A friend sent me five photos copied from our high school yearbook from the early 1970s. I noticed that in every photo, the subject’s head is turned about 45 degrees to one side or the other, and the subject appears to be gazing far off in the distance. No one is making eye contact with the photographer, and no one is smiling. (From the facial expressions it looks like we were just told we’d have to spend another two years in high school). I was wondering if that was the accepted/required style of the time, why that was the style at that time, and how yearbook photography has evolved over the several centuries since we graduated. I did several google searches with no luck. Maybe there are a few on this forum who can provide some insights?
It was the 70's. My 79-82 yearbooks all have photos of students looking into the camera. I do remember seeing portraits displayed at JC Penny (remember when they had "studios?") with that far off expression, usually off camera left. Don't miss that look.
People photography has certainly changed over the years. My 81 grad photos were a mix of distant look and direct into camera. Out door shooting, just about NOBODY did that. Most "outdoor" shots were some form of backdrops. Even family photos of the time were normally a family placed in rows of somekind and parents in the middle or sometimes on the end. Most of the time, if you paid a photographer to photograph you, you rarely went casual. Suits and dressier clothes were the norm. Pictures were a record of what you looked like, not who you were. Thankfully today our goal is usually to capture personalities and attitudes and try to give a glimpse into the subject/s personality so the viewer connect. I do not miss those “old days”.
Len R wrote:
A friend sent me five photos copied from our high school yearbook from the early 1970s. I noticed that in every photo, the subject’s head is turned about 45 degrees to one side or the other, and the subject appears to be gazing far off in the distance. No one is making eye contact with the photographer, and no one is smiling. (From the facial expressions it looks like we were just told we’d have to spend another two years in high school). I was wondering if that was the accepted/required style of the time, why that was the style at that time, and how yearbook photography has evolved over the several centuries since we graduated. I did several google searches with no luck. Maybe there are a few on this forum who can provide some insights?
Personal yearbook photos in the 1950s - 1980's were almost always taken by a single photographer who shot photos of everyone in the school one after another. One pose, one lighting setup, and about 2 minutes per student. Each photographer seemed to have their own idea of what pose to use and that photo session with that photographer resulted in whatever pose they chose and the lighting setup that they used. It was almost a rubber stamp operation. Volume, not quality. Only in my senior year (1960) did we go to a professional photographer's studio where they took several shots of each of us and then allowed us to pick the best one to be used in the school yearbook. More time between shots allowed different poses and slight lighting variations. The yearbook result was a variety of poses of the seniors, so no two exactly the same. In my last three years of high school I was a yearbook photographer, shooting sporting events, plays, and club groups using the school's Graphlex Press Camera, but the student photos were always taken by a professional photographer. For the lower grades they always set up on the auditorium stage and the kids filed through getting one shot and one pose of each. Only the seniors went by appointment to the professional photographer's studio where several poses were taken and then the selected best became the yearbook photo. I expect that this quantity over quality method was used for many schools and yearbooks using a traveling photographer that was likely in a different school every day.
Thanks for the responses, interesting info. What struck me the most was the total lack of eye contact. Of course not all portraits need eye contact but the turned away pose seems stiff and un-natural, and not required even for a one shot per student assembly line. So I was wondering why that pose was used. Maybe it helped eliminate the closed eye/ blink when the camera or flash fires?
