THE PHOTOBOOTH BLOG

Archive: TV

March 28, 2012

We’ve got lots of new additions to cover today, including a couple of interesting photobooth-related projects. First, a collaboration between two people on different continents whom we’ve gotten to know through the site, Katherine Griffiths in Australia and Dick Jewell in the U.K..



A few months back, Dick Jewell, the man behind the first published collection of found photobooth photos and a major contributor to the Musée de l’Elysée exhibition, contacted us to ask for some assistance on a project he was working on. He was working with Katherine Griffiths, a photobooth enthusiast and collector and one of our helpful, far-flung contributors in Australia, to animate a collection of photobooth photos of herself over nearly 40 years. We helped out where we could, and recently, they let us know that the project was complete. You can view the film, which features photos of Katherine taken between 1973 and 2011, on Vimeo here.

Talking about Katherine’s project is a good reason to mention her website as well. Her Photobooth Journal blog covers her thoughts on the booth, looks back at old photos of herself, and includes ruminations on all kinds of vintage photobooth photography. We recommend taking a look back through the archives when you get a chance, and we wish Katherine the best.

We also have a few new additions in the Movies and TV section: the 1997 film The Boxer starring Daniel Day-Lewis and a 2009 French thriller called Ne te retourne pas:

Thanks to Anthony for pointing out a Radio Télévision Suisse TV piece which follows French singer Hugues Aufray as he visits the Musée de l’Elysée exhibit. You can watch the video on RTS.ch here.

And just yesterday, the CBC aired a segment called Following the Photobooth Faithful, in which reporter Julia Caron interviews Meags Fitzgerald as well as Jeff Grostern of Auto-Photo Canada to talk about the current state of the photobooth in Canada. Give the piece a listen, it’s well worth it.

And, speaking of our faithful international location contributor Meags, we encourage everyone to check out her IndieGogo project: it’s called Photobooth Expedition, and one of its goals is to help make Meags’ trip to the 2012 International Photobooth Convention a reality. It’s less than two months away, folks: time to make plans! We hope to see you there.

March 04, 2012

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.

February 10, 2012

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. 

January 05, 2012

Tune into the History Channel on Monday, January 9 to see what happens when Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz (otherwise known as the American Pickers) pay a visit to Jack White and Third Man Records (seen above, with not one but two photobooths). According to this piece on Paste.com, the guys try to tempt Jack with a taxidermy elephant head, in exchange for the photobooth used in the Hang You from the Heavens video he made with his band, The Dead Weather.

Watch a preview for the episode on the Third Man YouTube Channel.

UPDATE: You can watch the episode on the History Channel website here.

October 19, 2011

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.

October 13, 2011

Our week of updates continues with a slew of new TV shows with photobooths and photostrips in them. Most are from the last few years, and they come from the United States, Italy, and the U.K.

First, thanks to Marco for a tip about an Italian series called Romanzo Criminale. A mobster picks up a drop from the underside of a photobooth stool.

Marco also let us know about a British show called  Misfits, in which a character who can rewind time and change what happens sees two versions of the same photostrip.

Next, I want to thank Xiao for tipping us off to a scene in Royal Pains in which Evan (Paulo Costanzo) proposes to Paige (Brooke D’Orsay) in a photobooth.

A recent episode of Zooey Deschanel’s new show New Girl had the cast at a wedding, which naturally featured a photobooth. Several lengthy scenes in the booth were augmented by a number of shots of authentic photostrips from the machine.

The short-lived show Better with You (which I only saw because it was showing on the plane) used a photostrip in a drying slot as a theme for its opening credits and between-scene transitions. 

A scene from a recent episode of Modern Family featured an incidental pair of photostrips next to a mirror in one scene.

A recent episode of Auction Hunters had the guys stumble across an old booth in a storage locker. Read on to see more photos and our thoughts on where the booth really came from. 

And finally, the brilliant Portlandia was almost obligated to feature a photobooth, considering Portland’s recent ascendancy into the upper echelons of photobooth cities in the U.S. They didn’t disappoint, with a booth visible in the lobby of the “Deuce Hotel” in one episode this season.

Thanks again to everyone for sending in your contributions. Keep ’em coming!

Brian | 12:07 am | TV
June 28, 2011

Sad news first: thanks to some updates this month, we’ve learned that photochemical booths no longer exist at Corner Mall in Downtown Crossing in Boston and at Wasteland in the Haight in San Francisco.

In other news, Karl Lagerfeld presented a collection of photobooth photos of various celebrities to coincide with the American Foundation for AIDS Research gala, as reported by Harper’s Bazaar and Chanel News.

Check out the selection of photos of celebrities, models, and Lagerfeld himself, as well as Zhang Ziyi, seen here.

And…in other Karl Lagerfeld photobooth news, he seems to have shot a new campaign for Chanel in a photobooth, though we haven’t come across the resulting photos yet.

