HN Reader

A related video series showing many places around the world in the 1900s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-UhDuKZ2OQ

There's a lot of really interesting things to see there besides the sites themselves. The obvious one worldwide is that this is before the mass commercialization of clothing + planned obsolescence of such, which seems to have a very negative outcome.

But one thing not so visible that's really interesting to see is how simultaneously stern everybody looks with no fake smiles or hidden gazes. People were willing to just stare at something or somebody odd. But that sterness is regularly belied by things like a couple of guys in their 40s happily putting on a fake fight in front of the camera, falling on their asses, and just basically playing around like school boys having a great old time - a far rarer site now a days.

>The painter naturally visited Nadar’s studio fo a portrait; it captures an artist of fierce intelligence:

As true as it might be in many cases, I've begun to think that there might be something fundamentally groady about basing assumptions of intelligence on appearance. A brief meeting is bad enough, but a single photo? It's poetic to think that they tell us more about a person than they do.

> Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I think I can see in his deadened, ambitious eyes the character that would later lead Leopold to inflict immense suffering on the people of the Congo for personal gain. The spark of humanity that you can see in the eyes of so many of Nadar’s subjects just isn’t there.

Or maybe the author's perception is colored by what we know of this man.

Most HN posts are how to program, mainly focusing on new tools and ideas.

But now the tooling is so good and the competition so fierce that the real question now is not how but what to program.

For that, it's essential to see things through the eye of users, so you can see the value to them.

This post imagines how Nadar saw his subjects, and how his subjects saw things. Not only is it a different time, but in most cases the subjects had a hand in history, we know now.

To me that's the essence of product design: imagining a different world through the eyes of another, and understanding how to make a real difference.

Products mostly focus on the present-market scale, but investments incorporate the full life cycle. The real power of the historical perspective is understanding how it's the latent value in the context that gives a new product its power, and how significant that can be over time, particularly when a technology becomes pervasive.

Here the photograph far outdoes the samurai's sword in its influence, not just for images and history but as a demonstration of the power of recording light for science, medicine, etc.

May this post inspire someone to make the next photograph.

A fascinating tour of 19th C France through the the photographs of one man.

Captivated me much more than reading about the AI-enhanced-startup du jour.

It's fascinating how much body language and facial expressions differ across cultures. While some societies value open, expressive interactions, others lean toward reserved or neutral expressions. I’ve noticed this in my travels, a simple nod or slight smile can mean very different things depending on where you are.

I wonder if these cultural norms around eye contact and facial expressions have roots in deeper societal structures, like the emphasis on individualism vs. collectivism, or even the pace of life in different regions.

What do you think? Could these small, often overlooked gestures reflect much larger cultural attitudes?

I cannot really explain why, but I feel like each of these photos captures so much more about the respective person than a modern colored photo ever could.

I'm ashamed to say that while I enjoyed the article and particularly the photos, I still can't quite parse what "cannot even look" means; does not understanding what it means make me one?

There's a newish requirement not to smile in US Passport pictures. I compared my new one (with the photographer-enforced requirement) and my old ones (smiling). That type of requirement has existed longer elsewhere. (Both for Hong Kong and PRC visas the no smiling requirement was there decades ago.) So the pendulum swings both ways?

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  "[Photography] is a marvelous discovery, a science that has attracted the greatest intellects, an art that excites the most astute minds -- and one that can be practiced by any imbecile."

I like this quote.

> and to slow the predatory opening of Japan that had begun with American warships’ arrival in 1854.

Reminds me of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o&t=282s

I'd like to have a hackers news that was just posts like this!

>I wonder what these Japanese diplomats were thinking as they sat, so far from home, having their portraits taken with cutting-edge gadgets by this bohemian weirdo.

If only there was a detailed first-hand account of the diplomatic mission to Europe which details this exact trip that's been widely translated to most European languages and is widely available.

Why I have to sign up first?

Those who can see but cannot look are condemned to a life of Art (whereas those who can look but cannot see to a life of Science)?

Finally, those who can do both: life of Jobs