Victorians Secretly Caught on Camera, 1893–1897 | Carl Størmer's Hidden Camera Street Photography

In this episode, we are reanimating rare and historic photographs of Victorians secretly caught on camera. In the early days of photography, capturing an image was slow, deliberate and controlled. Bulky cameras and long exposures meant that Victorian portraits were almost always staged. Formal, still and carefully composed, which led to an overriding sense of seriousness. But hidden among the archives is something very different. In this video, we uncover a more natural, unfiltered view of Victorian life through the candid street photographs of Norwegian mathematician and astrophysicist, Carl Sturmer. With the help of AI software, we bring colour and motion to these long forgotten snapshots from history for the very first time. Before turning our attention to the remarkable hidden snapshots we are here to see, let me introduce you to the photographer responsible for the covert operation, Frederick Carl Mullert Sturmer, or just Carl Sturmer, as he is commonly referred to. Carl Sturmer is remembered for transforming the study of the Aurora Borealis from mystery into measurable science. Working alongside the pioneering physicist, Christian Berkeland, he adapted photography to capture the northern lights with unprecedented precision. Using synchronised cameras placed miles apart, Sturmer developed a method to calculate the altitude and structure of the aurora. At a time when the phenomenon was still poorly understood, his work provided the first accurate measurements of where and how the lights appeared in the upper atmosphere. By combining mathematics, physics and photography, Sturmer helped reveal the aurora as a cosmic interaction between the sun and earth, turning fleeting beauty into scientific knowledge. But it was the photographs he took before those heady days of scientific discovery that we are interested in today. Stern's Vest camera was one of the most successful. It was introduced in October 1886 and continued production until 1892. It consisted of a thin nickel-plated or rusted six-inch diameter device carrying one plate for six clear snapshots measuring one and three quarters of an inch in diameter. The package came with six plates and a transport box that held 36 photos. The camera was designed to wear under a garment with only the lens exposed through an opening such as a buttonhole, just as Sturmer did. It was a round flat canister hidden under the vest with the lens sticking out through a buttonhole. Under my clothes I had a string down through a hole in my trouser pocket and when I pulled the string the camera took a photo. This Victorian era selfie shows the young Sturmer at just 19 years of age after having recently bought his new device. Sturmer's candid Victorian snapshots. At the turn of the 20th century the streets of known today as Oslo were quietly transformed by an unusual observer. In 1893 when Karl Sturmer was a 19-year-old maths student at the Royal Frederick University, now known as Oslo University, he fell in love with a lady he did not know and with whom he was too shy to even approach. Wishing at least to have a picture of her he decided that this would only be possible by taking a photograph of her himself without her knowing. And so with a plan in his head and a love in his heart he went out and purchased the stern concealed camera. He secretly managed to take the young lady's picture but alas the love affair was not to be. However the hidden camera did not go to waste as he continued to capture those around him for the years that followed, between 1893 and 1897. Between lectures and research he stood along busy streets documenting ordinary people in extraordinary moments, couples strolling, workers passing by, conversations frozen in time. In the 1890s as the city of Christiania bustled with daily life few noticed they were being photographed at all. Professor Birkeland however was not so easily fooled. He paused, turned and quickly realized what Sturmer was up to. Long before street photography became an art form Sturmer was already practicing it patiently, discreetly and with remarkable foresight. Today his images offer a vivid window into everyday life over a century ago preserving the quiet rhythm of a city and its people. In this particular snapshot he secretly captured the brother of the future Norwegian prime minister Otto B Halvorsen. As you can see we had to be a little creative when producing this video. We cleaned up the original black and white images before colorizing them and introducing motion, ambient sound and occasional speech to the scenes using modern AI software. We chose to stick with the original circular format of Sturmer's photographs and bring them to life in full frame to get a clearer picture of how Victorian Oslo may have appeared at the back end of the 19th century. What makes these candid snapshots so compelling is the very thing which sets them apart from all of the other staged photographs of the Victorian era. We know that most Victorians captured on camera had to sit extremely still for their portraits due to the long exposure times and poor studio lighting of the time. This has left the contemporary viewer today with the perception that people living during the 1800s were rather serious and demure. It is clear from these images that we have clearly misconstrued their overall demeanor partly because of the photography techniques available over a century ago. We can all sit here in our comfy armchairs and sofas and imagine how it must have felt to be alive back then, knowing as we do how hard life must have been for so many people living on the wrong side of the poverty line. But beneath all of that people are just people. They smiled and they laughed like we do today. They fell in love and shared moments of passion and intimacy just as we do in the 21st century. AI with all its flaws and inconsistencies can serve a purpose if it helps us to better understand ourselves and our past in ways that two-dimensional photographs cannot. Even if it just allows us a sense of how it might have been in times gone by, AI can be a wonderful educational tool which makes history feel more relatable and ultimately more alive. Far from the growing bustle of Christiania, the island of Tyrma in Vestfold moved to a slower, older rhythm. In the summer months visitors arrived from the city seeking fresh air, open space and a brief escape from modern life. Meanwhile, back in the city, people passed in a steady flow along Karl Johans Gate and the surrounding avenues. Women in long fashionable clothing wearing stylish hats and furs. Gentlemen in dark coats with top hats and leather gloves and workers moving between shops and offices. Horse-drawn carriages rolled over cobblestones, their wheels echoing softly between the buildings. Shopfronts and cafes lined the streets where conversations drifted out into the open air. There was a gentle social rhythm, unhurried but constant, as the city grew into a modern capital. It was a place of small encounters and fleeting moments where life unfolded in plain view, captured for an instant before disappearing back into the crowd. And it is thanks to Karl Sturmer's hidden camera that we now have the opportunity to see what most professional photographers of the day were unable to produce. This is street photography. Unposed, uncomposed, but real. One might question the morality of the Norwegian students' deceptiveness, but we cannot deny the authenticity of the results. And with a little imagination, we can recreate and reanimate a frozen moment in time. And on days like May 17th, the streets came alive with celebration, voices rising in unison, flags waving, and joy carried through the crowd. In those moments, as in the quiet ones, the spirit of Norway was captured, alive, proud, and forever part of its people. And in capturing these fleeting moments, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Every glance, every passing figure, a fragment of life preserved. Through Sturmer's hidden lens, the streets of Victorian Christiania were no longer just lived in. They were remembered.