[SimoneFlen']

These days, when it's so easy to sneak a hidden photo with your phone, we can forget just how unusual candid photography was during the 19th century. With technological limitation, our first photographs are mainly seated posed images that somehow give the impression that everyone in the 1800s was elegant and composed. But, thanks to one clever Norwegian student, we have a hidden glimpse of life in the 1890s.

Carl Størmer (1874-1957) was a young student of mathematics when he purchased his first hidden camera. It was so small that the lens fit through the buttonhole in his vest with a cord that led down to his pocket, allowing him to secretly snap away. In his biography for the Fellows of the Royal Society, he revealed it was actually a secret crush that led him toward photography. “When he was a young man at Oslo University he fell in love with a lady whom he did not know and with whom he was too bashful to become acquainted,” writes his biographer. “Wishing at least to have a picture of her, he decided that this was possible only by taking a photograph of her himself, without her knowing.”


And while the love affair came to nothing, Størmer continued capturing images of people on Karl Johansgate, the main street in Oslo, over the course of his studies from 1893 to 1897. The results are close to 500 secret images that show a wide range of people in a casual, relaxed state. Working like a paparazzo, Størmer would greet his subjects and then snap away as they approached. Friendly salutations and suspicious glances play out across his work, serving as some of the first examples of street photography.

Størmer would go on to have a successful career as a mathematician and physicist, teaching at the University of Oslo for 43 years. He was known for closely studying the Aurora Borealis and never left behind his photography roots. He wrote texts on astrophotography for amateurs and even arranged an exhibition of his street photography when he was approaching his 70s.

[kellyhound]

cool. i like to colorize some and see how it possibly looked like

[SimoneFlen']

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

cool. i like to colorize some and see how it possibly looked like

I've never liked colourised images, haha!

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by Simone ↗

I've never liked colourised images, haha!

just knew it lol

[SimoneFlen']

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

just knew it lol

Haha! It ruins the look of cool old photos.

[Sugar³]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

just knew it lol

My friends made this.
It was like an advert for these VR goggles with a camera and mic on them that they invented. They would overlay all these visuals over the camera view in realtime, and they reacted to sounds. You would walk around with a controller and adjust the sensitivities of the different variables.

[Sugar³]

It was funny too because of the processing required. My friend would have to be walking right behind you with her laptop. The battery in it would run down in like 10 minutes sometimes.
Now, you could probably run it on an iPhone.

[William May]

Wonder if the girl with the cat was his crush?