Smile! Wie das Lächeln in die Fotografie kam mit Dr. Katharina Sykora

In the organizer's words:

What is it all about?

A smile in everyday life immediately triggers joy. We experience it as a spontaneous expression of affection. However, it took centuries of negotiation to make smiling socially acceptable. The lecture outlines the different ways in which seriousness, laughter and smiles were valued before the photographic age and the pictorial commandments and prohibitions that also influenced early photography. However, the focus is on the triumphant advance of the smile in photography, which surprisingly only took place in the 20th century and was by no means linear. And so even today, the dominance of 'keep smiling' in front of the camera is far from undisputed.

Who is our guest?

Dr. Katharina Sykora holds a doctorate in art history with a focus on gender studies and media comparisons between painting, photography and film. From 1994 to 2018, she was a university professor in Bochum and Braunschweig. Her numerous book publications are dedicated to cultural studies issues.

Price information:

Friends members free. Guests 4 €, reduced 2 €