5/19/2025 at 4:11:29 AM
A related video series showing many places around the world in the 1900s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-UhDuKZ2OQThere's a lot of really interesting things to see there besides the sites themselves. The obvious one worldwide is that this is before the mass commercialization of clothing + planned obsolescence of such, which seems to have a very negative outcome.
But one thing not so visible that's really interesting to see is how simultaneously stern everybody looks with no fake smiles or hidden gazes. People were willing to just stare at something or somebody odd. But that sterness is regularly belied by things like a couple of guys in their 40s happily putting on a fake fight in front of the camera, falling on their asses, and just basically playing around like school boys having a great old time - a far rarer site now a days.
by somenameforme
5/19/2025 at 5:37:25 AM
> how simultaneously stern everybody looks with no fake smiles or hidden gazes. People were willing to just stare at something or somebody oddFWIW, the fake smiles and hidden gazes, to me the least, were always a North American thing.
In fact, in Switzerland we have its opposite, the infamous "Swiss stare" :-)
by kmarc
5/19/2025 at 8:16:42 AM
Super interesting. I recently learned that a lot of foreigners moving to Germany find that Germans are staring. It’s called the German stare. I wonder if staring is a Germanic thing.https://www.zeit.de/campus/zeit-germany/2023/01/culture-face...
by aspect0545
5/19/2025 at 12:29:30 PM
Pro tip for everyone else: start counting with your thumb.For some reason I don't quite understand, my pinky and ring fingers don't operate well independently of one another. This is an issue when counting on my fingers (or attempting a boy scout salute), so I've started counting 1,2,3 from the thumb, 4 with the thumb down and all four fingers up, and 5, of course, with all digits extended.
(I could start counting at my pinky, but that just makes me look totally nuts)
Edit: If you read the article the comment I replied to posted, it includes thumb first counting as one of the cultural differences people experience when visiting Germany - in addition to the "Germanic Stare" they specifically mention in their comment. Consider actually reading before assuming I'm just typing nonsense - unless responding to titles and comments without reviewing the content they contain is a cultural difference I need a guide to get used to when visiting Hacker News.
by Boogie_Man
5/19/2025 at 2:42:08 PM
I've started counting in a very weird way, because from an open hand, I can bring my ring finger down to my palm independently, but if I try to bring just my pinky down, the ring finger comes along from the ride.So when I count, I start with a closed fist, then open my thumb, followed by my index finger, then middle, then pinky, then ring finger.
by pavel_lishin
5/19/2025 at 3:07:12 PM
The pinkie and ring finger share a tendon - this is why they are weaker than the other fingers.Or, at least that’s how it was explained to me as a kid learning to play the double bass. The standard technique is to use those two fingers together to press the string on the upper part of the fingerboard where the most strength is required.
by cvwright
5/19/2025 at 3:19:42 PM
American smiles in photos are mostly not fake, fwiw.by ajkjk
5/19/2025 at 8:03:08 PM
You will never convince Europeans of this. They simply seem to be unable to grasp that (1) cultural norms about introversion/extroversion and friendliness are not universal, and so the default baseline IS more outgoing, social, friendly, and extraverted in North America, and (2) because of the other differences in service industry culture [not necessarily themselves all positives but nevertheless relevant], the service industry in America optimizes for extraverted and friendly people.So yeah, when the super friendly waitress comes over and asks the table "how is your day going", they're not forcing a smile for a tip. It helps, but they're most likely naturally outgoing and friendly and genuinely curious.
When you grow up with this environment, moving to Europe is adaptable (have done so), but whenever you go back home it is a breath of fresh air.
by deanCommie
5/21/2025 at 5:22:20 AM
That's because the reference point of most Europeans is not the actual lived experience of people in the US but the picture painted by the media.When I visited the US the smiles seemed sincere‚ no doubt about it. The interactions also felt strangely shallow, which was of course to be expected and even sensible in the cultural context (why go into depth with someone you barely know and will never see again), but that is the real reason it felt jarring compared to what I was used to, and often made it confusing to make sense of whether the politeness was sincere or not.
