“I like the timelessness of the photos. Of course, I am a bit of a dreamer and somewhat poetic. Distance and proximity are also what my photos are about”
– Mark van den Brink
Walter Zapp [O.S. 22 August] 1905 – 17 July 2003) produced the lightweight, aluminium Minox pocket camera in 1936 at a factory in his native Latvia. Used by the German military, spies and TV and film producers looking to get that Cold War feel, the negatives are 8mm x 11mm, grainy, raw and far from perfect, or ‘shot’ as we call them.
Photographer Mark van den Brink harnessed the quality of the Minox for a project. He cuts the polyester film to size in the dark before loading it into his Minox. He bought the camera with the idea that it allows you to photograph the things around you inconspicuously, like a voyeur (see The Perverted Flâneur – Miroslav Tichý). During his training at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, he became captivated by the distortion, rough structure, and imperfections that resulted from making prints in the darkroom.
Between 1994 and 2005, he built an extensive archive of 15,000 images, 350 of which were compiled in his 2021 book The Minox Files.
The first Minox was a subminiature camera, conceived as early as 1922 in Riga, Latvia, but not produced until 1936. After World War II, the camera was redesigned and started production in Germany. Zapp envisioned the portable Minox to be a camera anyone could use. But its hight cost made it more of a luxury gadget.
“The scratches and developing flaws are part of the process. I see them as a gift, and sometimes they even add something to the image. But more often than not, I spend hours retouching my prints with ink and a tiny brush to remove dust. I also look for images that feel timeless. I leave out as many details as possible that could pin a photo to a specific era. That sense of timelessness is something I consider beautiful. Of course, I am a bit of a dreamer and somewhat poetic. My photos are also about distance and closeness.”
– Mark van den Brink
I always wanted to carry a camera with me to be able to take pictures at any time and in any place. I always had a SLR camera with me, which is not always convenient. I first saw the Minox camera in Robert Altman’s film ‘Prêt-à-Porter’. This was a camera that you could easily put in your trouser pocket. Exactly what I was looking for to always be able to have with me. In retrospect, you could say that it was a kind of smartphone ‘avant la lettre’. Just like you now use your phone to take pictures.
“It also started as a kind of diary. I photographed everything and everyone around me. I was quite obsessive about taking pictures. Always a camera at hand. Examples in photography for me were Wiliam Eggleston and Ed van de Elsken for example. What works well for me is the distraction from daily life. And then with one eye in the other direction. Looking for a photo. Later I started doing more projects, traveling to the Alps, New York and Paris for example. Sometimes alone but often in company which provided just enough distraction.”
– Mark van den Brink
