Say Cheese! — I Photoshopped a Smile onto my Favorite Historical Figures
How does a smile change how we view someone?
On a cold November morning in 1848, Edgar Allan Poe made his way through Providence, Rhode Island’s dusty streets, crowded with horse-drawn buggies and city trolleys. He arrived at Samuel Masury and S. W. Hartshorn's daguerreotype studio, where he sat for the above portrait — known today as the “Ultima Thule” daguerreotype.
In this photo, Poe appears haunted by melancholy. Just four days earlier, he had attempted suicide by overdosing on laudanum. The previous year, the death of Poe’s beloved wife had unhinged him. He was not in a good place.
Months after this photograph was taken, Poe died under mysterious circumstances that have baffled historians.
What is certain is that when Edgar Allan Poe sat in the darkened studio, the photographer did not ask him to smile.
But what if Poe had smiled for his portrait? Or even worse, what if the photographer had applied filters to smooth over his lined face or erase the sleepless nights beneath his eyes?
When you contrast the brooding original photograph with my doctored smiling Poe, the difference is unsettling. Instead of imagining a complex man tortured by demons, we see the usual…
