With the extra time on our hands lately, we’ve had the chance to catch up on some backlogged to-do items, from back-end fixes to new content. Hopefully our readers won’t notice much of the behind-the-scenes work, but we can say that the blog archives, more than 450 entries stretching back 15 years, are now fully browsable again, by year, month, and category, to give a few ways of digging in.

Next up, new locations, from around the world:

We start with two new booths in public, outdoor locations in Prague. We’ve always felt like Prague could be a good photobooth town, and we’re happy to see two more booths, at the National Theater and at the National Gallery, added to the tally there. Thanks, Petr!

Next, a new home for an existing booth in Zürich, Switzerland.

When I visited Patrick in April, 2019, he was already planning the move, and awaiting the official go-ahead, which finally came and allowed him to move the booth where he and I took a strip outside Kosmos to another, more prime location outside Kanzlei Club.

Thanks to Michelle for contributing the photos for this new location.

I don’t know if I noted it between my visits to Lausanne in April and Berlin in August, but we learned that the booth on Goldbrunnenstraße in Zürich, operated by the machine’s inventor, Martin Balke—which for my money made the best photobooth photos I’ve ever taken—was taken out of service when Martin moved out of his apartment this summer. While we’re very glad to know about Patrick’s two booths in Zürich, we can’t help but mourn the loss the last remaining horizontal strip Swiss machine in Switzerland. The machines live on in Berlin, so visit them while you can!

Now, on to the pictures… We’re always coming across new films, with the grand total on our site now up to 226 different films spanning nearly a hundred years of cinema. This time, a few more recent additions.

First, thanks to our long-time contributor Charles, we have the first Chuck Norris film added to the list, a real cause for celebration. Code of Silence features a brief shot of a booth in Chicago’s Union Station. A few years later, the film’s director, Andrew Davis, would employ a photobooth in a much more integral way in The Fugitive.

Also thanks to Charles, we’ve added the 1975 exploitation film Just the Two of Us (originally released in 1970 as The Dark Side of the Mirror), which features a lovely booth in the final shot of the film.

We also got around to posting a single photobooth frame in the credits of the delightful Paddington 2, highly recommended for the whole family if anyone’s looking for brilliant, escapist fun on many levels.



In Ron Howard’s 2019 documentary Pavarotti, about the legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti, we see a brief shot of a few frames from a photostrip capturing Pavarotti and his first wife.

Thanks to Christian for the tip on a 1998 film, Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, featuring Derek Jacobi as the painter Francis Bacon, which features two extended scenes shot from the perspective of the photobooth camera.



The 2017 Morrissey biopic England is Mine includes a few photobooth photos in a scene in a Manchester record store where young Stephen awaits an answer to the “musician wanted” advert he’s posted there.

And now to the very recent: the Pixar release Onward joins Up in the “photobooth in a Pixar film” club.

Moving on to photobooths in music, we have a few albums to report, and a lot of songs. First, a 2016 album by the Fruit Bats called “Absolute Loser.“



And next, a 1987 album by Tom Verlaine, with a lovely color photobooth photo as the cover, Flash Light.



This past week, we added 33 songs with photobooths in the lyrics or title of the song. Rather than just list them all, I’ve created a mega-lyric featuring a line from each of the songs, which gives an idea of the way the image is used in these (mostly contemporary) songs. Perhaps the successor to my “Photobooths in Cinema” talk will be a three minute mashup of every photobooth-related lyric I can find. 

Click the lyric to visit the page for that song.

