Mystery Woman

Who are the people in this 1970 picture?

One of them is an important "first" for a female...TOP's first Mystery Woman. I promised last time I did a "Mystery Man" that the next one would be a woman. Pretty sure this honor will be going on her CV. Or maybe it might get overlooked somehow.

Readers of a certain age will recognize the hallmarks of a Kodak Instamatic snapshot—the square format, the paper-white border ("paper white" was the term for the color of the paper base, regardless of what it was), the month and year imprinted thereupon.

The Instamatic was really very similar to what later would have been called toy cameras. The "Flashcube" seems primitive now, but was an innovation at the time.

An Instamatic was my first camera—I might have gotten it in fourth or fifth grade—and the first camera I did a project with, at the Gettysburg National Military Park. I always think of it when people denigrate smartphone cameras as "not real cameras." The iPhone falls short when compared with a GFX, true ($1,000 off right now), but it stacks up pretty well against an Instamatic, you've got to admit. I can still conjure in my mind the smell of just-fired Flashcubes after all these years.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Thanks to all our Patreon contributors!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Henri van der Sluis: "Hey Mike even in the Netherlands we can deduce that...Kamala Harris with her mother and sister."

Pritam Singh: "The lady is Shyamala Gopalan Harris seen here with Maya and Kamala, her daughters. Kamala is the Kamala Harris we all know today."

Mike replies: Left to right, Kamala, Maya, Shyamala. So now I have to make another promise for the next Mystery Person: It will have to be harder!

Kenneth Tanaka: "I confess that I’ve no immediate idea who this woman is. Re 'I always think of it when people denigrate smartphone cameras as "not real cameras."' Wait. You were one of those denigrators just a few years ago, weren’t you? Don’t I recall a lengthy, and somewhat tiresome, discussion here following an article along the lines of 'The best camera is the one...,' during which you dissed phone cameras (despite still using a very old model at the time)?"

Mike replies: Moi?

Adam: "I don't know if this is me retroactively inventing the rationale, but the Instamatic is inadvertently responsible for my interest in better quality cameras: We were doing a family outing to an airshow and I remember taking a photo of a flying plane with the camera. I was very excited when we finally got the prints back to see how the photo had come out, and was so disappointed when it was just a tiny blurry dot. My first lesson in how a wide angle lens behaves...."

hugh crawford: "The first thing I noticed was that it was a photo of West Berkeley down near the bay. Spent a lot of time there in the late '60s in the summers when I was 12 or so, and still go there a few times a year. Funny how you see a photo and think 'I’ve been there, where is it?' So I’m guessing that’s our new Vice President?"

Mike replies: Hugh, you are the best. Only you would recognize the place but not the people.

Craig A: "Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, on the left, with her mother and younger sister. As a long-time Oakland, CA resident (and knowing that she grew up in Berkeley), this photo immediately felt familiar to me the first time I saw it. So, I did some Google Street View sleuthing! It was taken in Berkeley at the southeast corner of Milvia Street and Berkeley Way. The office building behind her mother’s head and the building along the right-side edge of the photo are still there."

Mike replies: Craig, meet Hugh. Hugh, Craig. If you become friends, you can say you met at the corner of Milvia and Berkeley Way.

Graham: "Mylvia and Berkeley Way? How’d you come to that? I too thought “Berkeley” as soon as I saw it, but I’d put them a few blocks further south...."

Adam: "I didn't recognize the people or the place, despite having lived right around there for 20+ years...."

Comments

[Zaan]

That has to be the Harris family (with Kamala on the left?).

[F Hall]

Shyamala Gopalan, Kamala Harris, Maya Harris

[Crabby Umbo]

Let's not forget the FlashBar!

[Andrew]

I believe that's VP elect Kamala Harris with her mother and sister.

If I recall, the photo was used to illustrate a New Yorker story a few months ago.

[John Krill]

Our next VP.

[terence morrissey]

The Kodak Instamatic was my first camera in 1972.

