The contributions seem to be flowing rapidly these days, and this week, we’ve got a varied assortment of new material to call your attention to.

First, a few additions to the otherwise neglected Music section. A Spanish band known as Parking Radio has released an album called Photomaton, with a song titled El Photomaton.

And thanks to a tip from Charles, we’ve added the Biz Markie classic “Just a Friend,” with its lyric, “Come to the picture booth/ So I can ask you some questions to see if you’re hundred proof.”

We’ve finally put a few more TV shows from Europe on the site, contributions we received awhile back but have only now managed to gather and present. First, thanks to Caitlin for telling us about a scene from the UK show Primeval:

And second, we’ve added a page for the European news show Metropolis. We mentioned the show a few months ago, and now have a permanent home for it in our TV section.

We also added another gem of a find from Les Matons: an Italian crime film called Escape from Death Row, a Lee Van Cleef vehicle with a great photobooth murder sequence.

Our In Print section has a few new additions as well. First, thanks to Siobhan for sending us scans from the magazine Oh Comely, which featured an interview with the owner of the only photochemical photobooth in Ireland.

Thanks to Kerstin for tipping us off to a new German photography book titled Photomaton: Frauen Männer Kinder, a collection of 500 photobooth photos taken between 1938 and 1945.

And finally, we’ve heard from Ginny Lloyd, the artist behind A Day at the Races, who has a new photobooth project for which she’s accepting contributions. Here are her instructions:

If you want to participate in the next photobooth book, mail in four photobooth style photos with dialogue bubbles documenting a photobooth performance by November 30th, 2011 to: PhotoBooth Book, PO Box 1424, Jupiter, FL 33468.

For quality control, no electronic submissions please — original photobooth or photobooth like photos only — no copies! No returns. Future exhibitions to be announced to participants. Be sure to use the prescribed format: photobooth style image size and include dialog bubbles.

Steps for submission:

1. Take/make 4 photos of your photobooth performance.

2. Put this in an envelope — do not email.

3. On a piece of paper draw dialogue bubbles for talk, think and/or holler. Make sure you indicate which bubble goes with each photo.

4. Clearly print your text in the bubble(s).

5. Add the paper to the envelope.

6. Mail envelope to PO Box 1424, Jupiter, Florida 33468 USA.

‘Nuff said, right? Well, you’ve got to see it to believe it; check out the ad in our Movies & TV section.

Mr. Chan’s work for Austrian Railways is just one ad we’ve posted today. Others include a couple of German commercials for Nivea, for “Body Milk” and for some sort of soccer giveaway.

“Photobox”

And “Enter Play Win.”

Next, we’ve got “Stilbruch,” a German television piece about photobooths, featuring the men behind Photoautomat.

Next, a music video from France, “Salo-Maso,” by Najar and Perrot.

Next, a couple of brief photostrip appearances in Banksy’s Oscar-nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.

And finally, thanks to Olivia Pintos-Lopez for letting us know about a photoshoot she organized for an online publication, Small Magazine, using photobooth photos taken in a black and white booth in Melbourne, Australia.

Over the past week or so, we’ve made made additions to nearly every section of the site. The contributions keep rolling in (thanks, dear readers) and we’ve also had a moment or two to delve into the vastness that is the “Photobooth.net To-Do” folder, shrinking it ever so slightly. Here’s a tally of what’s new:

Photobooth locations:
Barbary, Philadelphia, PA
Highline, Seattle, WA

Album covers:
Stinky Toys, by the French punk band Stinky Toys.

Movies:
The Comebacks (2007)
The Joneses (2009)
A Casa de Alice (2007)

TV Shows:
“Quints by Surprise,” in which the family squeeze into a photobooth at an Amy’s Ice Cream location in Austin, Texas.

TV Commercials:
A JCPenney spot partially set in a photobooth.
A series of three commercials for French social security, all set in a photobooth: Rene, Paul, and Philippe et Isabelle.

Music Videos:
“Touch a New Day” by Lena Meyer-Landrut

“Never Said” by Liz Phair

In Print:
Emily Blunt in a photobooth in Interview Magazine.

