The Minox Wetzlar and a story from my childhood. / by scotland symons

First off the camera: Minox Wetzlar B

Minox-B is an analogue high-quality subminiature camera that is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. It was built by Minox in Germany as the successor to the post-war Minox A. For Many years it was the worlds most famous and widely used camera for espionage photography right until the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. (https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/camera/minox/b/index.htm)

My Personal Story about how this camera came into my life.

I wanted to share with you a story about a camera and the endless adventures of joy that it has brought me throughout my life. When I was growing up I was always a curious kid I really really liked going through my parents stuff while they were away from the house. To be honest a lot of kids are like this whether you have observed it or not and if you think back hard enough you can probably find an example in your own life where you did some of this to. Its not malicious its curiosity and I think in my mind lends so much more weight to the sentiment of “don’t lie to kids” because they will figure it out for better or worse and thats so true when it comes to what you might have hidden but back to my story. I really did like like sneaking into my parents stuff really I think because looking back I wanted to understand them and maybe in a way better understand myself. You see they weren’t always around as they both had to work and I was left to myself, not abandoned but like many kinds growing up their parents had to work to make ends meet but they were different. They told me what they were doing and why they were working and would do what they could to make sure a grandparent or a sitter was around until I was old enough to be left alone and watch my sibling by myself. Well when those times would happen I would explore all of the fun places in the house that were not off limits but definitely the realm of my parents. My favourite by far was the little library that they had created with books and treasures that always made my heart and my head swim in adventure and fantasy. There was a giant encyclopaedia set that I swear I read almost cover to cover, there was a set of books by Jacques Cousteau called the ocean world, there were ballet books, art books, and so many more. I lived in those books they were my world and probably saved me countless times over both then and now. My favourite was a book called “Legends of the South Sea” and was about Polynesian culture and the stories and traditions of the South Pacific. I still have a copy that book with me today and its not without its faults but I do deeply believe that if you have a chance to read it you should. These books were so full of illustrations and photos that it got me interested in trying to capture stuff myself. So art and photography because really a deep interest for me.

I was really lucky in that both of my parents were artists and even though art was never the thing that always paid our bills it was something that was very important to them and in turn because deeply important for me. Along with all of those books there were paintings and photographs that by American standards would not really be what you would see in a regular household (search for mid century nude paintings to get an idea). I also found photo binders from both my parents and it had the most wonderful treasure in it, a view of their lives before they had children and before they were married. I treasured these not that I realised it at the time but later on because it humanised them to me and made my parents feel flawed and relatable. There are some really good photos in there and I may have to write about them all another time, because wow the stories! My dad was and still is in love with photography and was a photographer on the side for a long time. He was definitely an amateur professional to paraphrase his thoughts on it. He for a while when he was just getting started used to do portraiture of people on the beach to create these tiny little view finder photos that people just loved.

This is one of those tiny view finders that my dad used to make with peoples portraits and photos.

My Dad, his brother, and dad at their home in the UK before being deployed to Europe.

My dad was also fascinated with spy stuff and because of inspiration from his older brother ended up getting a spy camera (the Minox Wetzlar). His brother is an another story all together and lived an a very crazy both beautiful and traumatising life. He was a member of the British 1st & 2nd Airborne Division that was a the centre of “Operation Market Garden” in WWII. My uncle was someone I will never forget and his stories were not all about war but of living life and living with difficult things. I want to write more about him later on but I will leave you with this quote that I found after he had passed that I think says a lot.


'If in the years to come, you meet a man who says, "I was at Arnhem", raise your hat and buy him a drink.'War correspondent Alan Wood, 1944

So my dad had a spy camera and one day in my adventures around the house I found that camera and ended up pulling it out and checking it out. I vaguely remember not actually really being sure what it was at first because it really didn’t look like a camera and was pretty nondescript metal matte rectangle but it felt special. It was wrapped in a tiny fitted leather case and it was heavy. It had a substance to it that never really quite matched the size of it. I thought it was a secret treasure and slowly through tumbling it around in my hands realised what it was kind of. Well the truth of it was my dad found me in that moment as I had not realised he was home. He was a little upset that I went through his stuff but by now my parents were used to me doing stuff like this but he took the time to show me what it was and then tell me stories about his brother, spy cameras, James Bond, and what ever else came to his mind. This started him showing me James bond movies and how he ended up being in one of the movies.

He used to bring his little spy camera with him to the set of the films when he was working in audio for films. Again another story that deserves it own write up but if you watch the film “Diamonds are Forever” my dad was apart of the crew that worked on that film in Las Vegas in 1970 and is one of the stunt people that get thrown off the moon buggy. So growing up with all these stories made me feel like I had a personal connection with the spy stories both real and fantasy and this little camera felt like something that connected both of those worlds. In a way it made me feel closer to my dad and I think in that he got to share those stories we had a secrets between us as I am not sure he ever really shared them with my sibling. So as time went on I used to sneak this camera out and take pictures with it or at least pretend to. Eventually in time I moved onto other things and later on as an adult my dad one day gave me this camera. When I opened that box I just cried, they were happy tears and I have to admit even while writing this it still makes me cry. This tiny little camera fills me with happy memories of that day when I first found it and connected with him and really started to understand more of his story. I still don’t know all of them and have been working with him to write down anything he can remember. But this camera will always be with me reminding me to observe and be playful because it make life more fun.

Hope you enjoyed this look to the past and a bit of a personal story that I am glad I could share.