People Before And After They Were Asked To Smile

The Dalai Lama said, "A simple smile. That’s the start of opening your heart and being compassionate to others." Smiles have the ability to change one's whole day, and not only to the one that's smiling, but also to those who see a smile. It's just a simple expression, and yet it may be the most powerful, as it's the most positive one.

Jay Weinstein tests this idea in his project "so I asked them to smile" with an extremely diverse group of people, and the answer behind each and every one of his pictures is that a smile changes everything—not only the mood, but even the whole picture. His pictures also show that a smile is unique to every individual and that it's sometimes hard to know how beautiful they look when they smile until they do.

"He was wandering home one evening with his friend, walking along the stone wall-lined lanes that cut through the lush fields of Hundar, in the starkly stunning Nubra Valley of Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India...so I asked him to smile."

"She was playing with her mom on a dirt lane off the main road as I explored the the vibrant and colorful shops and homes on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya...so I asked her to smile."

"She was playing outside her home in the village of Kakhsar, Gujarat, India...so I asked her to smile."

"She was walking with her friends one evening as I photographed a donkey enclosure in the beautiful and isolated plateau village of Turtuk, Ladakh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India…so I asked her to smile."

"He was hunched over the remains of a fire and empty pot of tea as I approached his house one afternoon in Muthatari, near Embu, in the Eastern Province of Kenya...so I asked him to smile."

"She was playing on the streets with her friends one evening as I wandered around the old town of Leh, in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India...so I asked her to smile."

"He was waiting in line at 7 AM outside the post office opening at 11 AM, that exchanges invalidated 500 and 1000 rupee notes for newly printed currency, in Jojowar, Rajasthan, India...so I asked him to smile."

"He was playing with his brothers in the family compound, having just returned from school and discarding his uniform one humid afternoon in Nirdoi, a sleepy village on the banks of the river Ganges, in West Bengal, India...so i asked him to smile."

"He was playing with friends and family one afternoon in the web of narrow lanes that make up the old part of the ancient city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India...so i asked him to smile."

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