Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Charles Darwin's equivalent of a driver's license photo

We are accustomed to people complaining about their driver's license photo or their passport photo.  Our imagined aesthetics are seemingly usually greater than the photographic evidence will support.

Apparently, that sensibility is not new.  

In 1855, Charles Darwin, had an official portrait photo taken by Maull and Polyblank for the Literary and Scientific Portrait Club.  He commented to a friend on the resulting portrait photo:

If I really have as bad an expression as this photograph gives me, how I can have one single friend is surprising.

























Click to enlarge.

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