Poor dental hygiene made people reluctant to show their teeth (or whatever teeth they had left), and let's not forget that many Victorians simply had it too rough a life to take funny pictures. Ever tried smiling for several hours? It hurts) and the high cost of portraits gave people very little to smile about. Long exposure times made smiling difficult (and by long we mean several hours. There are many theories as to why Victorians always look so dour in pictures. But as these rare vintage photos prove, that wasn't always the case. Everybody looks so severe that it seems as if people in the 1800s just didn't have the time, or strength to have fun. With life this pleasant, it's no wonder that nobody was smiling in the creepy pictures taken in the Victorian era.