My grandmother used to say: “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” I had to have one. I just had to have a little Minox spy camera. It was a neat little camera that slipped into my pocket. But the negatives are tiny with a mere 8mm x 11mm image area. I had one roll of processed film and a handful of prints from that roll to work with. Wishes? Instead of wishing for bigger, higher quality negatives, I worked with what I had and picked my four favorite images.
I wonder if this young woman even knew I was right in front of her taking her picture? She was deep in her own world completely unaware that I had captured a particularly expressive moment in her life.
Hands can be so expressive. The posture of mother (I’m assuming here) and child says it all.
Another decisive moment. I love the woman’s smile, her posture and the atmosphere of this shot. A genuine human moment.
Another human touch. Another smile. Another moment in the life of a Saigon street vendor. This is kind of a fun image. The shy smile, the woman’s hand and her friend with the neat hat squatting across from her. The baskets help pull this image together.
Getting these images into a presentable format was a challenge. I used scans of the prints for the middle two and tricked my Minolta scanner into scanning the tiny negatives for the first and last images.
The Minox lab (I had these developed in the States right after I came home) did a real number on my film. They managed to fog the edges of some frames, scratched others and all of them are filthy.
I got rid of that camera after one roll of film. Fortunately, I salvaged a few good shots from that roll. Enjoy.
Hey John just wondering if you’ve ever developed your own film? I really like the third picture of the woman.
Hi Mike. Thanks for the comment. I too like the third picture of the woman. There’s something about the image that sings to me. I wish I had developed that roll of Minox film because that frame was fogged along the bottom, scratched and extra dirty. Fortunately, I still had a small print that I scanned for this image.
I develop all my own film now and have been for the past few years. I did all my own processing back in the 1970s. Developing B&W film isn’t difficult. I enjoy the control I get when I do all my own processing. I’ve developed a workflow that gives me clean negatives every time — critical when scanning.
In spite of the small negative, they produce nice images. Interesting that the first shot has a camera store in the background.
I love the first and third shots.
My father had a Minox for a while; I have no idea what happened to it…
Thanks for sharing this. I like to read it very much, and I must tell you that we have such a spy camera a Minox I have a photo of it in my side bar. Hard to believe that the Minox can take such a good photos after all. We havn´t used our MInox. I really love the first photo of the girl! Lovely.
Great shots! It’s like looking at a history book.
My mother and grandmother used to the same thing “If wishes were horses beggars would ride.” 🙂
Just discovered you from Weekend Reflections. Look forward to following you Mike!
John — The pictures are remarkable – processing flaws aside – but I think the far more interesting story is how did you come to be in Saigon in 1966 with a spy camera?
Hi Steve,
I was in the USAF, stationed at Tan San Nhut airbase. My usual camera was a 35mm. I bought the minox on a whim.
Enjoy looking at these old photos!
Great old black and white photos, especially the first three.
Regards!
I too wished for a Minox in the sixties but could never afford the whole kit. That wish led me to get the modern version and the first film through it was ruined by poor processing. I went on to get the digital version which would be fun were it not for curious faults. If you look right down Loose Ends you can see the results. It is unreliable so I am somewhat disillusioned with Minox.
I had great luck with Minolta and between D’star and myself, we have three film models.
They are all special photos,but my persona favourite is the first – she is so unaware of you.
We had sub-miniatures at one time. I loved mine. Hard to get the film now.
What a wonderful medium this is for showing the results of vintage cameras,
capturing a past lifetime in another world! Your first subject, caught unawares,
picks-up her absorption beautifully! Thank you for your comment today!
belle série, avec une préférence pour la 3eme photo, malheureusement mon anglais lamentable ne me permet pas d’apprécier tes textes a leur juste valeur.
Thank you. Here is the google translation of your comment.
nice set, with a preference for the 3rd photo, unfortunately, my English does not allow me sad to enjoy your texts at their fair value.
These are all amazing shots. It blows my mind what you could do with the little camera.
Despite the small negative, these are really nice! Unfortunately, I have very few memories of smiling civilians, from my days in VN. Where I was at they weren’t usually very happy to see us.