Cleveland Museum of Art

Figure 32: Natural laughter by the voluntary contraction of the two large zygomatics and the lower palpebral orbicularis

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne

Date: c. 1856, printed 1862
Medium: Albumen print from glass plate negative
Department: Photography
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

Duchenne embarked on the first scientific, systematic exploration of the physiology of human facial expression and hoped, through photographs of the experiments, to teach artists how to portray those emotions. Here, he has photographed a subject’s natural smile and described the muscles creating it. In subsequent photographs, he used an electrode to contract one of the muscles that convey that same emotion.

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