[Chester Williams]

Kamala Harris, her sister and her mom?

[Michael Trupiano]

Kamala Harris, VP-elect, her mom and sister, Oakland California.

[Benjamin Marks]

Our next Vice-President!

[Benjamin Marks]

. . . and mother and sister.

[Carl Siracusa]

Too easy! Kamala Harris with her sister and mother.

[Tex Andrews]

Isn't that Kamala Harris' mom?

[Lee]

Shyamala, Kamala, and Maya.

[Tex Andrews]

Oh, and I also had an Instamatic when I was in 5th grade (or 5th form, as I was in England with my mom who had a Fulbright Grant.). Many adventures, lots of travels. Not quite clear whose camera it was---some disagreements on that one---but I used it a lot (although not at school, sadly)and took my first image with it that I actually understood to be a good one (in Delphi). I remember that "Aha!" moment .

[MikeR]

Kamala Harris, of course, with her sister and mother.

I sold a dozen little flashbulbs this past year, along with a collapsible flash. Was it Sylvania that offered Press 25? That plastic coating used to contain shattered glass certainly had a distinctive odor. I'm glad that's all long gone.

[Graham]

Can see the likeness in her face even then. Do we know the story, where they were going? Was it her father behind the camera?

[Fred Haynes]

I say Kamala Harris

[Mike Llews]

Our next VP?

[Joe Rukenbrod]

That is Kamala Harris, her mother, and her sister.

[MarkB]

Easy one - that's Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris, her sister Maya and her mother Shyamala. Most likely in Oakland, CA.

I wasn't born until 3 months after that photo was taken, but I do remember the smell of flashcubes. Alas, my first camera was a Kodak disc camera (ahem), with an electronic flash.

[schralp]

Kamala Harris

[Albert Smith]

That would be Veep (elect) Harris!

[Malcolm Leader]

Kamala Harris.

[Dogman]

I venture the guess that one of those children is now our Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris.

[JohnW]

Ah Yes. The smell of burnt plastic does linger in the mind.

[Andy Wilkes]

Ah yes! Are you thinking of magicubes used by my first camera an Instamatic - no need for a battery; such light, the smell, the molten lump when the spring loaded wire was released and they 'exploded'.
Here a pic of my dad on Christmas morning opening the present from me: a book of jokes so rude that I did not know what I was giving him. (I was perhaps 10 years old). My second camera was at age 12 when my grandfather took me into town, I had in mind to get a Polaroid, he bought me a Practika Super TL, and from then I used Kodachrome 64 just like he did.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-FKHRXJN/0/O/i-FKHRXJN-O.jpg

[William Lewis]

Mom sister and Kamela?

And, oh, yeah about the Instamatic and the flash cubes. I took my first photos with that. My mother used one for years till she went back to college and took an art class on photography and bought a Canon AE-1 with the nifty 50/1.8.

I followed her example when I got to Germany a year or so later and found an AE-1P with 50/1.8 at the PX.

But you can never forget the Instamatic once you held one in your hands.

[Tom Frost]

Gotta' be Kamala Harris!

[Sal Santamaura]

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, her sister Maya Harris and mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris.

[Andrew Bearman]

That's Kamala Harris & her sister, with her mom in Berkeley, CA, where she spent some years of her childhood. That block is about 6 blocks from downtown. The Bay Area is proud of Kamala!

[DB]

Kamala Harris

[Wayne]

None less than our next Vice President, her mother and her sister.

[Hugo]

Kamala Harris with her Mom and sister. I read about the picture in the past.

[Benoit Botton]

Mike, Mike, Mike that was a bit easy!
Kamala Harris is the girl on the left with her sister and mother. The picture was published recently in a BBC article:BBC News - Kamala Harris: The many identities of the first woman vice-president
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-53728050

[Iran Ramirez]

That’s Kamala Harris in the photo above. Firs woman VP, she grew up just outside of San Francisco, in Berkeley CA

[Grumpy]

duh. Kamala Harris and mom, sister.

