My Photographic Odyssey Part 2

It all started with espionage ...

I found my way back into film photograpy via a somewhat unorthodox route. In 2020/2021 I was researching and writing my first book for Pen & Sword, Secrets of the Cold War, Espionage and Intelligence Operations from both side of the Iron Curtain.

A Minox B sub-miniature 'spy' camera (CIA)

In a chapter about the famous British spy George Blake, who betrayed his country to the Soviets, I talk about a Minox 'spy' camera that he was given by his KGB handler to use to photograph the top secret documents that crossed his desk at SIS. I included a picture from the CIA of a Minox B, which, of course, everyone knows was the wrong model to include, as Blake was doing his spying in the early 1950s, and the Model B did not come out until 1958 ... I was blissfully ignorant of such things at the time.

Oleg Penkovsky's Minox A/IIIs spy camera

However, I was quite taken by the design of this miniature wonder.

In the same chapter, this time discussing the Soviet GRU officer Oleg Penkovsky, who spied for SIS and the CIA around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there's another reference to a Minox spy camera, and I include the KGB evidence photo of the Minox A/IIIs that was found in his apartment, along with a load of films and a cigarette packet that was used to deliver them by his Western handler.

My interest was piqued ...

In 2022/2023 I was writing my next book for Pen & Sword, BRIXMIS and the Secret Cold War, Intelligence Collection Operations Behind Enemy Lines in East Germany, and I found this photo in the archives - a Stasi agent undertaking supposedly covert photography of a BRIXMIS tour using a Minox B, hardly a suitable camera for what he was hoping to achieve. However, by now I had to own one of these miniature wonders, and I saw it taking pride of place on the espionage shelf in my office.

Stasi agent attempting covert photography of a BRIXMIS tour using a Minox B camera

My first Minox, a 'B' model from 1963

Digging deeper, I discovered that it was still possible to find these cameras on eBay and with specialist photographic dealers ... one thing led to another, and I became the proud owner of a 1963 Minox B with instructions (in French) and the original bill of sale from Brussels airport duty free. It was a good camera to start with because it was totally manual, albeit with a fixed f/3.5 aperture.

My Minox Bs. The lower open camera shows the controls: from left to right: the meter dial; the shutter speed dial; the shutter release button; and the zone focusing dial

To shoot with it, you open up the camera by pulling the casing apart (as anyone who has watched spy movies will tell you!), then, looking at your subject through the viewfinder, you push the small button above the meter (on the bottom left in the photo). The needle on the dial responds to the ambient light level, and you find the appropriate shutter speed by rotating the shutter speed dial (in the middle of the top plate) until the arrow on the meter wheel lines up with the needle. Then you think about the distance you are from the subject, and dial it in on the zone focusing dial (on theright of the picture). Some people hate ‘zone focusing’, but I find it quite straightforward, and the dial helps you gauge the available depth of field at a particular distance. Then you look through the viewfinder, remembering not to have your finger over the lens (happens a lot unless you’re careful!), and gently press the small round shutter release button while trying to hold the camera still. I’ll do a separate post on these wonderful little cameras, going into a lot more detail, but they are great fun to shoot with.

I also made the acquaintance of Paul O'Sullivan from MS Hobbies in London, who is the premier UK dealer for all things Minox. He sold me some film for the camera which he imports from Blue Moon Camera in Portland, Oregon in the USA, who are the only people manufacturing 'new' Minox film, albeit in 'old' plastic cassettes. They slit down new emulsions like Ilford Delta 100 and 400.

The way eBay purchases can go, unfortunately, this Minox B had a faulty shutter (as the pictures show), so despite its impeccable provenance, the camera was returned for a refund

This small setback did not put me off, and armed with a properly serviced Minox C from 1969, c/o MS Hobbies, I had more success. Not too bad when you consider these images are from ridiculously small 8x11mm negatives!

This post is not the place to wax lyrical about Minox and sub-miniature photography (a post will follow!), but I was completely smitten with the idea and reality of film (i.e. analogue) photography.

When my daughter was doing GCSE Photography, a friend kindly gave her a pair of Praktica BMS 35mm cameras and a selection of lenses. Prakticas were made in the GDR (East Germany) and the BMS was launched in 1989, which was ironic as the GDR was soon to evaporate following the fall of the Berlin Wall (another cross over with my 'other' life as a Cold War historian). My daughter never got the bug for film photography, and was happy to blaze away with my Canon DSLR, so the cameras languished in their camera bags for several years until my experiences with the Minox inspired me to dig them out, give them a bit of a clean, insert some fresh batteries, and take them shooting. The Prakticas are a bit 'agricultural' to use (like many Soviet-Bloc 'consumer' products), and the shutter goes off with a loud clack, scaring away the seagulls, but the lenses are very good - East Germany was famous for its optical industries: camera lenses and binoculars. I enjoy shooting with them and I've had good results - a future post will look these Prakticas in more detail.

My first 35mm film camera, a 1989 Praktica BMS

These pictures were from the first film I shot through the Praktica - again, I was pleased with how they came out.

It's interesting to compare the results taken from the Minox and the Praktica, especially when you compare the relative size of the two negatives.

The black and white shot on the left from the 35mm Praktica vs. the colour shot on the right from the Minox C ('Jacob's Ladder', off The Moor in Falmouth, all 111 steps of it).

From these miniature and humble beginnings came a passion for film photography, and an all-consuming hobby. From it, a growing collection of cameras has materialised across lots of different film formats, and a darkroom to develop my own film, scan my own negatives, and make prints from them. And to think it all started with espionage …