This was in California, and I have to add that I was 17 at the time so "making sense of other people" wasn't a highly developed skill yet to begin with.
by vanderZwan
5/19/2025 at 3:27:23 PM
It is incredibly surprising to be told to smile when taking official photos in the US. I just couldn't understand the first time it happened at the DMV, the person kept saying "smile" and i'm like, wtf, why would i smile, this is an official photo for my driver's license.by mlinhares
5/19/2025 at 3:41:45 PM
That’s interesting. I’ve been told every time (so far) to keep a “neutral face”. I smiled once and the guy let out a heavy sigh and made me take the photo again (Redwood City, CA DMV).by dfinninger
5/19/2025 at 4:02:34 PM
Can confirm. US passport photos want a neutral expression and explicitly say (not in the below page, but elsewhere during the renewal process) not to smile.https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-app...
by rcyeh
5/19/2025 at 5:42:12 PM
Strange, one of the example photos has a person smiling. I’ve seen several US passports recently with the person smiling. It must not be an important rule if it’s not clearly communicated or enforced. Especially since some (all?) US states allow smiling in ID photos I would think they would be more explicit about not smiling in passport photos.by benreis
5/19/2025 at 4:08:36 PM
Same. I've been explicitly told "Neutral Face. Don't smile." for my passport and driver's licenses in NC, FL and CA (Redwood City too).by magicnubs
5/19/2025 at 6:13:44 PM
I smiled for my CA license. Not a toothy one though.by kjkjadksj
5/19/2025 at 3:58:53 PM
same, here in Australiaby blarg1
5/19/2025 at 4:03:19 PM
It’s not a requirement, just a suggestion. The most i ever got was “say cheese!” once at one of my DL renewals, but that was it.In the US, I had to take photos for driver’s license at least 4 times, for green card 1 time, and for passport 1 time, not in a single one of them I am smiling. Saw the DLs of my friends more than a few times (either at bars or clubs or while crossing the border or when the topic arrived naturally), and the breakdown of smiling vs not smiling is 40/60 at most (with a heavy lean towards not smiling)[0].
I partially agree though about the US being a bit special in the aspect of even just allowing people to smile in ID photos. In the previous country I lived in and where I had to take ID photos, it was explicitly prohibited to smile in those photos, and they would reject applications if someone did.
0. Purely anecdotal, as it could totally be the case that I just accidentally ended up befriending mostly those who don’t smile for ID photos.
by filoleg
5/19/2025 at 5:49:29 PM
It is not often that a photo is required of me for some ID, so I believe the MVD here in Arizona has got two photos from me in 26 years. If I recall correctly, the instructions were "smile if you prefer to." My expression is cheerful but not overly smiling; I'm wearing a full beard, and the photo has been converted to monochrome - why, I have no idea.However, the camera used at MVD is clearly more sophisticated than it appears, because if you install the Mobile ID app, your photo goes full "Harry Potter mode" and animates in a 3D rotation!
I don't recall any directions about my expression for the US Passport photo at the USPS station. However, they did attempt to reject the photo for strange technical reasons. I could not fathom the rejection because the photo had been entirely handled by the professional USPS clerk and I wasn't involved in generating it. I insisted on submitting exactly the same way a second time around and it was approved. It must've been a procedural glitch of some kind. Or the government knew I shouldn't be traveling to an ill-fated vacation, and was trying to gently dissuade me?
by AStonesThrow
5/19/2025 at 4:04:28 PM
Whereas here in Iowa, smiling is forbidden in DMV photos. I guess it's state by state.by JoeAltmaier
5/19/2025 at 4:05:55 PM
Oh, interesting, for me it was PA and later FL, both places requested smiles.by mlinhares
5/19/2025 at 8:16:22 AM
I actually don't like his tone in the article. Why should the Swiss even care what is perceived as rude other countries, staring or whatever? There's this common view that immigrants from poor countries should adapt and integrate, but if they're from western(er) lands they get to judge?by soco
5/19/2025 at 11:11:36 AM
they're tourists and treat the places they visit like human-zoosby tough
5/19/2025 at 3:28:56 PM
> how simultaneously stern everybody looks with no fake smilesThey still have stern looks in photos back home in Asia. But when they immigrate to America, everyone starts smiling in photos.
