Paul Fejos’ 1928 (mostly) silent masterpiece Lonesome is an important film in the history of American cinema, but it’s downright seminal in the story of the photobooth, as it has the earliest known example of a photobooth appearing in a film. Thanks to a new Criterion Blu-ray release, we can upgrade the images on the site. Roll over the new image to see the improvement from the old: better image quality, more detail, and the correct aspect ratio.
It’s been a busy year for the photobooth. As 2012 comes to a close, we’re taking a look at what the last twelve months have brought in the the world of the venerable photochemical machine, now in its tenth decade of life.
Most notably, this was the year that audiences around Europe got to see the most comprehensive and significant exhibition on the history and art of the photobooth ever produced. Curated by Clément Chéroux, Sam Stourdzé, and Anne Lacoste at the Museé de l’Elysee in Lausanne, the exhibition was titled “Derrière le rideau: L’esthétique du photomaton,” or “Behind the Curtain: The Aesthetics of the Photobooth.” I was honored to be able to contribute to both the printed catalog and the exhibition itself, and I traveled to Lausanne for the opening in February. After Lausanne, the show traveled to Le Botanique in Brussels and then to Vienna, where it remains open for another two weeks at the Kunst Haus Wien.
Back in the U.S., another international photobooth event was on the horizon. Three years after our very successful event in Chicago we hosted another International Photobooth Convention. This time, we gathered two photochemical photobooths and a major collection of world-class photobooth art in the sunny confines of Venice, California, and enjoyed two nights and a day of photobooth fun. Read all about it here.
The 2012 Photobooth Convention led to our first official publication, a 25th Anniversary Catalog celebrating the past and present work of the pioneering photobooth artists who first displayed their art in Rochester, New York in 1987. Limited copies of the catalog are still available for purchase; you can order them here, along with signed and numbered copies of the beautiful poster for the show.
We finished up the convention with a terrifically fun photobooth crawl in a hired van around Los Angeles.
As we do with every convention, we produced a collaborative project with those who attended. This time, it was a collection of Photobooth Shorts, movies told in just four photobooth frames. We still have a limited quantity of numbered copies left for sale; follow the link to get your copy.
On the site itself, we’ve had a busy year of updates. We continue to discover new photobooth locations ourselves, and learn about them from contributors all over the world. In 2012, we added 48 new photobooth locations, plus countless additions, corrections, and updates to other locations already in our directory.
2012 also proved that the photobooth craze in movies, TV, and print shows no sign of slowing. This year, we’ve added 24 new movies, 22 new albums, 21 new TV shows, 15 new magazine articles, 14 new commercials, 10 new music videos, and six new newspaper articles.
The year also saw 30 entries in our blog, from Jack White’s appearance on ‘American Pickers’ to more recent omnibus recaps of additions to our various collections of photobooth appearances around the world. 2012 also brought our first ever guest blog entry, a travelogue from Meags Fitzgerald about her epic European photobooth adventures. Visit our Archives to poke around the entries from the past year.
If we can read anything into these stats and highlights, it’s that the photochemical photobooth is alive and well in 2012, thanks to the vibrant and committed community of enthusiasts around the world, many of whom we had the pleasure of meeting this year.
Best Wishes from Photobooth.net for a joyous, peaceful, productive, and photobooth-filled 2013! (And Happy New Year from two of the youngest members of the Photobooth.net community, both booth enthusiasts in the making)
One more entry this week to shed some light on what we’ve been adding to the site lately, this time focusing on new photobooth locations. We only have a few to add, but each is noteworthy in its own way.
First, we start with an old faithful, the booth at the Lakeside Lounge in New York. After the news broke in April that the Lakeside was closing, concern for the photobooth was second only to the grief about the bar itself. Thankfully, the owners found a new home for the booth, not too far away at the Hi-Fi Bar. The booth is a legend in the East Village, and we’re glad to see it’ll still be serving up great photos even after the sad demise of its former home.
Next, we’ve heard from Matteo that he’s installed another photochemical booth on the streets of Italy, this time on Via Squadroni in Reggio Emilia. Picturesque, indeed.
And finally, thanks to last month’s photobooth crawl, we finally had the opportunity to check out the booth at the Satellite here in Los Angeles. Now, it was in need of some attention and wasn’t turning out photos when the busload of photobooth lovers stopped by, but we trust it’s back in working order now, and I hope to visit again soon and take some photos.
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:
And finally, an LP re-release of an album by Gareth Williams & Mary Currie from the 1980s, Flaming Tunes
It’s time to get some of these PDFs, scans, and links sitting in my To-Do folder up on the site in our In Print section. First, thanks to Victoria for letting us know about an article in the magazine Strongbox. It’s a nice piece, and features work and comments from Victoria, Marco, and others about what the photobooth means to them.
More recently, the trip to Switzerland yielded a few pieces for the site: first, the weekend guide section of the Lausanne paper Le Matin featured a nice two-page spread about the Musée de l’Elysee’s photobooth show.
I even had one moment of unexpected photobooth-ness, coming across these photos, taken in the Zürich booth, for Zett Magazine, a publication of the Zurich University of the Arts.
Boston’s Weekly Dig used photostrips on the cover of their nightlife issue back in February.
And thanks to Les Matons for more great contributions from France. This time, they’ve sent in a scan of a comic by Tronchet, showing his character Raymond Calbuth on vacation in a series of photostrips.
