As a historian, who's always searching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past.
preoccupy[使...全神贯注]
preoccupied[全神贯注的]
ancestor[祖先]
shatter
prudery
I've become preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorian ancestor smiling.
what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?
I've found quite a few.
since[自从]
cause[导致造成、引起]
cause quite a stir[引起一阵轰动]
since I started posting them on Twitter-they have been causing quite a stir.
note[做笔记、特别指出]
the hundred-or-so years[大约100多年]
as[有因为的意思]
become more human[变得更有人情味]
fade away[逐渐消失]
they are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years that separate us fade away through our common experience of laughter.
concede[承认]
a tiny percentage of[很小的百分比]
catalogue[目录]
I need to concede that my collection of "Smiling Victorians" makes up only a tiny percentage of the vast catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, the majority of which show sitters posing miserably and stiffly in front of painted backdrops, or staring absently into the middle distance.
trend[趋势]
absently[心不在焉地]
staring[凝视、盯着]
stare[凝视]
miserably[悲惨地、贫困地]
stiffly[生硬地、僵硬地、呆板地]
backdrop[背景幕布]
majority[大多数]
in the early days of photography[在摄影的早期时候]
exposure time[曝光时间]
notoriously[众所周知的、名声狼藉的]
photographic[摄影的]
silvered[镀银的]
copper plate[铜板]
take several minutes to complete[花几分钟时间完成]
producing a image on a silvered copper plate[在镀银的铜板上产生图像]
resulting in[导致、结果是]
as[当、因为由于]
limbs[四肢、胳膊]
blurred[模糊不清的、难以区分的]
resulting in blurred images as sitters shifted position or adjusted their limbs.
grin[露齿笑]
a fixed grin[一个固定的笑容、绷着脸笑]
contemplate[沉思、冥思苦想、深思熟虑、盘算]
The thought of holding a fixed grin as the camera performed its magical duties was too much to contemplate,
and so a non-committal blank stare become the norm.