Deadpan: An Investigation

I first encountered the phrase deadpan photography around Youtube, of all places. I was watching one of Tatiana Hopper’s videos I think (I don’t remember which one). I didn’t think much of it at the time but I was intrigued by the term (file for later examination). Then I started seeing the term more and more, as if it was a new thing that was quickly getting traction online. The latest was Juliette’s post at the weekend on the subject. I had to find out more. And as usual, I went too far, so I thought I’d share here (I’ll include some of my sources for the curious, and the images I used I think are public domain since they’re obviously not mine). Vanity Fair coined the term in 1927, smashing together dead and pan, the old slang for face, to describe a certain kind of comic delivery. The New York Times picked it up the following year and applied it to Buster Keaton. Deadpan meant a face that refused to react. It took photography another forty years to catch up to the concept, but when…