Thanks to Marco and Ferdinand for letting us know about a recent European public television feature on photobooths. The Metropolis segment on the Arté channel features Photobooth author Raynal Pellicer and our friend and long-time contributor Marco Ferrari. The interview, in German, is on YouTube.

And finally, a long-awaited chapter in my photobooth story will begin soon. This week, my Model 14 photobooth will be making its way from Chicago to Los Angeles, where I’ll be setting it up in a shed a friend and I have been putting together in my back yard. I’ll be providing updates on the setup of the booth as we go along. The race to get the machine in place and working before my daughter’s first birthday party is on!

March 22, 2011

As we catch up on what’s been going on while we were out of town, we bring you some bits and pieces from our readers: five new international additions to the site, courtesy of five different folks who got in touch with us.

First, check out Alberto Tanquero’s nice found photobooth image cards over at The Found in Chicago (thanks, Alberto).

We’ve added our first German show, Alles was Zählt, to our listings, with one of many episodes featuring the romance between Deniz and Roman and a few photobooth frames. (thanks, Ricky).

We’ve also added some new photobooth projects, including Paula Birch’s site, “The Strip of a Lifetime”, with tons of photos from Australian photobooths (thanks, Paula).

Also, a lingerie photo shoot in a photochemical photobooth in Italy, courtesy of the Belgian designer La fille d’O (thanks, Marco).

And finally, thanks to the tireless efforts of our Canadian correspondent Meags Fitzgerald, we have four new photobooths listed in the Maritimes, three in Nova Scotia and one in New Brunswick, bringing our total to seven represented provinces (Yukon, I’m looking at you…):

Halifax Shopping Centre

Park Lane Mall

Scotia Square

Champlain Place

Thanks, Meags.

We’d like to thank everyone who contributed, and we encourage others to speak up, drop us a line, and help continue the growth of the site as a photobooth resource for all to enjoy. 

March 04, 2011

We’re bringing to a close the series of updates to our Movies and TV listings sourced from IMDb’s keyword system with some mixed results: of the six items remaining on the list, only three seem to yield solid results. If anyone can find the photobooth in A Chipmunk Christmas (1981), Leave it to Beaver (1997), or Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)—and three more different pieces of work I can’t say I have known—we’d appreciate it. We scanned through each film at least twice and came up with nothing.

On the other hand, we had good, diverse results from three other titles listed: Road Movie, Be With Me, and Aliens Inside.

The late Joseph Strick’s Road Movie features a brief photobooth moment, in which a prostitute picked up a pair of truckers shows off some photos she took in the booth, and then relays a rather depressing story about what happened to her once when she was in a photobooth.

The film Be With Me tells three different fictional stories, one of which involves two girls who get to know each other online. When they meet in person, they go into a purikura photobooth and take some photos.

And finally, Aliens Inside, an Italian TV series. I can’t tell if the video I’ve found online, which is about 30 seconds long and mostly credits, is the full show, but it’s all I was able to find. A man dressed as an alien takes pictures in a photobooth; I wish I knew what was going on here.

So, thanks to these new tips, we’ve added ten new films and five new television shows to our tally. Now it’s time to return the favor and add the hundreds of shows and movies we have listed here into IMDb’s keyword system. I’ll get right on it…

Brian | 5:12 pm | Movies, TV
February 27, 2011

We continue to update our movie and television listings with more titles found through the magic of IMDb’s keyword system, and start with a film I’d never heard of, Now & Forever.

Angela (Mia Kirshner) and John (Adam Beach) visit a photobooth in—what else?—a roadside rest stop, where she takes a sad strip of photos in what looks more like a Polaroid booth. He turns around to find her gone, and we see her jumping into a semi truck, taking off with no warning. The photostrip falls to the ground, where he finds it and then, very dramatically, screams to the heavens and drops the strip, which flutters to the ground. Acting!

The IMDb list featured another film I thought we’d already added here: My Sister’s Keeper. This story of a family dealing with leukemia features a brief moment of happiness when the family visits a photobooth on the pier.

And finally, another remarkable find: Wim Wenders’ Summer in the CIty. Wenders is perhaps the king of the photobooth on film; we’ve listed photobooth moments in his Alice in the Cities, Paris, Texas, and Faraway, So Close!. We’re happy to add Summer in the City, his first full-length film, to that list.

Wenders has always been interested in automatic machines in his films, and includes many in this film: cigarette machines, pinball machines, even a visit to an “Automatischer Lebensmittel Markt,” an Automat. The first time I scanned through the film, I didn’t see anything that looked like a photobooth. On second glance, though, I spotted it, a nearly invisible shot in near complete darkness, in this extremely poor transfer. Hanns (Hanns Zischler) takes a strip of photos in the booth, located outside, in the rain. Where does he go when he leaves the photobooth? Into a phone booth, of course.

Brian | 12:37 pm | Movies, TV