Photographs taken by commercial photographers, journalists, and tourists that show an area of interest or intelligence target. Often these are the only ground-level photos available to an intelligence agency of a location of particular interest.

These are called Aunt Minnies because someone's aunt (or wife or husband) was often in the photos.

During World War II the U.S. Office of Strategic Services scoured antique shops for Aunt Minnie postcards, while magazine publishers' files, especially those of the National Geographic Magazine, were searched for photographs of target areas.