• HOME
• LOCATOR
• ART
• MOVIES & TV
• MUSIC
• PROJECTS
• IN PRINT
• GALLERY
• DISCUSS
• RENT
• IPC7

THE PHOTOBOOTH BLOG

Archives: Art

January 18, 2008

More European photobooth news this week, as we’ve belatedly posted a little information about a recent project undertaken by Sleep Club, a.k.a. artists Dell Stewart and Adam Cruickshank, at Takt Gallery in Berlin. Simply put, they

…made some flocked Schlaf Klub tshirts and wore them while we slept in six different Photoautomats in Berlin. We took a lot of pictures and made this little installation as a result.

Check out more pictures of the beautiful and gigantic blown-up photostrips on their website. Thanks to Adam for letting us know about the project.

Brian | 1:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 19, 2007

That’s certainly not a word, but I’m sick of using the term “roundup” to describe one of these omnibus photobooth news entries. Maybe I should have just used “omnibus,” actually. Anyway, we’ve found a few brief items of note to relay here, and in the new year, we’ll have more news on the photobooth art front from Spain and Italy.

• One item that has been circulating the art news blogs recently tells of the work of Joe Heidecker, who used a photobooth to help him cover chairs in photos of design fair goers in Miami. Read all about it on the Dwell blog, and be sure to check out the “Design Miami 2007” video on the New York Times website.

• Max Kozloff’s new history of portrait photography features some photobooth photos, according to a Guardian review:

Kozloff favours anonymous faces and everyday locations: he makes room for discarded strips of photo booth portraits, but not for the celebrated sitters of Karsh, Bailey, Leibovitz or Testino.

• According to a recent LAist post, musician and artist (and photobooth photo collector) Mark Mothersbaugh’s “Rugs During Wartime and Peacetime” exhibition and sale at a gallery in Culver City, California, featured a booth:

They had the requisite trendy photo booth, which we avoided. Everyone’s butt looks fat standing in a photo booth.

• Photobooth.net reader DaveX’s giant gallery of photostrips shows the wide variety of lighting, contrast, and chemical variables that can have an effect on the final strip. And if you’re into seeing the owner of that same photobooth mugging for the camera, take a look at the gallery of 357 photostrips of the owner, also impressive and fascinating.

Brian | 9:51 PM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2007

We’ve got more information to follow up on our previous note about Irene Stutz and her book Das Einfränklerimperium: Die Geschichte der Schnellphoto AG, or The One-Franc Empire: The History of Schnellphoto AG. Irene was kind enough to provide us with a description of the book in English as well as some images from the book itself.

The book tells the story of Schnellphoto AG, established and lead for many decades by Martin and Christoph Balkes. For one franc per image strip, the brothers provided the whole contry with square passport pictures - their machines became a national cultural treasure, their company a veritable empire of one franc coins. Since the end of 2006, the photo machines have been demolished and scrapped since the special photographic paper is no longer being produced. As analog machines are being replaced by digital ones, the original “snapshot character” is being lost through fun image settings and verbal instructions. But it was exactly the austerity and sobriety of the “photo machines” that triggered the desire for spontaneous self-representation.

The book will be published by Scheidegger & Spiess in Zürich, and it looks like it will be available through the publisher’s website as well as Amazon.de. Tonight, Irene will be having an opening for her new book in Zürich, which qualifies as the coolest photobooth-related event of the year, and we hope to see photos from the evening soon.

Images and text courtesy Irene Stutz

Brian | 11:55 AM |

December 3, 2007

A few items of note in the news recently:

First, a series of photobooth-style portraits taken by royal girlfriend Kate Middleton:

The 25-year-old girlfriend of Prince William was praised as she organised an exhibition by celebrity portrait photographer Alistair Morrison.

The prince showed his support by making a late appearance at the show. The exhibition - The Time To Reflect, at The Shop at Bluebird, in Kings Road - features dozens of Morrison’s celebrity photographs including Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, Ewan McGregor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sting.

