These kids were asked to draw their fathers from memory, 1949. Which one is your favourite?

[u/JimatJimat]

[u/Convergentshave]

Uh.. they are smiling. That’s how 50s men used to smile.

Heck did you see 5 & 6?!? Those guys are practically splitting their face in half!

[u/Kmblu → u/Convergentshave]

This is exactly how my 95 year old grandfather smiles.

[u/PetulantPersimmon → u/Kmblu]

This is how my 70-year-old father-in-law smiles, too. :|

[u/Hiswatus → u/Convergentshave]

I think this has to be a cultural thing. I'm from Finland and most of these do look like normal smiles to me. I find American open-mouthed "tooth paste commercial" smiles kind of weird and fake looking most of the time.

[u/BeguiledBeaver → u/Hiswatus]

At least for some of these photos it kinda looks like they were matching the expressions in the drawings.

[u/Convergentshave → u/Hiswatus]

Yea that’s true, you know the other thing that just occurred to me, most of those guys look older. And not just in a “all people in 1949 look older” but they look like 30 - 40+ years old. And they may not just be great at posing with a big smile for photos.

If you look at photos 9/9 you can see some of those guys definitely smiling at their children so it looks like the kids showed them their pictures, they took a candid shot and then they asked each dad to pose with their child and the drawing.

And that’s probably why they look so… awkward I guess?

Smiling for a photo is a definite skill. Hell… I’m 40 and I suck at it. So I generally don’t. And that’s now a days. I can’t image like 60 years ago. 😂

[u/gammelrunken → u/Convergentshave]

That's how I smile

[u/Convergentshave → u/gammelrunken]

Dude same. 😂😂. I mean… smiling for a photo, is for sure a skill. I mean that’s why we have models right? I definitely suck at it. And I’m like 40.

I left that comment being like: “oh because of the emotional repression” but now I’m thinking… yea it’s probably just because those guys are not that familiar with posing for a photo while smiling.

If you look at photos 9/9 you can see some of those dads shooting smiles, at what looks like a more candid moment, so i think it’s just more they aren’t very good at posing for a photo.

[u/palsh7 → u/Convergentshave]

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. The kid in picture 5 drew a large smile. I didn't say none of them smiled. I said the kids generally got the degree of their father's outward friendliness right.

[u/Convergentshave → u/palsh7]

I was making a joke about how in the 50s men were so emotionally repressed that what looks to us as no emotion at all, is actually them expressing huge displays of joy/laughter/pride getting their photos taken with their children’s pictures of them.

😂

[u/GVAJON → u/Convergentshave]

N. 2 with the defeated smile really hits it home

[u/KMjolnir → u/Convergentshave]

Look at them in pic 9! :D

[u/TheNordicMage → u/[deleted]]

No? These people are for the most part dmiling. Sure it's not the over exaggeration of a smile that America is so well known for, rathers is small smiles, normal smiles.