My parents had a theory. They noticed that even in real life, Americans smiled more than back home. They think and I agree with them, that back home life is hard for most people and it is hard for people to put a smile on. Sometimes life is too hard for even a fake smile. And even if you have a pretty good life, you do not want to stand out by smiling, especially with a big smile that shows your teeth. People will mock you if you smile too much in photos.
In the US, life is easy, comparatively, people are happier and it is easy to smile. And if someone is unhappy, they still want to fit in, so they, at least, put a fake smile on.
And I think this can extend to older photos too. Back then life was harder and people did what was natural to them.
by tr81
5/19/2025 at 3:59:04 PM
In very early photography the exposure time was so long that people used expressions they could keep up for a while without moving.Europe is comparable to the US in terms of happiness if not better, yet Europeans don't smile as much. Faking a smile is considered weird unless you're a politician in press photos (and those look creepy if you actually look at them closely)
by alpaca128
5/19/2025 at 9:38:56 AM
We're all "media trained" now from a young age to behave like people being filmed or photographed "should" behave.And if you don't quite fit the look, the camera AI selfie mode can tighten up your face for you.
by pjc50
5/19/2025 at 3:10:46 PM
The explanation I like is that the exposure times needed for photos back then meant you had to be absolutely still for maybe a full minute.Maintaining a natural looking smile for that long is hard.
by BurningFrog
5/19/2025 at 6:37:36 PM
The stern bit is covered in parody form in A Million Ways to Die in the West:by staplung
5/19/2025 at 11:17:19 AM
>sternnessI really enjoy observing this and other changes in social tone visible through the ages in archaic videos .. One of my favourite idle pasttimes is to watch videos on Youtube of digitized film from a bygone era, especially of cities I've lived in, or visited and with which I am familiar.
For some reason it is just so interesting, for example, to visit the streets of Vienna from 100+ years ago, and see how folks were living back then. So many well-dressed Viennese, looking sternly at the camera, or merely walking in a steady plod along streets I, too, in the modern era, enjoy.
Vienna is particularly interesting because it has a long history with film, and some of them go back to before the widespread adoption of automobiles. It struck me just how easily we overlook the fact that Vienna was built for walking, originally, and all the crazy car life that the city suffers now was grafted on top of routes originally designed to be navigable by foot - or hoof.
Just take a look at Vienna, from 1896:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aPvmD6ktZs
.. to Vienna, 1926:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGbTkQX6R0Q
.. pre-war Vienna (30's):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA9dHEKD-vM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QITjWb29JZ8
.. Vienna, 1939:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w96umMf9r3E
.. post-war Vienna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2VbXdrFXB8
.. to Vienna, 1964:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0WCigqJ_wU
.. and lastly, Vienna in the 80's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WttS-PP-r4o
Its just so interesting to see how the city has evolved over the century, but also very interesting to see how it hasn't changed much at all, too!
These days I walk many of the streets depicted in these videos, and having binge-watched all the videos I can find on the subject, it has given me a much deeper appreciation of the trials this city has weathered.
(I've got another set of videos for Los Angeles, another city in which I've lived and loved, and it too is very intriguing to see the city evolve over time .. but I'm yet to find a film as old as 1896 for the region, strangely enough..)
by aa-jv
5/19/2025 at 3:53:00 PM
I love the 1896 "what the hell is that" double-takes, where they glance over and then approach the camera. Might've been these people's first experience with one.by wging
5/19/2025 at 7:58:23 AM
[dead]by milesrout