Behind the Curtain: Inside the Revival of New York’s Vintage Photo Booths
New York Times 8/22/2025 | WEB |
A line of night owls snaked around a Lower East Side block, waiting to get into not a bar or a club but a box on the sidewalk — a photo booth.
From behind the curtain, flashes popped and squeals of excitement emerged. A group of people exited and waited patiently for the wet black-and-white photo strip to print out.
For decades, photo booths could be found everywhere — gas stations, department stores, restaurants.
The machine was introduced in 1925 by Anatol Josepho, an inventor from Tomsk, Russia, who had immigrated to the United States, said Maxim Sverdlov, a photo booth maker.
Placed on Broadway near Times Square, a prototype became an overnight sensation, and Mr. Josepho, below, had to hire crowd control. Eventually, though, personal cameras were introduced, and analog photo booths faded.
Today, Mr. Sverdlov, 73, a Russian Jewish immigrant, has almost single-handedly brought the original booths back into fashion.
His company, Classic Photo Booth, has been salvaging and rebuilding vintage machines since 1992 — before that, he worked as a driver delivering the booths.
The company operates about 60 machines and has profit-sharing deals with bars and restaurants around the New York metropolitan area like the Folly in SoHo and Twins Lounge in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The company has built and refurbished around 100 machines in the United States to ship around the world. Most businesses rent them, but some buy them for $30,000 to $50,000.
At Mr. Sverdlov’s warehouse in Old Bridge, N.J., the construction process begins with plywood salvaged from previous booths, which forms the frame of the enclosed structure. Assembly can take up to a week.
Inside, the setup is minimal, typically featuring a single camera and a stool.
Since 2022, Mr. Sverdlov has been passing on his knowledge to his protégée, Danielle Krasniqi, 37, training her to build these machines; today, she owns and operates her own analog photo booth inside Lou’s Athletic Club in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
The bar gets 20 percent of the revenue, and it charges $5 per photo.
“For me as the owner, it makes me really happy getting to see people creating these really special moments in the booth,” Ms. Krasniqi said.
For her wedding, with just a few close friends, she hired Mr. Sverdlov to bring a booth to her small backyard. It was then that she started becoming more serious about the mechanics and working with Classic Photo Booth.
At night, Ms. Krasniqi answers emergency calls from bars. When the paper is out or chemicals are stale, she drives out to repair the machines.
She comes across friends piled in booths making images together, lovers passionately embracing, girls gossiping — and whatever else goes on when a curtain is drawn between a patron and the rest of the world.
Depresión Tropical, a punk band playing at Otto’s Shrunken Head in the East Village, said it was a tradition to document every show it could with a photo booth.
In March, Mr. Sverdlov pulled his truck onto a sidewalk outside the Brooklyn Paramount theater, careful not to disturb the teenage girls who had been camping out since 2 a.m. to see Role Model, an upcoming indie pop star.
In their pajamas, nibbling on packed lunches, the girls took photos with their phones as Mr. Sverdlov unloaded the booth — the heartthrob they had come to see features a photo booth in one of his hit videos.
Mr. Sverdlov set up quickly — he placed the booth inside the theater, mixed the chemicals used to develop the film and loaded the paper.
After a quick test shot he was good to go, and Role Model, whose real name is Tucker Pillsbury, walked in to take the first photos.
His fans followed; hundreds waited hours to use the booth.
By no means are these classic photo booths popular only among Generation Z or TikTok creators.
Artists often use them to document themselves in a manner otherwise impossible in a world dominated by digital technology — it’s one of the few ways you can receive a picture in hand, instantly.
Roeg Cohen, 54, a portrait photographer, has captured himself inside these booths over the last 20 years.
“They really feel like a document of whatever time of your life you’re in,” he said. “I like the idea of having that in smaller increments. Having as much as possible.”
Mr. Cohen is seemingly not the only one: Mr. Sverdlov said he couldn’t restore the photo booths quickly enough to meet demand.
One of the last steps in his restoration process is making sure the booths are in perfect working order. He always asks Ms. Krasniqi to step in and test a new booth.
“I don’t like my own photos,” he said. “I’m not photogenic.”
Contributed by Brian
