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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)

#191

Post by erikprotagonist »

mywacaday wrote: post #137
jorgesborges wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s great. I also love video footage from that era as well, capturing the ordinary bustle of the streets. It’s fun when it’s local and you can point to familiar places. One of my favourites is Victoria and Vancouver BC around 1900[0]. [0] https://youtu.be/Jp1qWV5OZec

Given how quiet the roads and pavements are in the video and photos does anyone know why the streets were built so wide?

During the 1800s there were four sets of building regulations (or rather, laws) for Christiania (the name of Oslo back then), which regulated everything from the width of the streets to how many floors buildings could be. In 1827 the minimum street width became 11.35m, then 12.60 in 1842, 15.75 in 1875 and 20m in 1899. (https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murbyen_(Oslo) has a good overview).

The background for the regulation was the switch from unregulated wood buildings to requiring mainly brick as building material - there were some major fires before using bricks became the law.

I live just around the corner from one of the photos - the building in that photo hasn't changed much since back then.

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

#192

Post by micromacrofoot »

nothis wrote: post #158
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.

What confuses me: These are good photos! Many are sharp, well lit. And they were made from a pocket camera of people who didn't specifically stand still for the photo. Why on earth did they have people stand like grim statues for those staged photographs? I thought it was because exposure times were extreme with those early cameras but this kinda proves it wasn't? 1890s, those must be among the first photographs, eve…

If you flip this around a bit... why would people think to smile for photographs? They're not looking dour, they're just sitting for a photo with their natural faces. Their main points of reference were drawn or painted portraits that people also didn't smile for (partially due to the amount of time you'd need to pose).

Smiling for photographs is a social behavior that took time to catch on.

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

#193

Post by jb1991 »

8372049 wrote: post #175
jb1991 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Summers are pretty short in that part of the world.

Depends on what you mean by 'short'. I think you're probably thinking of much further north in Norway. Summers in Oslo are usually from May or June to August. Sometimes there's 20+ C in March, sometimes it's 5 C in May. Night frost usually sets in around late October/early November, with snow usually arriving in November or December. Snow is usually gone by or during March. Apparently the average temperature in 1890…

> May or June to August

Well, that's fairly short by U.S. standards, at least when counting 20+ C weather, which in many states is nearly 6 months of the year, with summer heat lasting well through September in many places.

Even places south of Norway, like Netherlands, still considered pretty far north for many in the world, have relatively 'short' summers as well.

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

#194

Post by vidarh »

raflemakt wrote: post #20

NRK (Norwegian state broadcaster) published an article this summer with some more images [0], including of some public figures in Oslo at the time like Henrik Ibsen. [0] https://www.nrk.no/kultur/xl/carl-stormer_-studenten-som-sni...

Everyone ought to click through to this one if nothing else for the images where they've overlaid the photos on present-day Oslo.

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

#195

Post by vidarh »

jamiek88 wrote: post #9
dragontamer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The change in "hat culture" is pretty incredible though. That's a LOT of hats!

As a balding man with a round head I wish hats other than Baseball caps were acceptable.

My dad took to wearing a Stetson on occasion in his late 40's, around 25 years ago. In Oslo. I'm not sure exactly which type, but one of the fedoras.

I'm not so sure most people in Oslo would have agreed it was "acceptable" but he didn't care, and it's not like anyone would call him out on it.

I'm in my late 40's now, and kinda want to wear a hat but I think I'll pick something which stands out less.

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

#196

Post by 8372049 »

jb1991 wrote: post #193
8372049 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you mean by 'short'. I think you're probably thinking of much further north in Norway. Summers in Oslo are usually from May or June to August. Sometimes there's 20+ C in March, sometimes it's 5 C in May. Night frost usually sets in around late October/early November, with snow usually arriving in November or December. Snow is usually gone by or during March. Apparently the average temperature in 1890…

> May or June to August Well, that's fairly short by U.S. standards, at least when counting 20+ C weather, which in many states is nearly 6 months of the year, with summer heat lasting well through September in many places. Even places south of Norway, like Netherlands, still considered pretty far north for many in the world, have relatively 'short' summers as well.

Ah, in that case then we have short summers. To me, "short summers" is the month or so of mosquito hell between spring and fall that they have in the northernmost parts of Norway.

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

#197

Post by ruined »

nabeards wrote: post #188
ruined wrote: post #24

near as i can tell, he used a stirn concealed vest camera. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Stirn_Concealed_Vest_Camera round film plate. no cassette, just round emulsified glass. six-exposure 14cm or four-exposure 17cm depending on model. exposure is allegedly adjustable somehow, but i'm not sure of the mechanism. plate loads into an internal frame with masks, advanced by the center dial, not sure how masks align. many m…

It’s reported in the first sentence of the second paragraph if you read TFA.

dang changed the link since i posted this. i also came across the boredpanda site but chose one that had more photos of the camera.

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

#198

Post by bhelkey »

Markoff wrote: post #94
TheSocialAndrew wrote: post #57

It seems like back then people were smiling to a passerby and not to the camera. They'd keep a stern face when they were knowingly photographed. Now we smile for the camera, but not so much to a stranger.

you read at least the title right, it's SPY cam, so obviously if someone is taking secret photo of you, you don't smile for camera and we don't know who are these people, if it's complete strangers or his acquintances, though some of the photos are clearly staged anyway you could get same reaction even nowadays depending on country, obviously you wouldn't have much success in Eastern Europe, where (many) people consi…

> you read at least the title right, it's SPY cam, so obviously if someone is taking secret photo of you, you don't smile for camera and we don't know who are these people, if it's complete strangers or his acquintances, though some of the photos are clearly staged anyway

I think you misunderstood their point. In the past people who knew they were about to get photographed tended not to smile. Now people tend to smile.

TheSocialAndrew perceives that people now tend not to smile at strangers where as these candid photos show people a hundred years ago smiling at strangers.

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

#200

Post by floxy »

gunfighthacksaw wrote: post #48
olyjohn wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also seem to enjoy tipping their hats or lifting them momentarily as a greeting or hello.

I get the feeling that these pictures were taken after the fellow passed by in the street and give them a “Good day!” or similar. You can see various expressions, some which say “and a good day to YOU young man” from some of the older guys to a “hmmph good day” from some of the well dressed women.

This one seems to be the best meme material:

https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/s...

...with one expressing a coy "oh, hi" and the other with the frumpy look-of-disapproval.

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