PHOTOBOOTHS IN PRINT

Der goldene Abschuss

Hamburger Abendblatt 11/19/2009
by Hanna-Lotte Mikuteit

WEB

The golden photoshoot

100 THINGS: THE "PHOTOAUTOMAT" AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE

Four minutes can be quite long. In the photo kiosk at the slaughterhouse, they take almost an eternity ?

HAMBURG. So it comes Jana and Lisa in any case before. Was it not precisely this noise which heralds the development of the photostrip? Jana presses her ear against the dirty white metal. "Because of what's coming," whispers Lisa. In fact, the photo strip slides from the machine. Infinitely slowly, and - this was clear - the top of the back.

Piercing point, her coolness - the girls are under tension. So, look away now all the other times. "No," moans, Lisa, "since I look stupid." Otherwise, the two are very satisfied: four friends-love in black and white, blond and dark. Souvenir photos before moving to Berlin. "We somehow always looks good in these photos," says Jana yet. It works above all a lot braver. Then it starts again on the runway.

Pale light illuminates the cobbled square where the machine is waiting to be allowed to make the next shots. The principle is simple: Curtain up, snap. Sit down. Curtain, snap. Stool to the proper seat height to rotate. Two euro in the money slot. Grin, grimace, kiss. "Crap, why isn't anything happening?" Then it flashes once, twice, thrice, four times. Done. Outside, they wait in line. Ever since the movie "Amelie," everyone knows how a machine has a secret.

The machine has achieved cult status in Hamburg. After a wild night, a concert at the Knust, on the mile of Karoviertel in the trenches of the photo stop before the abattoir is now a vanishing point. It is important to know that it is not a passport photo machine. The photo machine is art, introduced by cinematographer Asger Doen and screenwriter Ole Kretschmann. In Berlin in 2004, they set up their the first machine. The breakthrough came with the Documenta 2007 in Kassel, Germany. "People love it, that the photos are genuine and of good quality," says Doen. "And we often laugh about it afterwards." The special feature in times of quick-deleting digital photos: the photo can not be corrected. Meanwhile, there are ten photo machines in Berlin, as well as in Cologne, Dresden, Paris, and London. Each is a complicated machine reclaimed from the 60s and 70s, and brings all the trappings of the fun. Syri, an IT expert, for example, often comes with friends to concerts at Uebel & Gefaehrlich for the "retro-part". In their four-photo series is half the head, sometimes with and sometimes without a cap. "That gets my girlfriend," he says. "It's the perfect memory."

There are also genuine collectors like Maren and Oliver. The two are practically regulars. In the photobooth, taking pictures, waiting for the result. Every time, a minor miracle. The fun is fast and cheap. "It does not feel watching it," says Maren, waving the paper dry. "I think," she says, before she was swallowed by the night, "the essence of a man always comes out in the photos."

Experience

Photoautomat at Feldstraße (on the grounds of the old cattle slaughter), Neuer Kamp 32, 20357 Hamburg

Price: 2 euros for four images.

Public transport: U 3, stop Feldstraße.

Suitable for all best friends, face-makers, partiers, those who want a great evening, and want their visit to Hamburg captured in black and white.

This article is one part of a series titled "100 Things You Must Experience in Hamburg," highlights the photobooth on Feldstraße at the Schlachthof, or Slaughterhouse.

Rough translation, courtesy Google Translate and my high school German.

Contributed by Brian