The Padlock Gallery in Philadelphia is preparing for a show focusing on the photobooth experience, and are looking for submissions. The show, called “A $3 Love Affair,” will feature hundreds of photostrips, pictures that use the booth in “unprecedented” ways. Submissions are due by April 1, 2006, and the show opens on April 8th.

They’ve got such a good little blurb about the photobooth experience that we’ll quote some of it whole, right here:

…when the flashes start going, your mind is nowhere but there, concealed in that tiny, unique environment, elevated to some other state with a rush of adrenaline; and suddenly, the rules are different- you’re only separated from the natural world by a small piece of fabric; but for some reason, that’s enough; and within the walls of the photobooth, acquaintances become friends, friends become lovers, serious people become goofballs, everyone becomes part of the same team; and then that’s it- it’s all over so quick and you can’t even recall what just happened as you stand waiting for what seems like an eternity for your photos to drop in that slot (which really makes you start to question if it did happen at all!); and they finally do, and they’re wet and smell funny, and you pass them around and laugh, or maybe you tuck them inside a notebook to secretly savor or reflect upon at some later date.

The show has the following submission guidelines:

• Submit as many photobooth strips as you want. There is no limit! Do it by March 20, 2006

• Will only accept submissions created on or within actual photobooth strips (not accepting digitally manipulated strips, photobooth stickers, photocopied strips, or any other form of reproduction …paint on’em, scratch your tag on it, whut ev’s… just give us the OG strips, OK?)

We particularly appreciate the last one, and look forward to seeing what the Padlock gets. Thanks to Mike for letting us know about the show. We expect to see some photos from the opening, and we’d love to hear what the show is like from some Photobooth.net readers.

With a recent re-entry into the world of Netflix, I’ve got a clutch of new entries to the Movies and TV section of the site. From 1987, we begin with Best Seller, starring Brian Dennehy and James Woods. Then, we have the Philip Kaufman adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel Rising Sun. Next, the teen black comedy Jawbreaker from 1999. Then, from 2001, the Adrien Brody vehicle Love the Hard Way. And who can forget Terminal Velocity, starring Charlie Sheen? And finally, we have Prom Queen, a Canadian TV movie from 2004. Rising Sun, Jawbreaker, and Prom Queen feature only photostrips, but the other three have legitimate photobooth appearances.

In addition, I came across the supposed “photo booth” sequence in the recent Land of the Dead. The oft-mentioned “photo booth” scene, which featured the men behind the recent homage Shaun of the Dead, wasn’t really a photobooth scene. I can’t think of a much better name for it, though, so I don’t blame those who described it as such in the press. It’s a brief scene featuring a “get your photo taken with a zombie” attraction at a carnival. Carnivalgoers pose in front two zombies, chained to a metal rack, as a cameraman takes a photo — it’s no photobooth, but it “zombie photo op” doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

International corporation Photo-Me is back in the news this week, this time with some good news: they’ve sealed a deal with the Post Office in the UK. The deal, worth £5m, calls for Photo-Me to supply “digital media kiosks for the self-service printing of photographs” to post offices around the UK. A newratings.com article on the same subject states that the move “sees the company regain most of the UK markets share lost to Snap Digital,” the company’s primary competitor.

The Philadelphia City Paper art roundup makes a brief mention of Liz Rideal’s new show “Above and Below Ground,” which opened recently at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia. “British artist Liz Rideal’s stark photo-booth images of plants and flowers are on view.” Some of Liz’s work can be seen on her website.

UPDATE: Edith Newhall writes a review of Rideal’s work in the Philadelphia Enquirer:

The photo booth is a strange place. It’s secretive, claustrophobic, and must be a kind of heaven for the narcissist, like a guest bathroom with an immense mirror.

And let’s not forget the thrill of instant gratification. No wonder Andy Warhol, that most voyeuristic of artists, was among the first to explore its potential. It is also a relic of our futuristic coin-operated past, like the juke box, the phone booth, the automat (which originated in Philadelphia) — 20th century inventions that were intended to make life more convenient for all. This is the nostalgic photo booth, the one that Liz Rideal has been using as her studio of sorts for the last 20 years.

If any Photobooth.net readers are in the Philadelphia area, please stop by the show and let us know what you think.

A piece in Nextbook about artist Will Corwin focuses on his portraits of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, but also mentions a work depicting “two lovers kissing in a photo booth.” Though the work isn’t pictured in the article, the author kindly offered a link to Corwin’s Flickr page, where we found a photograph of the piece, entitled “kiss,” described as “Acrylic, crayon and graphite on plaster on wooden panels, 96” x 72″, 2002, collection of Jaime Brieva.” Very nice.

Thanks to a busy few weeks from contributor Ricky Romero, the listings in our Photobooth Locator for the state of California have exploded to a total of 28 booths, the most for any state we currently list. Ricky contributed 19 locations, nearly all in working order as of this winter, from Los Angeles, Burbank, Santa Monica, and other southern California locations.

In December and January, he visited Kmart 3699 in Apple Valley, Downtown Burbank Newsstand,

Boomers! in Fountain Valley,

Lucky Strike Lanes, The Downtown Standard Restaurant , Edendale Grill, Short Stop, Union Station (and again), Bay Arcade in Newport Beach, Golf ‘n Stuff (two booths), Paseo Colorado, Castle Park, Roller City 2001, Playland Arcade, (again, two booths), Café 50s, and Boomers! in Upland. Wow.

Our thanks go to Ricky for all of his hard work, and we encourage readers to submit more photobooth locations to our database, now containing more than 150 locations around the world.

This week sees a new black and white photobooth listed on eBay. The machine, described as “complete except glass that covers front door top flash glass,” has a starting bid of $4500. The machine has also been equipped with a “Mars 2000 series bill acceptor.”

The last photobooth listed on eBay, just a few weeks ago, never made it past its opening bid of $4000, which was then changed to $6500. We’ll see if this one, significantly older and missing the lime green paint job, will make it anywhere.

Also on eBay this week, another copy (second edition) of Billy Childish’s photo-booth, for anyone who’s interested in picking that up. It’s smaller in person, I have to say.