Secret Police Snaps

Street photography is a favourite subject here, and police harrassment of photographers is another. But I never thought I'd do a post about street photography by the police.

From a new book published by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, here's a series of surveillance photos from the 1970s and 1980s taken by the Czech secret police. It is interesting to note how context and intent can inform the interpretation of a photograph, because as you look at these, everyone seems to be doing something suspicious. But, of course, these were just regular people going about their daily lives.

If you think the images look older than labelled, it's probably due to the quality of Soviet-bloc camera equipment.

Hat tip PetaPixel.