You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge Me,
declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:6
"Darwin’s book on facial expressions, titled The Expression of the
Originally intended to be a single chapter in The Descent of Man, Darwin added so much material that it was eventually published separately in 1872. A best seller when published, out-selling Darwin’s other books, it has never been out of print since then.....often described as Darwin’s “forgotten masterpiece.”
Although Darwin admitted that some of the photographs he used were posed, and others were modified, Paul Ekman (social psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco) “found from the Darwin archives and correspondence that the alterations were more extensive” than previously believed.
Instead of photographing natural expressions elicited by typical humans responding to real situations, many of the photographs, it was implied or openly stated, were actually posed. Darwin went far beyond simply retouching the photographs, which would have been a problem even if Darwin had admitted that the photographs were doctored. The only photograph in the Expressions book that we know for sure was not posed was that of Darwin’s dog Polly.
Darwin used several photographs taken by London photographer
Oscar Rejlander because he “proved especially skillful at securing the expressions Darwin wanted.”
Rejlander is most often identified with the “composite printing”
today called “trick photography” in which several photographic negatives were artfully combined to create a photographic print made from several pictures.
Although Darwin admitted that some of the photographs he used were posed, and others were modified, Paul Ekman (social psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco) “found from the Darwin archives and correspondence that the alterations were more extensive” than previously believed.
Instead of photographing natural expressions elicited by typical humans responding to real situations, many of the photographs, it was implied or openly stated, were actually posed. Darwin went far beyond simply retouching the photographs, which would have been a problem even if Darwin had admitted that the photographs were doctored. The only photograph in the Expressions book that we know for sure was not posed was that of Darwin’s dog Polly.
Darwin used several photographs taken by London photographer
Rejlander is most often identified with the “composite printing”
today called “trick photography” in which several photographic negatives were artfully combined to create a photographic print made from several pictures.
As a result, Rejlander was able to manipulate his images, and produce convincing photorealistic images that were artificially assembled in the darkroom.
Rejlander even occasionally used himself at the subject for his photographs. Trodger determined that one picture of Rejlander’s wife was specifically posed for Darwin to illustrate “a most convincing sneer.”
Rejlander put his trick photography skills to good use to help Darwin “prove” his thesis. The first, and most celebrated photograph in Darwin’s Expression book, is of a weeping baby that turned out to be a photographic copy of a drawing made from an original photograph that Rejlander altered.
Darwin titled this picture “mental distress.”
Rejlander’s skills enabled him to effectively “highlight elements of the image Darwin sought to express” such as in one photograph where the “child’s hair, cheeks, and brow … seem slightly more lively and energetic in the drawn version.”
Another manipulation was to put the child into an unnaturally small chair by means of trick photography, making the child look “larger-than-life.” The goal was to artificially create an “illustration that
Darwin also used eight photographs by the famous Paris physiologist Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne who used electrodes to stimulate the facial muscles in mental patients and then take their photograph. He is also credited with the discovery of Duchenne muscular dystrophy which was named after him. Duchenne published a book that contained photographs of patients forced to endure these barbaric treatments.
From another set of more than 40 photographs of mental patients, Darwin selected a woman diagnosed as insane to use as an example of a “normal” human expression.
*Beth Mole noted that “Darwin’s experiment included only 20 or so participants—mostly his friends and family—and he ignored some of the data.”
The major issue Darwin avoided is the unbridgeable gap that exists between humans and animals. Only humans have the face muscles required to express the emotions that Darwin was looking for in animals.
Humans have on average 43 facial muscles and chimps, supposedly our closest relatives, have only 23."
CEH