Today, we’ve got a raft of updates in our TV and Commercials sections, thanks to our helpful readers.
First, the second appearance by a photobooth, this time a real Model 14, in the show “The Big C.” Thanks to Anthony for the tip on this scene, in which one character protests “photobooth discrimination.”
I’ve been catching up on the excellent new show “Girls” lately, and Hannah (Leah Dunham) and Marnie (Allison Williams) have at least three photostrips in their apartment, as seen in episodes 2 and 5:
I finally came across a copy of the Weird Al Biography from A&E, in which we see a number of photobooth photos of a young, not yet weird Al with his mom.
Thanks again to Anthony for telling us about the episode of American Pickers with Jack White in which the guys trade a mounted elephant head for one of Jack’s photobooths (you’ve got to see it to believe it).
And just last night, on the second episode of the new series “Longmire,” a photostrip provided a clue in the death of a girl. Thanks to Gary for the tip on this one.
I’ve also added updated, higher quality images for some of the first TV shows I posted to the site back in 2005: Roswell (I had no idea that was Katherine Heigl…), As Time Goes By, and The X‑Files.
In the world of commercials, I spotted one running on ESPN a few days ago, an ad for Corona Light featuring the adventures of everyman Stan, shown in a series of still photos. Once Stan has a Corona Light, his life gets more interesting, and he finds himself in a photobooth. Of course.
And finally, thanks to Siobhan for tipping us off to two ads (adverts, I suppose) from the UK, for the TV show “Take Me Out,” and for Thinkbox, an ad which stars Harvey and Rabbit.
Now that the Convention is over, the art has been returned, the wrap-up has been written, and my office is getting back to normal, I’ve had a chance to uncover a lot of updates and contributions that I hadn’t had a chance to post in the last few months. Over the next few days, I’ll be making note of all of the new content on the site, starting today with Movies.
First, we have Christopher Nolan’s first feature film, Following (1998), which features a photostrip. Thanks to Russ for the tip.
Our friend Tara tipped us off to a photobooth in Step Up 3, where two characters take refuge to get away from a dance club fight.
Thanks as well to found photobooth pioneer Dick Jewell for letting us know about a photostrip spotted in Danis Tanovic’s film L’enfer.
And finally, I’ve updated the entry for The Mambo Kings with higher quality images for the film’s photobooth sequences. The film uses a nice booth and even makes photostrips into an editing tool, so I’m happy to have been able to replace the horrible VHS transfers from 2004 with new stills from DVD.
As we look back on everything that happened during last week’s International Photobooth Convention, we’ll be posting recaps of all of the events that took place, the people we met, and the experiences we had during the three days. It was an ambitious event, and we used the occasion to debut a few of our own contributions to the world of photobooth media. We’ll now be making those items, namely the convention poster and the Photomaton 25th anniversary catalog, available to the public.
Our poster is a beauty, designed by Jared Purrington and printed at Level Press in Los Angeles on French Paper. The poster is signed and numbered in a limited edition of 100. The poster is $20 plus postage and handling.
The poster will be shipped to you rolled in a sturdy tube.
The catalog for the PHOTOMATON 25th Anniversary show is a professionally printed and bound 36-page work that combines original biographies and artwork from the original 1987 catalog, which is now quite scarce, with updated information and images on every artist who participated in the original show. The catalog is also in a limited edition of 100, and is $15 plus shipping and handling.
Choose US/Canada or International and then click the image to purchase the item. I’m happy to ship multiple copies of either or both items, but due to the fact that the poster will be shipped in a tube, we need to charge separate shipping costs for each type of item. Please with any questions. If you’ve written me before to reserve an item, I have them set aside for you, but please click through the PayPal links to set up payment and provide me with your shipping address.
We are very pleased today to announce the 2012 International Photobooth Convention, which will be held at Electric Lodge in Venice, California, May 18 and 19, 2012. It’s been almost three years since our last event in Chicago, and with all of the exciting stuff going on in the world of photobooths, we’re ready for another convention. Just as in previous years, the event will be a low-key gathering featuring photobooth art, workshops, lectures, projects, and of course, free photochemical photobooths.
We’re still in the early planning stages of the event, but we wanted to make the announcement and let people know with as much lead time as possible. Check back on the Convention page, on our Facebook page for the event, and on our Twitter feed for updates as they become available. We very much hope some of our readers will be able to join us in California for the event, but if not, never fear, it will be well documented on our site as it happens.
Feel free to contact us with any questions about the convention, and stay tuned for more news as we get closer to the date.
With the help of Tim in St. Louis and Anthony in Chicago, I got my photobooth up and running in time for our big birthday party. It was a huge hit at the party, and we have a guestbook full of photos and messages from happy party-goers. Having a photograph taken with my daughter wearing a “1” hat on her first birthday made all of the time and effort worthwhile.
This week, I switched out the roof that the booth arrived with for the more stylish curved roof, still authentic to the Model 14 but not original to this particular booth.
This weekend, I painted part of the main wall with magnetic paint and gave it a frame to create a board where we can put up all of our photostrips.
And now I’ve finally got an appropriate home for a gift Tim gave me awhile back, an original photobooth display glass, nicely framed.
Finally, this week I learned from Raul at Foto-Mat that my photobooth wasn’t as new to me as I thought. In fact, almost six years ago, in August of 2005, I sat in this very booth and took a strip of photos when it was located at Big Fun in Cleveland, Ohio. It’s come full circle, this machine.