[Stan B.]

Real men had the 100- with individually loaded flash bulbs!

[Terry E. Manning]

Our new Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, her mother and sister!

[Thomas Walsh]

I believe the taller girl is Kamala Harris, her little sister Maya and their mother. The date on the photo would make Kamala 5 years old. I am guessing that the photo was taken in California, possible Berkeley.

[Nick Morgan]

The Vice-President elect (far left), her sister and mother?

[David Dyer-Bennet]

A Pocket Instamatic was my first toy camera; the first little easy camera I had after I already had a big complicated camera.

I remember being deeply impressed reading about the camera and projector lenses being designed to expect the degree of film curvature the cartridges provided (while wondering just how consistent the cartridges were at that). My first practical example that the things we all took for granted (as desirable; not always achieved) like flat film and flat plane of best focus weren't the only way to do things. (I also knew about the shifts and tilts in view cameras early, but that was still discussed based on theoretical perfect planes of this and that.)

That Instamatic snapshot looks remarkably colorful and contrasty, compared to my memories of the real things.

[Auke]

I have no idea. This looks like a nice Afro-Jamaican/Tamil Indian family.

[Dan Gorman]

Gotta be Kamala Harris and family.

[Andy Wilkes]

"one of them". I see what you did there.

[Jim Lauretig]

Kamala Harris as a child. It's January and it's LA weather. There's an article in the LA Times with 11 images of her growing up in LA.https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-kamala-harris-young-photos-20180109-story.html

[Eddie irani]

Ms. Harris? I seem to remember this photograph from an article I read a few weeks ago.

[Mark O]

the smell of just fired flashcubes! Oh man...

[Tom Burke]

The child on the left is VP-elect Kamala Harris, with her sister and mother.

(This image was featured on a BBC News website story a couple of days ago, “Who is Kamala Harris?”.) It’s not clear who took it, however - her father? A family friend?

[Rob Griffin]

I would guess that the the oldest young lady holding her sister’s hand is Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

[Jeff Pressman]

I believe that's Kamala Harris as a child with her mother and sister. Absolutely a huge 'first' and hopefully a sign of more to come.

[Jim Kofron]

I'm going to guess Maya and Kamala Harris and mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris. If I'm correct, I'm sure that Kamala will always treasure being the first 'Mystery Woman' on TOP.

[Paul Glover]

From left to right, that has to be Kamala, Maya and mom Shyalama.

I vividly recall the flashcubes (more specifically the “Magicubes” that worked without need of batteries, a detail I did not know about until much, much later), how clever it was that they would turn with the film advance so the next bulb was ready and in position. Then the later flip flashes that we used with the family Kodak 110 (one of those and a film cartridge would last us a year, being the proverbial “two Christmas trees and a swimsuit” family where photography was concerned).

They did have a characteristic smell, for sure.

[Richard Man]

Ooooo, pick me, pick me!

Kamala Devi Harris, the first woman VP-Elect, first Black and first South Asian woman for that post. Mom is Shyamala Gopalan Harris, and sister Maya Harris

[Henning Wulff]

Shayamala Gopalan and her two daughters Maya and Kamala, now the first woman, South Asian and Black VP-elect. What a fantastic breakthrough for a remarkable woman!

- the Canadian perspective.

[Allan Ostling]

Mike, this is too easy a quiz -- the photo of Kamala, her younger sister Maya, and their mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris has been in wide circulation during this political season. I applaud your posting it again; it gives me a chance to express my appreciation for your tacit backing of the new President and VP-elect. Smiles, from Arizona (now turning blue).

[Jeff]

Girl in red... Michelle Obama?

[Dan Khong]

Yep, I was in the Instamatic generation. The photograph brought back lots of memories and particularly the colours and square format when other cameras shot in 2:3 formats. The negatives, if I remember correctly, had no sprockets. I cannot recall the minimum distance to use on my camera, but could be 8 feet.

