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Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

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Re: Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

#31

Post by btheshoe »

geocrasher wrote: post #26

Comment deleted because a guy can't state a feeling without dealing with endless pedantry. Gosh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s#Wars

The 1890s were a rare break in great power conflict, but they were only a few decades after the civil war, Imperialism was in full swing, and there were still plenty of wars. In general, there has not been a more peaceful time than the present.

Re: Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

#32

Post by saalweachter »

> “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.”

Oh, technology.

Re: Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

#34

Post by thaumasiotes »

pessimizer wrote: post #8
Normille wrote: post #2

Great find. Thanks for posting. I love it when photos from this era occasionally emerge showing people acting naturally. We're so used to seeing the vast majority of Victorian photographs showing dour-faced people sitting or standing stiffly to attention, that it's sometimes difficult to believe they had human emotions, just like us.

Without the posed stiffness, the major thing remaining that makes them look 19th century is that they're all drowning in cloth; lots of thick layers.

> the major thing remaining that makes them look 19th century is that they're all drowning in cloth; lots of thick layers.

Aren't they in Oslo?

Re: Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

#36

Post by geocrasher »

btheshoe wrote: post #31
geocrasher wrote: post #26

Comment deleted because a guy can't state a feeling without dealing with endless pedantry. Gosh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s#Wars The 1890s were a rare break in great power conflict, but they were only a few decades after the civil war, Imperialism was in full swing, and there were still plenty of wars. In general, there has not been a more peaceful time than the present.

Indeed. My point was that the world had not yet been permanently scarred by global conflict. That's all.

Re: Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

#37

Post by geocrasher »

Steve0 wrote: post #33
geocrasher wrote: post #26

Comment deleted because a guy can't state a feeling without dealing with endless pedantry. Gosh.

I presume there is some selection bias to take into account here.

Isn't there always some? It's impossible to create a comment that has any nuance without being selective of the feeling that I wish to convey.

Re: Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018)

#40

Post by tyingq »

geocrasher wrote: post #26

Comment deleted because a guy can't state a feeling without dealing with endless pedantry. Gosh.

You can find articles that explain various reasons why people don't smile in old photographs, at least when they know they are being photographed. Mimicking what they saw in paintings seems the most likely to me. The advertising around cameras and photos tended to make them painting like, and had more serious subject matter. Though other reasons are cited too...bad teeth, inertia from when exposure times had to be long, etc.

So the smiles could just be the effect of them not knowing they were being photographed.

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