“The Photobooth Song”

Dive into a photobooth
Snap it for Japan, yeah oh
Duct tape you in my roof
Kiss you in the photo booth
Count it down, see the camera flash
Pick up all the photos and put in more cash
When we were chillin’
Smiling in the photo booth
I held the picture in my eye
From a photo booth near by
You’re not allowed to tell the truth
And the photo booth’s a liar
In the shrine
Found a photo booth
Black and white strip
From that photo booth
Nobody is hangin’ ’round makin’ out in the photo booth
Last Friday I see you in the photo booth
Makes my teeth hurt like airplane bathrooms
Photomaton soixante-dix-sept…
And photo booths she said
What she loves is sex in parked cars and the photo booth at Cha Cha
Take photos in the photo booth
The summer of my wasted youth
Dentro al Photobooth “Tre, due, uno: cheese” (click)
You felt that need to pile us all
Our smiles on call inside a tiny photo booth
Singing karaoke, killing Backstreet
Touching in the photo booth
Their surveillance state is not just a freakin‘ photo booth
That night we had our picture made
In a photo booth in town
And hope that the memories develop in the darkness
Like photos do, I wish I had a time-machine and a photo-booth
We took some pictures in a photo booth
Was it just you and her?
Did you go in the photo booth?
Snipers hiding in the photo booths
Gettin’ stuck with you in that photo booth
Photobooth, kissing youth, midnight bulletproof
Mein Spiegelbild zieht Fratzen, so wie Paare in der photo booth
Jeder-jeder wünscht sich so ‘n Beruf
We stuck that picture in a bottle
Sleeping silently in a photo booth
On the road where I caught a cab
And you thought that I’d leave you once I learned the truth
When we got lost as hell in that old photo booth
Pull the photo booth curtain
Check if the bar is open
Silver quarters in a photo booth
It printed little pictures of you
Get some change
Photos from a booth
Rifle range
And when the lights start flashing like a photobooth
And the stars exploding
We’ll be fireproof
a photobooth snapshot fading.
there ain’t too much left.
And screaming
High above the cities
Sings a lonely photobooth
(Gone in a flash)

We begin our fifteenth (!) year of keeping track of all things photobooth with a major update of posts on photobooths in moving images. Over the last few years we’ve let discoveries and contributions in the realms of movies, TV shows, commercials, and music videos collect on our to-do list, and today, we’re glad to finally present more than a dozen instances, from the surprisingly major to the completely minor.

Thanks to all our wonderful contributors for sending in links, tips, and screen grabs over the years.



The Glass Wall, directed by Maxwell Shane (1953)



It’s Always Fair Weather, directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen (1955)



Your Three Minutes Are Up, directed by Douglas Schwartz (1973)



Falsche Bewegung, directed by Wim Wenders (1975)



Repeater, directed by Christopher Monger (1979)



Nô, directed by Robert Lepage (1998)





Same Same But Different, directed by Detlev Buck (2009)





Bande de filles, directed by Céline Sciamma (2014)



December 7th, directed by John Ford and Gregg Toland (1943)

In addition to films, we’ve also added a number of television shows, music videos, and commercials. Click the intriguing images below to see more from each of these photobooth-friendly creations.

We’re emerging from another long winter (and the continued unwanted attentions of pesky hackers) with a long-gestating report on some updates over the last few months. Thanks as always to our eyes and ears around the world for sending news of photobooths our way. 

First, we heard from Lucy in Zürich about a new booth there, just the second one, as far as we can tell, operating in that lovely city.

Next, we heard from Stefan in Amsterdam, who reports that “We are growing!” which translates to a new home for their first booth, and the addition of a new booth to their roster.

First, the booth once located at Lomography Amsterdam is now a few canals over (really, not just figuratively) at Hutspot, described on its website as “…a curator for an urbanized lifestyle. An initiative that brings all the good stuff together.” Sounds like a photobooth will fit right in there. Check out Hutspot’s page for the photobooth on their website.

Second, Photoautomat Amsterdam have introduced a second black and white photochemical booth, located at Studio K, east of the city center. 

We also heard from Chris, who reported that a new booth has replaced the previously documented booth at La Maison Rouge in Paris. The eternal photobooth shuffle continues…

We applaud our European colleagues for continuing to keep the analog photobooth alive, and encourage anyone with updates or news about new locations to get in touch so we can continue to keep track of the current whereabouts of these photobooths. 