Many were taken in a special photobooth installed in the Dorchester Hotel in London and in venues in Los Angeles and New York as part of a project to raise money for the United Nations’ children’s fund, Unicef.

Limited editions of the originals are being sold at the show with half the proceeds going to the charity. All the proceeds from a £60 book of the passport-style images - complete with personal messages from the sitters - will benefit the same cause.

Also, more bad news for Photo-Me:

Shares in Photo-Me International, the company whose management was earlier this month forced out by angry shareholders, collapsed yesterday as it cut profits forecasts for the year.

Some thoughts from an English writer on passport photos:

I have just had my passport picture done. The result was not a pretty sight and got me thinking.

And a piece on photobooth enthusiast Nakki Goranin and her upcoming book, American Photobooth.

With an introduction written by David Haberstich, a Smithsonian curator of photography, the 224-page tome reveals happy, stern, wistful, goofy or blank facial expressions. Many images convey specific occupations, familial relationships, romantic entanglements and outlooks on life.

The author of the article gets Nakki, but doesn’t necessarily get the current state of photobooths: “Photobooths are still around, in malls and arcades, but now they’re digital.” I guess we’ll be going, then…

Brian | 5:00 PM |

June 23, 2007

Photobooth news from around the country this week, beginning in one of the few states that doesn’t have an entry in our Photobooth Directory: Nebraska. Omaha residents celebrated the recent opening of the new bar/club called Slowdown, part of the massive new Saddle Creek Records development that will include a new art-house theater (Film Streams) as well as restaurants and apartments. They’re probably focusing their enthusiasm on the fact that Slowdown will have a black and white photobooth when it opens this weekend, but we are. Does Omaha currently have a photobooth? Who knows? But according to this Omaha.com article, they will now, and we’re looking forward to getting our first contribution from the great state of Nebraska. (The booth is visible in a few photos in the gallery on Slowdown’s website).

Comedian Patton Oswalt, who can be heard very shortly providing the lead voice in the new Pixar film Ratatouille, is releasing his second comedy album, a follow up to 2004’s “Feelin’ Kinda Patton,” to be called “Werewolves and Lollipops.” Oswalt’s record label, Sub-Pop, is promoting the album by giving away 10 unique, signed photostrips to random winners drawn from among the first 100 people who pre-order the album. The photostrips are the result of a day when “Patton came into our offices and abused our photo booth”; who even knew Sub-Pop had a photobooth?

Going a little further back, a found photostrip was Found Magazine’s “Find of the Day” for May 27.

And finally, we go still further back, to early May, and ask, What if they threw a photobooth party and we weren’t invited? Well, it happened, though I guess it wasn’t exactly a “photobooth party,” and there really wasn’t any reason for us to be invited. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art threw their annual “Modern Ball” on May 2, 2007, and according to various photos and accounts, the walls were covered with massive blow-ups of Andy Warhol’s photobooth pictures, and a black and white photobooth was on hand for free photobooth pictures for the attendees. Nice. Thanks to YumSugar for tipping us off with photos of the photostripped walls. Read an account of the party here, and check out the pages of photographer Mona T Brooks, who has photos from the ball for sale, including pictures of the photobooth being used and the photobooth decor that evening.

Photo of Patton Oswalt from subpop.com.

Brian | 8:19 AM |

April 21, 2007

The longer we look into the world of photobooths, the more people we find doing striking, fascinating, and surprising things with the the photos these machines produce. Today, we present two artists whose work take advantage of the ubiquity, affordability, and malleability of the photobooth photo, one older Russian and one young American.

The Russian artist, Andrey Chezhin, has work featured in a new exhibition called “Tools As Art: The Hechinger Collection,” opening April 27 at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. A preview in the San Jose Mercury-news describes the show, and mentions Chezhin’s work:

Russian artist Andrey Chezhin used discarded photo booth head shots, replacing facial features with hardware, as a political statement about the loss of individual identity.

Read our artist page for Chezhin, a small Andrey Chezhin biography and C.V., and look at some of his other work.

We were also contacted this week by Daniel Minnick, much of whose work features photostrips and individual photobooth photos, sometimes simply by themselves and also heavily altered with added lines, colors, and shapes.

