The Minox Files

11,9 x 15,3 cm, 384 pages
360 photographs in full colour and duotone
CONCEPT Van den Brink / Van Zoetendaal
DESIGN Willem van Zoetendaal

The first product to bear the Minox name was a subminiature camera, conceived as early as 1922 (Riga) but only invented and produced later by the Baltic German Walter Zapp in 1936. From 1937 to 1943, the Minox camera was manufactured by the Latvian VEF (Valstselektrotehniskā fabrika). However, following World War II, the camera was redesigned and started production in Germany. Walter Zapp originally intended the Minox to be a camera anyone could use, especially those new to photography. Nevertheless, the prohibitively high cost of production soon led Minox to become more widely associated with an amateur photographer’s luxury gadget.

Shortly thereafter, and none too surprisingly, it entered the ranks of espionage as a spy camera. The ultralight aluminum device’s 80 x 27 x 16 mm format could easily be concealed in clothing, hollow books, bags, and suitcases. During the Cold War, intelligence operatives used it to take snapshots of classified documents and maps. The number of movies in which this little spy camera stars is endless. For example, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), James Bond uses the Minox to covertly capture the locations of deadly biological warfare agents.

At 8 × 11 mm, the Minox also has the smallest-sized negatives in analog photography. The delicate silvery surface is 88 mm² on a polyester base. To load his Minox camera, photographer Mark van den Brink (Netherlands, 1965) cut the plastic film to size by hand. He purchased the camera thinking that he could – like a voyeur – inconspicuously photograph the world around him, even from the comfort of an easy chair.