We have a few North American updates to report, as well. Thanks to Kelly for sending in a sample photo from a booth at the Avalon Mall in St. John’s, Newfoundland, one of the few color machines still operating in Canada.

Thanks to Molly for letting us know about a new booth in Washington State, at a book and game store called Adventures Underground in Richland. The Pacific Northwest continues to carry the banner for photobooths in the U.S.

We end today’s update with a few other notes on photobooths in media. First, on the cover of the Magic Numbers’ new album “Alias,” a few photobooth photos show up in a sea of portraits. Thanks to Les Matons for the tip.

And finally, an ad for Swiss condoms, proving that the photobooth has many uses. 

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a chance to post news on the blog here, but that doesn’t mean the site has been dormant. On the contrary, we’ve had additions to the site in almost every category over the last few weeks. We’ll take a look at new locations, movies, TV shows, newspaper articles, and album covers today.

First, a bit of history: 

In a February 1970 Los Angeles Times interview with singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, the author describes Webb’s upcoming album this way:

…[A]nother current project is a new album, with Webb compositions sung entirely by Webb. Jim’s been working on the recording for about six months: he has daily sessions—morning and afternoon, often breaks for dinner and returns to work into the small hours. The LP will be called ‘Confessions in a Photo Booth,’ but he’ll introduce the new material, all of it, in his concert debut on Saturday at the Music Center.

In an August 1970 Billboard column (see it here on Google Books), the album is named as his first on Reprise. By the time it was released, “Confessions in a Photo Booth” had become “Words and Music,” so the world was robbed of what could have been a prominent photobooth-titled album.

Continuing in the world of music, Callan Furlong wrote to let us know that his EP The Fool I Was Before features photostrips on the cover.

And finally, while browsing the aisles at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, I spotted this recent CD from The Living Sisters:

We have a few new locations to mention, the first not too far from (my) home, at Dexter’s Camera in Ventura, California, where Photo-Me installed a black and white booth this week. Thanks to Matt and Raul for letting us know about the booth.

The second is slightly further afield, in Riga, Latvia, where Kate Tyler found a color machine, one of the only original booths still active in Europe. Time for a road trip to Riga! Please keep your contributions coming.

Next, we’ll move on to television, where the photobooth continues to be a mainstay of current shows: this time, reality juggernaut “The Bachelor” took a turn in the booth. During Week 7 of the most recent series, the Bachelor and one of his ladies visited the photobooth at Orange Dracula in Seattle, and took some photos.

Looking back a few decades, Les Matons clued us into a 1960s French TV show, La Caméra Invisible, that featured a photobooth in an episode:

We were excited to read a nice newspaper piece on our buddy Anthony Vizzari and his company, A & A Studios, this past weekend. The original article in the Chicago Grid is here, and we’ve got it archived here, as well. Congratulations, Anthony and all the crew at A & A.

We’ve also added a few new movies to roster. Last year’s Academy Award-winner in the Documentary Feature category, Undefeated, features a photobooth shot of a young Bill Courtney, who would grow up to be the coach at the center of this story.

Going a little further back, we have a few more passing photobooth shots in the animated short The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, as well as in the 1984 West German film Wundkanal.

Finally, a French film about a woman obsessed with the photobooth who ends up meeting the photobooth repairman… Sound familiar? Well, it’s not Amélie. It’s Lucille et le Photomaton, a 1993 short by Sébastien Nuzzo that we’ve long been meaning to add to the site.

Not a week goes by here at Photobooth.net West without receiving an update or two (or ten) from our loyal and generous readers. We have a European-centric batch of contributions to present today, with a few American surprises.

First, we have a raft of updates from the folks at Photoautomat.de in Berlin. A number of booths have moved from previous locations, and fresh machines have debuted in new locations, as well.

