I’ve owned a camera for 25+ years and have heard the phrase “Say cheese” a billion times, but it wasn’t until recently that I wondered WHY?

WHY DO WE SAY CHEESE WHEN BEING PHOTOGRAPHED?

A theory is the fact that the word “cheese” forces you to bring your teeth together in a way that opens up your lips and exposes your teeth and makes you grin. There are many other words in the English language that cause your mouth to make the same facial expression. So how did we land on the word “cheese”?

To start, it may be surprising to know that portraits weren’t all smiles back when portrait sessions were rare. The elite were the only ones that could afford to have photographs taken of them. Photographers would commonly take pictures of them in a way that only had them with a blank expressing. Smiling was seen as something that only the lower class and children did. (sad right?, they also had to sit for very long exposures and it’s way easier to have a somber look for hours then it is to hold a smile)

In looking back to the popular phrase’s origins, one of the first ways “cheese” was used in a way to make someone smile was during the 1940s, appearing in The Big Spring Herald in 1943:

“Now here’s something worth knowing. It’s a formula for smiling when you have your picture taken. It comes from former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies and is guaranteed to make you look pleasant no matter what you’re thinking. Mr. Davies disclosed the formula while having his own picture taken on the set of his “Mission to Moscow.” It’s simple. Just say “Cheese,” It’s an automatic smile. “I learned that from a politician,” Mr. Davies chuckled. “An astute politician, a very great politician. But, of course, I cannot tell you who he was…”  (I dug a little deeper to find out he may have been referring to president Roosevelt, but no one is certain)

So that’s fun right? Some other words I use to get people to smile are “monkey monkey” “money” say “ha ha ha” then they feel silly and laugh.

However my all time favorite “smile advice” came from a very sweet great grandmother in the back of the church. While photographing a wedding party- and struggling to say something funny myself- Grandma yelled from the congregation “Just say penis, that will work, penis, penis, penis”  And yes, yes it did.