content: I saw someone post recently about how the camera technology in this era and prior meant that people had to hold still for a while for the picture to "work". I'm totally ignorant on photography, so I apologize. Since a person shouldn't be moving their faces the whole time, which is likely when fake smiling, it was often easier to just not smile. But we always get the impression that these times must have just been really bleak because of their blank expressions, but it wasn't the case. This post I mentioned featured some of the "gag" photos of a couple that were caught smiling. But it did mess with the picture quality because they were obviously moving.