Check out the new photochemical booths at the following locations:

• Kulturbrauerei
• Markthalle Kreuzberg
• Prenzlauer Allee
• Warschauerstraße / Revaler Str. I
• Warschauerstraße / Revaler Str. II
• Weserstraße

The fact that these booths are constantly moving and re-appearing in Berlin is a testament to their ongoing popularity, and Berlin remains one of the world’s great photobooth capitals.

We also have a few bits of photobooth media from Europe: a French print ad for an optician using a photobooth, a graphic novel by Jean Teulé called Filles de nuit, and the film Le scaphandre et la papillon, known in English as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

And finally, an Italian giallo, 4 mosche di velluto grigio.

Both the front and the back of the album “Les eglantines sont peut-etre formidables” by the duo Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem, uses photobooth photos, as well. Thanks to Les Matons for these updates.

Stateside, we have new photos of the redecorated booth and resulting photos from Jack White’s Third Man Records and Novelties in Nashville. 

Also, good news for Colorado: the state has another pin in the map at Fargo’s Pizza in Colorado Springs. Thanks to Brittany for both of these updates.

We’re also very happy to be able to add Nebraska to our list of states that can claim they’re home to a photobooth. 

If you’re headed to Slowdown in Omaha for a concert, a party, or a pub quiz, check out their black and white photobooth and give it a spin. Thanks to Robb for the update on this booth.

We have a few updates from American movies and TV, as well. 

First, a brief credit sequence appearance in the 1973 pickpocket drama Harry in Your Pocket, as the camera pans over the contents of pockets picked by the “cannon,” Harry (James Coburn).

Another more recent film, Safety Not Guaranteed, also features a brief photostrip moment.

Last month, thanks to Photoautomat.de, we made what to us seemed like a remarkable discovery: a mainstream American film starring perhaps the most critically acclaimed actor and actress of the last thirty years, with a scene set in a real photobooth, with real photobooth photos. How did Falling in Love, a 1984 film starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, escape our notice until now? We’re not sure, but it just goes to show there’s always more out there, and it encourages us to continue our quest to uncover more photobooths in cinema. 

And finally, we’ve got a 2013 commercial for Diet Coke starring its new creative director, designer Marc Jacobs (who has also had a photobooth or two in some of his stores)

We’ve got a little bit of everything in today’s update, thanks to people from all over the country and the world who have written us to let us know about photobooth appearances. Thanks to Greg, Andrew, Aimee, Siobhan, Katherine, Meags, and Les Matons for the tips that led to this most recent raft of additions.

First, in the world of film, Nights and Weekends:

Next, the recent adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:

The Dutch film Left Luggage:

Christopher Nolan’s debut film, Following:

And finally, the French film Scenes de crimes:

Next, in television:

From the UK, a social history documentary show, “The Secret History of Our Streets”:

“Dead Like Me”:

And another season brings another episode of “Modern Family” that features a photobooth:

A few commercials: 

For Barclays personalized debit cards:

And for the Swiss company Sympany:

And finally, the ever-popular photobooth in a music video:

First, from The Great Park, the video for “I Know What I Make Isn’t Fine”:

From Mano Negra, “Pas assez de toi”:

And from Jim Kroft, “Canary in the Coalmine”:

We’ve added a number of new photobooth sightings to our Music section, including both videos and album art. First, and most recently, the new video from the Walkmen, for their song “Heaven.” Thanks to Daniel for the tip.

We also heard from director Patrick Bossé, who was kind enough to let us know he used our site in putting together his video for the song “On fait quoi?” by Julien Pilon.

A few weeks ago, we added a video for the song “You Can’t Get into My Head” by Tatana (feat. Natalia Kills) which features a real booth and real photostrips.

