Smile

Photograph the muscles of expression

In the 19th century, Duchenne de Boulogne studied expressions by stimulating facial muscles with electrodes, then photographing their effects. His work Mechanism of Human Physiognomy left images that have become references in the history of facial expression. Its name remains associated with the smile which mobilizes the mouth and the eye region.

The smile becomes a subject of perception

Psychological research then studied what observers attribute to different expressions: joy, sincerity, confidence or attractiveness. Duchenne's smile has long occupied a central place in this literature. More recent work also examines intensity and context, because the eyes alone do not allow us to read with certainty the emotion felt.

The photo does not tell the whole movement

Dental studies distinguish the posed smile from the spontaneous smile, which can show the teeth and lips differently. Research on animations adds another question: how the smile appears and unfolds. In looksmaxxing discussions about photos, we find this gap between a lived expression and an image stopped at the least flattering moment.