19-Year-Old Student Hides Spy Camera In His Clothing To Take Secret Street Photos In The 1890s
Carl Størmer (1872-1957) enjoyed a hobby that was very, very unusual at the time. He walked around Oslo, Norway in the 1890s with his spy camera and secretly took everyday pictures of people. The subjects in Størmer's pictures appear in their natural state. These street photography shots extremely differ from the grave and strict posing trends that dominated photography during those years.
Carl got his C.P. Stirn Concealed Vest spy camera in 1893 when he was studying mathematics at the Royal Frederick University (now, University of Oslo). "It was a round flat canister hidden under the vest with the lens sticking out through a buttonhole," he told St. Hallvard Journal in 1942. "Under my clothes, I had a string down through a hole in my trouser pocket, and when I pulled the string the secret camera took a photo."
Norway's first paparazzi usually photographed people at the exact time they were greeting him on the street. "I strolled down Carl Johan, found me a victim, greeted, got a gentle smile, and pulled. Six images at a time and then I went home to switch [the] plate." In total, Størmer took a total of about 500 of these black and white photos.
His interesting photos aside, Størmer was also fascinated with science. He was a mathematician and physicist, known both for his work in number theory and studying the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).
Now scroll down below and check these secret vintage photos of Norway's past for yourself!
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This is physics professor Kristian Birkeland - the only one of Størmer's subjects to rumble him. Apparently he got quite cross!
I love the hats on these women. Holy crap, they're enormous. Replace the background with a promenade deck or something it's like a scene out of Titanic.
i love this one, i like to think he can see the camera and is tipping his hat to the guy
Wow!! What a striking figure she cuts. Would love to have a closer look at what she is holding--is it a purse?
Why don't we use parasols for shade anymore? I grew up in Minnesota near a large community of Hmong. The older women (and sometimes men) would often carry umbrellas in the summer to keep the sun off. I envied them, because I was a teenager and wouldn't have dared because it wasn't "done". (Nobody even used them in the rain at the time because humans are silly at times.)
Good Scandinavian diet. Few processed foods, not a lot of fat and no junk food!
That really looks like Henrik Ibsen! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen
The whole city looks so pretty, why aren´t we today, with our machines, building this pretty buildings anymore? Would be way easier today then it was then.
Lena, I'm still not sure this is best way to escape the police..... Shut up Ollie and sway your hips more.
I can't even imagine what a hassle it would have been to deal with a hat like that on a windy day.
"I thought you said your dog doesn't bite?!!" "Yes, but that's not my dog." <---one of my favorite Inspector Clouseau (Pink Panther) jokes.
People must have had buff arms in those days from all the hat tipping
I always pictured that most Norwegians were blond, but from these pictures, they look like most have brown hair. Might be it's just hard to tell in the b/w photos. Or, more likely, it's one more stereotype I need to delete from my files.