Shots: A Magazine about Fine Photography, a 1989 large-format photography zine special issue dedicated to photobooths. 

Over the past five years we’ve collected a lot of photobooth-related stuff, much more than we can get to on a regular basis, and the To-Do List tends to pile up. Over the last week or so, we’ve had a chance to get a whole passel of material online, from TV shows and movies to commercials, print ads, music videos, and photobooth locations. In no particular order, here they are. Enjoy!

A commercial for Fruit Gushers in which kids’ massive fruit-shaped heads make their photobooth tip over.

An episode of “How It’s Made” that shows how a digital photobooth is assembled.

The 1989 Lewis Gilbert film Shirley Valentine, with a railway photobooth sequence.

Low Water’s video for “Sister, Leave Me”. Dave sent me the video and a nice note back in 2008; my apologies for not getting to this for far too long.

The 2008 opening titles of “Neighbors,” now with more pseudo-photoboothiness.

The film Onion Underwater, for which we have only a few images from the trailer.

A few glimpses of a photostrip in an episode of Fringe.

An ad for Will Young’s album Let It Go, as sold by Tesco.

Science World’s Photobooth of Doom.

Wickbold Light Bread from Brazil.

The 2001 animated short fim Autofoto.

And finally, two photobooths in the Helsinki Railway Station, thanks to Marco:

The booths (Helsinki Railway Station II and Helsinki Railway Station III) are located in the west entrance of the station. 

One of these may be the first booth I found in Helsinki in 2005, moved to a new location within the station.

We’ll be back with more goodies in the coming months. 

Please keep your contributions coming, as we continue to build our database of all things photobooth.

We’ve been seeing and hearing quite a bit about The Dead Weather recently, a new collaboration among Jack White of the White Stripes, Alison Mosshart of the Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs (another Jack White project). 

When their first single was released online, the accompanying music video, for “Hang You from the Heavens,” was shot in a photobooth.



More recently, they’ve released their full-length album, titled “Horehound,” and have included a photostrip in six copies of the album. Those lucky enough to purchase a copy with a photostrip inside will win a trip to White’s record studio. A news brief about the contest states

The winners will receive an all expenses paid trip to tour Jack’s factory, Third Man Records in Nashville, TN. The winners are given round trip airfare, two night hotel accommodation, and ground transportation. The winners are also allowed a plus one for the duration of the trip. The last chance to redeem is August 15th.

The contest is publicized on the band’s website, where you can view the video.

Readers might remember that the Kills have also used photobooth photos in their album covers, and have several hundred photostrips featured on their website.

Another quick re-cap of photobooths in the news lately…

• I can’t seem to determine if the episode ever aired, as it’s not available on ABC.com or via any other less legal means, but a February taping of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took place at the Hughes home in Louisville, Kentucky, and a black and white dip and dunk photobooth was installed in one of the boys’ rooms. A Louisville Courier-Journal article describes the home, and an accompanying video shows the booth as an integral part of the photo-centric bedroom.

• Also, thanks to Chris F. for pointing us to the new video from Million Dollar Strong, made up of Mike O’Connell and Yoshido, a.k.a. Ken Jeong, the doctor from Knocked Up. Check out the moments from the video featuring the Bar 107 photobooth in our Music Video section, or watch the video on YouTube.

• The blog at Modern Mechanix has featured two blasts from the photobooth past recently: first, an article about Anatol Josepho from 1928 titled “Penniless Inventor Gets Million for Photo Machine,” and second, a shorter piece about the invention of the Photomatic machine: “New Automatic Machine Delivers Metal-Framed Photos.” It’s great to see these hard-to-find magazine pieces archived, at least for now, on the web.

• And finally, thanks to Tim, each of our photobooth locations now features a nifty Google map right on the location page, to make your photobooth-hunting even easier.

Some recent additions to the site, as well as photobooth news:

• Photobooth auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the man behind Amélie, directed a video for ’80s French pop sensation Etienne Daho featuring animated photobooth photos, years before he and Audrey Tautou made photobooths hip again

• One of our favorite photobooth locations, Faces in Northampton, Mass., has replaced their color booth with a black and white machine.

