Oslo - Chicago - Oslo

My mother showed me this dark photo.
It was immediately clear who those on the photo were.

A slighly lighter version showed the family even clearer:
My paternal grandfather and grandmother and their five children.
The youngest child is my father born in 1917, so I assume this photo was taken in 1920 or 1921.
The girl to the right in the front row is the only person still alive. My aunt is now 95 years old.

So who took the photo here in Norway?
The backside of the photo seemed mysterious:


Printed in Chicago?
A photo from Norway, now in Norway?

I then remembered a story my father told me:
As the youngest child , the family let him grow his blond hair, without cutting it.

Then when my father was three or four years old, my grandmother's friend Signora, who had emigrated to the States, came for a visit to Norway. She was disgusted with the little boy having long hair like a little girl and quickly cut my father's hair!
Guess she must have been a very close friend of my grandmother to allow herself to do this.

When I put this story together with the photo above, I see Signora bringing a camera to Norway, and photographing my grandparents, aunts, uncle and father. Then developing the film in Chicago - where she probably lived - and sending the photos to Oslo.

If we could have taken off my father's little hat, we would probably have seen that he had recently had a haircut!