1890s Spy Camera Street Photography by 19 Year Old Carl Størmer

Carl Størmer (1872-1957) got his C.P. Stirn Concealed Vest Spy Camera in 1893 when he was studying mathematics at the Royal Frederick University (now, University of Oslo) Norway.

 "It was a round flat canister hidden under the vest with the lens sticking out through a buttonhole," he told St. Hallvard Journal in 1942. "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."

These wonderfully candid images are a window into a time when most photographs were very formal and rigid. One of the first good examples of street photography.  

“I was a young 19 year-old student at the time and had gotten hold of a funny detective camera.” ~ Carl Størmer 

"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.

I strolled down Carl Johan, found me a victim, greeted, got a gentle smile and pulled. Six images at a time and then I went home to switch plate.” Størmer lived nearby Karl Johan and took a total of 500 images." 

~ Carl Størmer 

 

 

 

 

1940's & 50's San Francisco by Photographer Fred Lyon

Fred Lyon has been called "San Francisco's Brassaï," and has also been compared to Cartier-Bresson, Atget, and Andre Kertesz, but with a San Francisco twist. The lifelong San Francisco Native happily admits his debt to those icons.

 Now at 92 years old, his nonstop career reaches back to the early 1940s and embracing news, fashion, architecture, advertising, and food. In the golden years of magazines, his picture credits were everywhere from LIFE to VOGUE. He is now combining his extensive picture files for galleries, publishers, and print collectors.



Foggy Night, Land's End, San Francisco, CA

Lyon reflects on his favourite image:

 "In those early days, I lived in Sausalito. I had a new bride. We’d been invited upstairs for a cocktail. But earlier in the day, I’d spoken with an editor of a story I was doing on San Francisco and he said, ‘Fred, we’re trying to close this story but we need a fog picture.’ I said, ‘You cannot queue the fog here, we haven’t had a foggy night.’

He said, ‘We‘re holding a space for it, but you better get it soon and you better get it good.’

My wife and I went upstairs to our landlord and he was just about to pour the drink and I looked out the window and I saw the fog snaking in through the Golden Gate.

I said, ‘Don’t pour, we got to take a picture.’ My landlord and my wife said, ‘What do you mean? We’re dying of thirst, we’re ready to drink.’

I said, ‘I promise, we’ll go to the nearest bar if I just get this fog picture. But we’ve got to go right now.’

We went out to where Sutro Baths was…We parked the car there. We got out and it was wonderful, thick fog. That’s an idyllic picture of a couple, very romantic. It’s my landlord and my wife. And what they’re saying: ‘Fred, for Christ’s sake take the goddamn picture, we’re dying of thirst and we’re freezing.’

                
A Walk in the Fog 1949

 I’ve always had a ravenous camera and my camera would always take me out on these excursions. ~ Fred Lyon

          
Fred Lyon Embarcadero Lunch 1948

Parking in style, below the Mark Hopkins hotel

San Francisco Ballet performance of the Nutcracker Suite.






Barker at a strip club on Broadway.

The greatest attribute that any photographer can have is insatiable curiosity.~  Fred Lyon

Golden Gate Bridge section aerial with Alcatraz near Upper Border

San Francisco Post and Powell Street, Union Square 1947

Coit Tower, atop Telegraph Hill, Downtown Skyline, San Francisco, CA c. 1940

San Francisco Cable Car Turnaround, Powell & Market 1946

North Beach-Kearny and Fresno, San Francisco 1952

Skate coasters, North Beach.

Kearny Street above Broadway, North Beach 1952

Herring fishermen, Sausalito’s Old Town in the distance

Ocean Beach from Sutro Heights.

Two construction workers eating lunch downtown revel in their front-row seats above the bustle of the noon crowd.

Tin Wah Noodle Company, Chinatown 1948

Boys Fishing on the Wharf, 1954

Young Fishermen, Fisherman’s Wharf 1954

Setting Out to Sea, China Camp, San Francisco Bay 1952

Buy Fred Lyon's book here
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