In the world of photobooth photos in album art, we have a few new additions. First, King Khan and the Shrines:

NRBQ’s debut album:

And finally, an LP re-release of an album by Gareth Williams & Mary Currie from the 1980s,  Flaming Tunes

As we settle back in from the Lausanne and Zurich trip and look forward to the 2012 Convention in less than three months, we’re also keeping up with new additions to the site from things we’ve spotted ourselves to the many contributions we receive from our readers every week. Thanks again, everyone, for getting in touch.

First, we’ll start with the moving image. We’ve known about a photostrip appearance in the short-lived Craig T. Nelson show “The District” since we started the site, but never had a chance to get proof. We did some trawling and finally came up with the images from an episode called “Rage.”

Just a few weeks ago, and honest-to-goodness photochemical machine showed up on “Saturday Night Live” when Zooey Deschanel, already an aficionado of the booth both personally and professionally, hosted the show. A sketch called “Bein’ Quirky with Zooey Deschanel” saw Deschanel playing Mary-Kate Olsen, and Abby Elliott playing Deschanel.

We also have new photobooth photo appearances from David Cross’s “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” and a documentary called Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox.

After meeting brothers Russ and Greg Goeken in Lausanne, we’re now happy to be able to list their photobooths in our directory: Greg runs the booth at the Shangri-La in Austin, and Russ oversees the booth at the Congress Street Social Club in Savannah, Georgia. 

We’ve heard about some booths in Atlanta over the years, but never had any confirmation (jklax, I’m looking at you), so this booth marks the first booth in our listings from Georgia, and is certainly the only photochemical machine in Savannah. Here’s to many years of success for both booths in these great cities.

We have a number of new books listed, from books made in photobooths to books about photobooths to books that merely mention the machines. First, Paul Yates kindly sent us a copy of his new book, Privacy is a Myth. The book’s Blurb page describes it as “a monograph of Filmmaker Paul Yates’ 25 years of photobooth photography. From Surreal to Sexy, from Degenerate to Intimate–these photobooth strips reveal more about Yates’ personal life than one could imagine. Homeless at 15, already an artist, Yates struggled to find an outlet for his passions…the ubiquitous photobooth machine was his answer!”

Next, we have the photostrip-sized collection called Falten, Fächer by painter and photographer Hansjürg Buchmeier, who I was happy to have met in Lausanne and who is now listed in our Art section.

We added a couple of books with mentions of the booth this week as well: from James Marshall’s well-known “George and Martha” series, the book Tons of Fun features a “Clickopics” photobooth.

The English writer Zadie Smith’s On Beauty features a long, sad, “Baldy Man”-esque sequence in a London photobooth.

Once again, we need to thank Les Matons for more in their steady stream of contributions: this week, they tipped us off to a catalog from a 1985 show about identity photos that features many photobooth works: Identités.

Additionally, they clued us in to the French recording artist Kim, who has used photobooth photos on at least fifteen albums, singles, and E.P.s over the last two decades. We’ve listed as many as we could find (currently at fifteen) in our Music section, from this split single from 1994 to La cuisine selon certains principles from 2001. More information on Kim (born Kim Stanislas Giani in 1977) on his site and on French Wikipedia.

As I prepare to head to Lausanne in a few days, I’m clearing off some old to-dos from the list, and have added a variety of updates to our ever-growing catalog of all things photobooth.

First, in the world of books and magazines, a few new items: 

Photomatons pornographiques, a slim, French collection of photos from 1992. We can only assume is what it sounds like it is; the book seems scarce and expensive and is maybe best left up to the imagination.

Photographer Liza Rose’s book Le livre extraordinaire de ‑M- features numerous photobooth photos, and even comes with a strip in its elaborate packaging. In addition to the book, Rose created a video teaser for the book that we have listed in our Music Videos section.

Artist Johanna Tagada illustrated a piece about bagels in an issue of Zut! magazine from last year with some photobooth photos.

And finally, a new publication, Regardez il va peut-être se passer quelque chose…, from Alain Baczynsky. 