• Grammy winner and tabloid idol Amy Winehouse was snapped carrying a framed set of photobooth photos out of her London abode as she prepared to move to the country; apparently this is big news, and you can find photos of the photostrips on this blog, and this one, and on the Daily Mail’s site.

• And finally, this bit is a little old, and we’ll have to do some more research to see what came of it, but Women’s Wear Daily reports on a vintage booth accompanying promotion for designer Stella McCartney’s products at Selfridge’s department store:

McCartney’s brand blitz at Selfridges isn’t just about commerce, however. Caricature artists will be on hand to draw customers’ portraits throughout the two weeks, and a one-man band commissioned by McCartney will play. The designer will also install a vintage photo-booth on Selfridges’ second floor, in which customers can take a shot of themselves for 1 pound, or about $2, which will be donated to the Red Cross. McCartney will make a personal appearance during London Fashion Week on Feb. 13.

As long as we’ve been running Photobooth.net, which is just about two and a half years now, we’ve been planning a section devoted to photobooths in music. It’s a natural corollary to our looks at movies, television, and printed media, and it’s a topic that is rife with fascinating examples. We’ve always had a sub-section devoted to music videos, but with the head start we had on the movies section and the photobooth directory from the predecessor to this site, we had more than enough to work with, and music went by the wayside.

Well, after much organizing, gathering, and stalling followed by working, we are pleased to present our latest effort, Photobooths in Music. The section is divided into three categories. The first is an expanded and updated look at Photobooths in Music Videos, from Madness and Elvis Costello to Jessica Simpson and Natasha Bedingfield, with a lot of interesting bands and musicians in between.

The second section takes a look at the use of photostrips, and to a lesser extent photobooths themselves, in album art, on the covers and in the liner notes of LPs, CDs, and other recorded media. These run the gamut from well-known classics like Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville to more obscure works like Electrelane’s single for “The Bells” and “Photolab 9000″ by the Swedes.

The final section examines the role of photobooths in song lyrics, ranging from a passing reference in a lyric to the title and subject of a song. From mega-bands like U2 to singer-songwriters like Elliott Smith, musicians have used the idea of the photobooth and the photos it produces to convey a host of different ideas and feelings. Bands like The Books and Death Cab for Cutie have even named songs after the photo-making machines; my new favorite is “Photobooth Curtain” by School for the Dead.

We’d like to thank everyone whose contributions have added immensely to our store of knowledge, and we’d also like to acknowledge and thank Mr. Mixup, who will be curating the Music section along with us, as we owe many of the items in this new section to his years of research and collecting.

We know that what we have is by no means definitive, and we hope the launch of this new section will spur a thousand contributions from readers to help us make it more complete. With that, please, enjoy Photobooths in Music.

Twin Cities-born and Brooklyn-based The Hold Steady have placed a solicitation for black and white photobooth pictures on their website, in preparation for production of their forthcoming single. 

In a post titled “The Hold Steady Needs Your Help” dated July 1, the band makes the following announcement:

The Hold Steady want you to scan and send in BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOBOOTH photos of you and your friends to photobooth@vagrant.com

The band will use the photobooth pictures for the artwork on their forthcoming new single as well as in the marketing for the release.

The photobooth photos NEED to be Black and White.

The post comes complete with a link to a release form PDF to be filled out by the contributor. Let us know if any loyal readers submit their photos to the band. We look forward to seeing the results, and now have one more reason to get our Music section started. 

We’ve made some additions and updates to the site this weekend, including three new (and one upgraded) music videos. Above, scenes from the first music video on the site, Aerosmith’s Crazy, as well as Jeremy Burgan’s Can You See Us? We’ve got much improved images from Crazy, and we’re happy to have Burgan’s video, which we saw being made out at the Cha-Cha Lounge one night, on the site. Below, we’ve got scenes from Modlang’s Factory Hour and Natasha Bedingfield’s Single, one from YouTube and one in high-def. Oh well, you take what you can get.



Also this week, we’ve got new locations in Long Beach, California, as well as three more Amy’s Ice Creams shops (one, two, three) in Austin, Texas. And finally, a new example of a photostrip in TV, from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s pre-Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz effort, Spaced.