Welcome Gridskippers!
Two big-city publications have recently come out with their top photobooth picks, Time Out New York covering the Big Apple in their weekly guide in print and online, and Gridskipper highlighting Los Angeles with all of their online Google Map-mashuppy goodness. Gridskipper’s piece, to be more accurate, is actually Photobooth.net’s top photobooth picks in L.A., as editor Helen Jupiter was kind enough to solicit our thoughts on the matter. Rachel Sokol also asked us our take on New York booths for her Time Out piece, so we’re feeling loved again after getting ripped off in print (paragraphs 9 and 10 sound familiar?) and insulted for taking the paper to task for it last month.
The Time Out piece, titled “Strip mining,” lists a dozen photobooths around the five boroughs, including a few digital booths but hitting the mainstays of the Manhattan/Brooklyn dip-and-dunk scene like Otto’s, Lakeside, Bubby’s, and the Bushwick Country Club.
Last week, continuing its long-standing interest in photobooths, Gridskipper has adapted the Time Out New York piece into a booths and booze list that dumps the non-alcoholic locations and narrows the selection to places where you can pose with a drink in your hand, or on your head.
Another California county fair, another motherlode of photobooths. Though it didn’t equal the 23-booth haul at the Orange County Fair, the Los Angeles County Fair had eleven old-style photobooths, both color and black and white, in two locations at the fair. We tried out three of the booths, which were a little cheaper, at $4 each. First, a black and white booth with black borders. Next, a black and white booth with white borders. And finally, a terrific color booth with black borders. By mid-afternoon, when we visited the group of seven booths in the arcade area, the booths were mobbed with fairgoers. Thanks to Lisa for the tip.
In a sad bit of news, we’ve received word that the photobooths that have long been a part of the Children’s Museum in Boston are longer a part of the newly renovated museum. These two booths were some of the first I visited and cataloged before Photobooth.net was even a glint in our eyes. Sample photos from those booths will live on in our About Us page. Thanks to Kristen for the tip.
So maybe we were a little premature in remarking about the photobooth/tattoo shop connection: looks like when push comes to shove, the photobooth’s got to go for L.A. Ink’s Kat Von D. According to a post on the Kat Von D Fanclub website, she’s selling her booth on eBay.
I know I know… It’s sad.. but I am re-doing the skate ramp in the front of the shop and it’s gonna take up too much room, SO! the photo booth must go.…
I’ll be sad to see it go, but hopefully someone rad who will love it will take good care of it too!
The booth sits just inside the door of the shop, and is decorated with posters of Kat and a giant Lisa Simpson sitting on top. I have yet to visit the shop when the booth is functioning, but here’s hoping I get a chance before the auction ends.
Who knew photobooths and tattoos went so well together? As the first season of L.A. Ink hums along and we watch tattoo artist Kat Von D pose with her friends and customers in her photobooth, we have news of another photobooth connection coming up across the ocean in London.
A Press Association report about a series of “urban landmarks; set up to promote Discovery’s new series London Ink mentions a photobooth sculpture:
A new urban landmark is being unveiled in the form of a giant statue of a man swimming through the pavement.
…
A week later, a similar statue will be installed on the concourse at Victoria Station, featuring a giant woman trying to squeeze into a photo booth. Her top rides up to reveal a tattoo of a pigeon.
The statues will remain in place for a few weeks before being moved to different locations across the UK.
We look forward to seeing what the piece looks like; send a photo our way if you see the statue.
UPDATE: Some Flickr photos of the woman in the booth — wow!
