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“There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

worldhistory.substack.com

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Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#61

Post by pixl97 »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #9
h2zizzle wrote: post #7

>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.

A non-groady interpretation might be that we know Manet was intelligent, and the portrait captured that well; you might not be able to judge food by its photograph, but a photo that makes it look delicious when it actually is delicious has managed to capture the deliciousness. Personally, I don't find it groady anyway; pretty sure a neural network trained on IQs and photographs could find reliable signals of intellig…

> pretty sure a neural network trained on IQs and photographs could find reliable signals of intelligence therein.

exactly how?

Or I should say, all humans are intelligent baring extreme circumstances (for example signs of genetic defect, potential inbreeding, or FAS may possibly be a sign of lower IQ it's not a certainty of it). Are we trying to say there is some correlation between 'high' IQ and outward appearance, because that is quite the statement, and one that really has no scientific basis that I know about.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#62

Post by mlinhares »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #60
mlinhares wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is incredibly surprising to be told to smile when taking official photos in the US. I just couldn't understand the first time it happened at the DMV, the person kept saying "smile" and i'm like, wtf, why would i smile, this is an official photo for my driver's license.

Whereas here in Iowa, smiling is forbidden in DMV photos. I guess it's state by state.

Oh, interesting, for me it was PA and later FL, both places requested smiles.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#63

Post by alpaca128 »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #9
h2zizzle wrote: post #7

>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.

A non-groady interpretation might be that we know Manet was intelligent, and the portrait captured that well; you might not be able to judge food by its photograph, but a photo that makes it look delicious when it actually is delicious has managed to capture the deliciousness. Personally, I don't find it groady anyway; pretty sure a neural network trained on IQs and photographs could find reliable signals of intellig…

> pretty sure a neural network trained on IQs and photographs could find reliable signals of intelligence therein

It would start judging people by their clothes. Among other factors, none of which would be intelligence.

You will find correlation, but it would not be reliable at all.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#64

Post by magicnubs »

dfinninger wrote: post #51
mlinhares wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is incredibly surprising to be told to smile when taking official photos in the US. I just couldn't understand the first time it happened at the DMV, the person kept saying "smile" and i'm like, wtf, why would i smile, this is an official photo for my driver's license.

That’s interesting. I’ve been told every time (so far) to keep a “neutral face”. I smiled once and the guy let out a heavy sigh and made me take the photo again (Redwood City, CA DMV).

Same. I've been explicitly told "Neutral Face. Don't smile." for my passport and driver's licenses in NC, FL and CA (Redwood City too).

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#65

Post by GMoromisato »

falcor84 wrote: post #25

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?

I interpreted as, some people can't be bothered to try seeing. They don't even know that they're missing something.

But clearly other people interpreted it differently, so what do I know? I'm just simple programmer.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#66

Post by alpaca128 »

lblume wrote: post #3

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.

Back then photos were more expensive, rarer and taken primarily by professionals. It makes sense that they on average were more compelling to look at than the average picture taken today.

But there are plenty of great modern colored photos.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#67

Post by wagwangbosy »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #39

> 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.

[flagged]

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#68

Post by w10-1 »

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.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#69

Post by skeaker »

tough wrote: post #31
tomatotomato37 wrote: post #27

. "[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.

Fits [software engineering] too heh

Not at all true, computer literacy is a hard prerequisite and many people don't have even that.

Re: “There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

#70

Post by paulorlando »

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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