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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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Bent Sorensen 7 years ago
This is physics professor Kristian Birkeland - the only one of Størmer's subjects to rumble him. Apparently he got quite cross!
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DeadStillPretty 7 years ago
I love the hats on these women. Holy c**p, they're enormous. Replace the background with a promenade deck or something it's like a scene out of Titanic.
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christina murray 7 years ago
i love this one, i like to think he can see the camera and is tipping his hat to the guy
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Agnes Jekyll 7 years ago
Wow!! What a striking figure she cuts. Would love to have a closer look at what she is holding--is it a purse?
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Marnee DeRider 7 years ago
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.)
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Diana Cooper 7 years ago
Good Scandinavian diet. Few processed foods, not a lot of fat and no junk food!
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petil Pling 7 years ago
That really looks like Henrik Ibsen! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen
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Debbie Andersson 7 years ago
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.
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Robin Collins 6 years ago
Lena, I'm still not sure this is best way to escape the police..... Shut up Ollie and sway your hips more.
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Pam Falcioni 7 years ago
I can't even imagine what a hassle it would have been to deal with a hat like that on a windy day.
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Tamara Laney 7 years ago
"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.
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Karina Edwards 7 years ago
People must have had buff arms in those days from all the hat tipping
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Marnee DeRider 7 years ago
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.
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Lars Thulin 7 years ago
Oh dear, yet another time traveller with a cell phone caught on camera.
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Partial double exposure. The cranking mechanism glitched out. Still: extraordinarily good photos for their time!
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Harvey Johnson 7 years ago
Apparently they didn't have spur of the moment quickies in those days. Too many clothes
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Girl-Scouts? The hats, especially. Very practical clothes compared to some of the city scenes.
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Power-dressing of the era. Or else they're time travelers who read the wrong brochure before arriving.
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Lorenzo Zerial 7 years ago
In Norway those days there were many nationalistic rallies until 1905 when independence from Sweden was gained.
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
There is a winter series, and a summer series. That's what I'm seeing.
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Norway was know for sudden Land-Tilting. Everyone soon got used to it.
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Robin Collins 6 years ago
As soon as this guy leaves pass me the cigarettes and whiskey please.
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Robin Collins 6 years ago
Ingrid, I wish you had washed my pants earlier. So embarrassing to wear your mom's dress because I have no dry clothes.
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SadieWitherspoon 4 years ago
A good time was had at the RideMan attraction and it was time to return home...
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
"Then, as you make your final approach, give it a bit of 'sizzle' - know wot I mean?"
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Agnes Jekyll 7 years ago
I think he is the first heavy person I've seen (so far) in this series.
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Two more views of Karl Stukker - the sad little man with a thing for trees.
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Priscilla Winslow 7 years ago
Were you allowed to remove clothing in public? Those Scandinavians were so progressive.
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Ordinary people, caught at the very moment they began fading from history.
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Analyn Lahr 7 years ago
It looks like those dudes' arms are linked? Probably a trick of the light but still...
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Analyn Lahr 7 years ago
This group almost looks like they knew about the camera and were posing.
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chris gill 7 years ago
It is amazing to me how well dressed everybody was. They took pride in their appearance. No but crack here folks...
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Ged Maybury 6 years ago
I'm intrigued by several of his pix. Not of people but of places like this. Very ordinary places. I wonder what the significance was?
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Yvonne Torburn-Clark 6 years ago
Cameras were a little large back in the day. A little hard to hide it.
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What do you think ?
Stille20 7 years ago
Those are very clear photos. I find it surprising that he could get such a good photo given that the camera and the people were moving, especially given the technology of the time.
Melissa Spencer 7 years ago
That is exactly what I was thinking. Most photos were so grim because of how long the film exposure needed to be.
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Stille20 7 years ago
Those are very clear photos. I find it surprising that he could get such a good photo given that the camera and the people were moving, especially given the technology of the time.
Melissa Spencer 7 years ago
That is exactly what I was thinking. Most photos were so grim because of how long the film exposure needed to be.
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