiture, I own a lot of books containing portraits, and I can safely say that whether or not someone is smiling really is not the determining factor of whether a portrait is a good portrait. Seriously. It’s almost as if one argued that there is a lack of people wearing red pants in portraiture (I just made that up, maybe there is, maybe there isn’t). A serious portrait is not a serious portrait because the sitter is not smiling (language can be so deceiving, can it?).
But, you know, to see people switch on their camera smiles when their snapshot is being taken - ever seen that? It’s quite fascinating to observe, and if you practice just a little bit you can even catch yourself making your own camera face (you’ll have to practice being observant without watching yourself too consciously - otherwise, it won’t work).
So even if you were to accept that somehow there aren’t enough portraits of people smiling, I’ll take those any day over the fake camera faces.