[Robert Fogt]

I assume that you must already know of Jim Alinder's book, Picture America, with words by Wright Morris. A beautiful collection of Instamatic photos that are perhaps now as timely as they have ever been.

I've lost track of how many times I've replaced this one for myself, after having given away my previous copy.

Bob Fogt

[KeithB]

It is the vice-president elect, her sister and Mom. This image made the rounds after Harris' bussing shot that hit below the watermark during the primary debate.

[Jeff]

Changed my mind... girl in yellow... Kamala Harris? She looks more like 6, with Indian mom.

[Jamie Pillers]

The people in the photo are Kamala Harris, her younger sister, and her mother. I believe the photo was taken in Berkeley or Oakland, CA.

[Dan Meyers]

My guess is Kamala Harris and her mom and sis.

[Curt Gerston]

I’m gonna guess one of the kids is Kamala Harris? Fits the clue...

[JimF]

Can't remember the last time I smelled a burned flash bulb. It's a unique smell, isn't it? Wish I had saved a few. Funny how well smells trigger memory.

[Michael]

My guess? The older child is Kamala Harris, with her mom and her younger sister. I watched Harris's speech before Joe Biden's. She is a formidable speaker and a tremendous presence.

[Les Myers]

The "mystery woman" is Kamala Harris' mother. Kamala is on the left in this photo that I saw accompanying a story about her.

[Charlie Ewers]

Michelle Obama and kids?

[Peter Williams]

An important (and welcome) first indeed.

[Geoff]

I think Ive seen this photo before, during the primaries. Those Instamatics, and the flashcube especially, always remind me of childhood vacations in Italy, of the Forum Romanum and of Capri.

[John Shriver]

Kamala Harris, left, with her sister, Maya, and mother, Shyamala, in Berkeley, Calif., in 1970.

I still remember the smell of a freshly opened roll of Kodachrome, as well as fired flashbulbs.

[Charlie Ewers]

Meant to say Michelle Obama's mom and HER kids.

[Jeff Hohner]

This is why I read you Mike. I'd forgotten all about the smell of just fired flash cubes! Thank you.

Now I'm also remembering the used-flash bulb toss that my grandmother used to do. She was a prolific shutter bug.

For those unfamiliar with them, bulbs only fired once unlike the automatic 4 flashes of a cube. To take another picture after using a flash bulb, you pressed a button to pop it out from the flash gun reflector so that you could load a fresh bulb in its place. Spent bulbs popped out with a certain zest. It was tempting to catch them mid-air, but they got hot! It was hard to remember how long they took to cool, and to be patient when more pictures were waiting to be taken. Hence the used-bulb juggle. :-)

[Mani Sitaraman]

That's the Vice President Elect, her mother, and her sister.

I'm truly impressed that Craig A can identify the precise street corner. Personally, my obsessive compulsive eye drifted to the car whose roofline and window pillar are barely visible behind the bush on the right. The styling is anachronistic for 1970.

[Luke]

Yes! That smell.

My mom saved up paper towel wrappers, which I mailed off with a few bucks to get my "free" Instamatic. (It was probably worth only those few bucks).

I rode my mini-bike around the neighborhood with that camera dangling from the handlebars, whacking the hell out of it. No problem.

[Helcio J. Tagliolatto]

My very first camera!
The pictures I took with that camera are still in good shape, color accurate, fifty years old.
Amazing little Kodak.

[Craig A]

Nice to meet you, Hugh!

“Mylvia and Berkeley Way? How’d you come to that?”

I felt the photo had a strong “downtown Berkeley area” vibe to it, and I had read on her Wikipedia page that her family briefly lived on Milvia Street, so that gave me a good head start for where to look on Google Street View.

[reid wolf]

Good to see glimpses of good old Berkeley from the 60s and one of its (now) most famous offspring.