What was made obsolete by the technology?
Photography made portraiture more accessible because the cost of having a photographer take a family photo was not as prohibitive as the cost of sitting for a painting. People could now have a record of the appearances of themselves and their family members in their youth and/or before their death.
This helped to preserve ancestral history. But, it also recorded a moment in time for a person or family. This could be referred to in storytelling or merely to celebrate a memory.
The image above is of an original Daguerréotype group portrait taken in 1854. One reason subjects might not have been smiling in portraits at that time is because of the long plate exposure times required. It might have been difficult to hold a smile for 15 minutes!
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