Minnick is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, and has been featured in solo and group shows around California.

A look around Minnick’s online gallery is well worth the time; click on each individual photo or strip to see a series of related works featuring photobooth photos. They range from simple self-portraits to complex series, and exploit the versatility of the black and white photobooth in interesting ways.

Brian | 2:31 PM |

February 16, 2007

A few photobooth-related projects and other additions to the site: first, we’ve mentioned the Photoboof project before, but we’d like to point out Alex’s photos of the inside of a great old Canadian black and white booth, one of four that was being re-covered for a corporate event. The photos document the inside, the outside, and the mechanical innards of the booth, and are worth a look inf you’ve never seen the chemical baths and spider mechanism.

Secondly, a recent exhibition at the Stockholm Moderna Museet featured the photographs of Carl Johan De Geer, a photographer, artist, and musician who made his own homemade photobooth in the 1960s that allowed viewers to photograph themselves. The resulting photos, more than 300 of which are now in the museum’s collection, depict the artist’s family and friends, as well as artists and musicians, both known and unknown.

And finally, the most interesting photobooth project of late, the John Wilkes Photo Booth. The name says it all; check it out for yourself.

Photo: John Wilkes Photo Booth schematic, boothshotme.com.

Brian | 12:15 AM | | TrackBack

January 31, 2007

A press release from Skidmore College announces an upcoming photography exhibition from Joachim Schmid, whose “Photoworks” show includes all variety of photographs, including forgotten photobooth photos. The show will be presented at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, and will run through April 9, 2007.

As an artist who works in the medium of found photography, Joachim Schmid salvages photos from flea markets and archives, cuts them out of catalogues and publications, retrieves them from city streets, and finds them on the Internet. He then assembles series of photos as artworks that explore the emotional power and recurrent eccentricities of everyday photography.

The 111 images randomly excerpted for the Tang exhibition include family snapshots, ID photos, and photo-booth discards that Schmid picked up over the past 25 years on walks through cities around the world. Many images are creased, tire-tracked, torn up, walked on, rain-soaked, and/or sun-faded.

Brian | 12:24 PM | | TrackBack

November 1, 2006

In commemoration of its 30th anniversary, the Photographic Resource Center has organized the exhibition “PRC | POV - Photography Now and the Next 30 Years.” Much to our delight, Photobooth.net was chosen as one of their featured organizations! The PRC is located in Boston and is a really fantastic organization. Their mission:

The Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston University is an independent non-profit organization that serves as a vital forum for the exploration and interpretation of new work, ideas, and methods in photography and related media. The PRC presents exhibitions, fosters education, develops resources, and facilitates community interaction for local, regional, and national audiences.

If you are in Boston in the next few months, stop by and check out the show. It is up through January 28, 2007.

Tim | 1:44 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 31, 2006

Another update of photobooth news from around the world of the arts, from music to museums to found photos, plus a few cases of run-ins with the law:

• Beck’s new album The Information features a lyric about photobooths, as reported in a recent review:

Take a little picture in a photobooth/
Keep it in a locket and I think of you/
Both of our pictures, face to face/
Take off your necklace and throw it away

• The Melbourne Photobooth Project at the 2006 Melbourne Fringe Festival gets a review in The Age.

• In the UK, artist Gillian Wearing’s work is profiled in The Guardian:

In 2003, Wearing exhibited five eerie photos of members of her family. We seemed to be looking at snapshots of the artist’s mother and father; a professional headshot of her smiling uncle; a snapshot of her shirtless brother in his bedroom brushing elbow-length hair; and a photo-booth picture of the artist herself at 17.

• Across the Channel in France, photobooth (or should we say photomaton) photos are featured at the Centre Pompidou. Thanks to Pat for the tip on these anonymous 1929 photos. Check out this solo photo and this strip as well. (If these links don’t work, search for ‘photomaton’ on the site).

• Something we haven’t noted before, a wonderful collection of found photos, more than 200 in all, at SquareAmerica.com, “a gallery of vintage snapshots & vernacular photography.”