The book is a collection of photobooth photos taken by Baczynsky over a period of three years, 1979–1981, which capture his mood and mindset after a psychoanalysis session. The photos, which uncover Baczynsky replaying the sessions in his mind, were re-discovered by curator Clément Cheroux of the Pompidou Center and one of the curators behind the upcoming Musée de l’Elysée exhibition, where the photos will be displayed. Mr. Baczynsky will be signing copies of the book at the show, as well. 

In the realm of film, we have two new additions:

Dirty Girl, a 2010 film starring Juno Temple, features a battered photostrip of Danielle’s long-lost father.

In Love Actually, we get an extremely brief glimpse of Liam Neeson and his late wife in a photobooth, as seen in a slide show at her funeral.

In television, Laura Linney’s The Big C featured a photostrip in a recent episode. The booth was at a celebratory funeral for an unborn baby; Rebecca (Cynthia Nixon) was disappointed it was being hogged by Cathy’s friends rather than actual mourners.

Ad agencies seem never to tire of the photobooth as a prop; we have two more ads that prove that the shtick is still fresh in someone’s mind, somewhere.

First, Photomaton, a French commercial for Freedent White gum.

And, more recently, commercial for a charm bracelet from Kay Jewelers that aired last week.

Finally, we’ve also listed a new project, The Sketch-O-Matic, in our Projects section. Made for use at an art space in Manchester, England, last year, the Sketch-O-Matic replaces the photobooth camera with an artist, who draws a quick portrait of the sitter in about the same amount of time as it would take for a photostrip to develop.

Safe travels to everyone heading to Switzerland this weekend and next week. Please come say hi; I’ll be the guy with the camera trying to capture the proceedings. Internet connection willing, I’ll be tweeting and posting some photos from the event over the next week, so stay tuned if you can’t make it in person. 

We’ve just covered the appearance of Jack White on “American Pickers” as he said goodbye to the booth used in the video for the song “Hang You from the Heavens” by his band The Dead Weather. One of the other members of The Dead Weather is Allison Mosshart, who’s best known for her work in her band The Kills. She obviously shares an affinity for photobooths with White, as she and Jamie Hince have used photobooth pictures on at least three of The Kills’ releases: “Keep on Your Mean Side,” “Fried My Little Brains” and “No Wow.”

In an interesting confluence of events, just a few days after the Dead Weather booth appeared on television, The Kills have released a video for their new single, “Last Goodbye,” set in a photobooth. Actress and director Samantha Morton directed the video, and spoke about the video for Nowness:

After being sent a live performance of the track, Morton prepared a treatment referencing an Allen Ginsberg book, the works of Robbie Miller, Jack Clayton’s The Innocents, and photo booths. “I miss the quality of a ‘real’ photo booth—nowadays everything is so cheap and quick,” says the star of such films as Minority Report and Control. “The track felt incredibly nostalgic; the same way I feel about the machines.” Unbeknown to Morton, the photo booth is central to band members Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince’s ten-year partnership: the pair seek out the devices when on tour to record their travels. But Morton managed to renew the experience: “Samantha has this crazy way of inviting you into a fantasy world where you don’t feel stupid or awkward,” he says. “She had dramatic classical music that she’d play instead of our track. It made you perform completely differently. There’s a beauty and magic in it that I could never have imagined.” Here Morton reveals her nostalgia for photo booths and love of monochrome.

Where did the photo booth idea come from?

I liked photo booths and I missed them. I love the fact that when you used to go to a photo booth, sometimes you used to have wait a good 20 minutes. Sometimes, I remember, if they were really crap, you’d have to wait forever. You’d go off for a cup of tea and you’d come back to get your passport pictures. Also, it was quite expensive when we were young. It was a real treat. Now, it’s still expensive, but you just get these horrible images of yourself that won’t last in the same way. The song was incredibly nostalgic and I think that made me feel nostalgic.

Watch the video and see the “real” photobooth for yourself.