https://mymodernmet.com/carl-stormer-hidden-camera-photography/
"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."
Via Esther Schindler.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