• On a different note, we have news of more lewdness in the photobooth on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

• And finally, the story of a rejected passport application based on the photobooth photo the girl’s family provided.

A five-year-old girl’s passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders. Hannah Edwards’s mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country. The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.

Photo: Photomaton, Anonymous 1929. Centre Pompidou

Brian | 2:42 PM |

October 28, 2006

In an article about a digital photobooth that projected photos of attendees on the wall at a Whitney Museum benefit last week, Moby voiced his support of real, honest-to-goodness old-style photobooths. When asked if he took part, he replied,

“No, I didn’t do that,” he said. “There was a long line for it. And I used to go to the photo booth machine…there’s an arcade on Mott Street, way down in Chinatown, that has this great photo booth machine and, it seems, this is nice but sort of a pale imitation to the real thing. I’m sort of a purist, I think.”

Glad to hear we’ve got another ally in the fight to keep dip-and-dunk photobooths alive.

Brian | 5:15 PM |

A recent project based in the UK documents the unheralded members of the punk generation, thirty years on, through photobooth pictures. The project, called 100 Punks, draws parallels between photobooths and punk:

Never more so was this the case, than with the punk generation. Like punk, the machines were cheap, instant and easy to operate, once inside, there were no rules, perhaps the only time the subject could be in total control of the image they portrayed to the rest of the world. Each hair colour caught, new relationship captured. Self-concious, self portraits of the not so blank generation.

Check out the project online and in various galleries and museums in the coming year.

Brian | 5:01 PM |

September 8, 2006

The cover story of this week’s LA Weekly features “emerging artists” with photos of each artist taken in a photobooth. The piece, titled “Afterschool Art,” features black and white photobooth pictures from all of the artistst profiled. For the most part, the photos are real sections of photostrips, though in two cases, the photostrips appear fabricated: Clair Baker’s are staged (square photos rather than rectangular) and Jacob Stewart-Halevy’s photo is a single shot, not a photostrip at all. The other 19 artists play along, with Frank Ryan even bringing his dog in. The photos are included in the online version of the article, though the multi-colored cover of the print edition is quite striking and not available in a viewable size online.

Perhaps the photos were taken in the booth at Lucky Strike Lanes, or at the Edendale Grill, or at the Short Stop, if it’s no longer printing the name of the bar between each photo.

Brian | 8:10 PM | Comments (1)

June 16, 2006

Bloomberg’s Carly Berwick reports on a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that pays tribute to the late Susan Sontag. Sontag’s words are paired with photos she wrote about, and others that illustrate her ideas. Included is a Warhol photobooth strip:

The recently acquired Peter Hujar photograph of Sontag herself, taken in 1975, reveals the writer reclining, relaxed but fearsome. A quote nearby states that “photographs instigate, confirm, seal legends.” Sontag’s words become the occasion for putting the Hujar next to a circa-1963 Warhol photo-booth strip of self-portraits…

Brian | 3:40 PM | | TrackBack

May 31, 2006

Ever since owning my first photobooth I have been trying to get a school or church to let me set the booth up on premises and create their yearbook or directory.

Well, as you might have guessed, I am about 36 years too late to claim the “Mr. Originality” prize. Take a look at this 1970 yearbook from Rice University. The students really seemed to get into the photobooth vibe, resulting in some creative images. Make sure to note the name of the woman pictured on the fifth page of images in the photostrip on the far right. Elton Joan. Nice.

Tim | 4:56 PM | | TrackBack

May 28, 2006

A new addition to the Photobooth.net Art section this week is 29 year-old Japanese artist Tomoko Sawada. Sawada is best known for her piece ID-400, a collection of 400 “single photo-booth images rephotographed, multiplied times four and arranged in squares, then fitted together in framed grids of 100 squares each, adding up to a regular rogue’s gallery of unprepossessing little women.” More can be found on Sawada and her work at the Zabriskie Gallery page for the show.

In addition, we’ve added a 2003 New York Times article to the In Print section. The article describes Sawada’s work, as well as Babbette Hines’ Photobooth book and the booth and show at the Griffin Museum in 2003.

Brian | 10:31 AM | | TrackBack

May 22, 2006

Another artist has been added to the list here at Photobooth.net, an American painter named Lordan Bunch. Bunch, who has exhibited his work around the world over the last few years, makes small, photo-realistic paintings adapted from old photobooth photos. More info on Bunch can be found at this Davidson Gallery page and this Museum of Contemporary Photography page.

Also added today, Arty Carter’s A Life In A PhotoBooth 1974-1999, now found in our Projects section.

“C.I. 1929” © 2001, Lordan Bunch.

Brian | 6:28 PM | | TrackBack

May 10, 2006

Photo-London, billed as “London’s first international photography fair,” opens next week, offering thousands of photographs for sale to the public. A preview of the show from the Times of London describes the breadth of the show, and includes a mention of the works of “lesser-known young photographers such as Jan Wenzel, a German artist based in Leipzig, who creates his pictures in an old passport photo-booth.”

A quick search revealed this bio of Wenzel, mentioning his “künstlerischen Arbeit allein dem Paßbildautomaten,” and another hit led to story called “Pass-Bilder: Die Fotofixkunst von Jan Wenzel,” an informative piece that also links to his recent book, Fotofix (or Fofofix, as Amazon calls it…)

I’ve never heard of Wenzel’s work before, and from the photos and descriptions I see, it looks fascinating and different than anything else I’ve seen. Time to add him to our Art section.

Photo: Jan Wenzel, “Interieur #3

Brian | 8:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 8, 2006

Last year, I began searching French eBay for photobooth (or photomaton) items, such as the photobooth stool I noted last April. One of the items I mention in that entry is a publicity brochure for Photomaton, the French manufacturers of photobooths, and though it’s taken me awhile, I’ve finally got the item scanned and uploaded into our In Print: Ads section.

The brochure, a tri-fold piece that looks like it dates from sometime in the 1990s, is a brief bande dessinée adventure by Ted Benoît, a renowned illustrator in the “ligne claire” school of graphic artists. A private investigator, Ben Marquette, wanders Los Angeles, stopping at photobooths along the way, outside a movie theater, in a train station, and in a shopping center.

I haven’t translated the entire thing, but in the frame I’ve included here, Marquette mentions something to the effect that as he looks at the machine, he knows immediately that it will do something to his cheeks and give him the eyes of a Boston terrier. I’d appreciate any help if someone cares to expand on this poor job, and explain the last sentence (“to stripe my shelves”?) as well.

UPDATE: According to the author (see comments), that last line means “something like ‘blot out of one’s records (or note book, etc)’.”

Brian | 4:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 3, 2006

Back in February, when we posted a note about Liz Rideal’s photoboothed plants on display in Philadelphia, we were suprised to come across another example of Rideal’s photobooth work we’d not heard of before. Somehow, in front of our watchful eyes, perhaps the largest photobooth photos ever managed to slip by.

As reported by the BBC in an article titled “Kerfuffle on Broadcasting House,” a giant piece depicting four photobooth photos was on display from May to July of 2004, covering over restoration work at the BBC’s Broadcasting House on Regent Street in London.

The huge piece (22 metres x 15.4 metres), created by enlarging tiny composite images taken in a photo booth, shows the artist’s hand drawing back a sumptuous red curtain.

The gigantic photographic image, surely the biggest set of photo booth photos ever made, covers the ‘prow’ of the BBC’s iconic building, currently undergoing restoration work.

Information about Kerfuffle is available on Rideal’s website, as is more information on the artist herself. Also, check out Photobooth.net’s artist page for her.

Photo © BBC 2004.

Brian | 4:32 PM | | TrackBack

March 21, 2006

The photobooth gallery exhibit entitled “A $3 Love Affair” has extended its deadline for submissions until April 1, and changed the opening date to April 8. Brian blogged about the show in late February.

Tim | 1:44 AM | | TrackBack

February 26, 2006

The Padlock Gallery in Philadelphia is preparing for a show focusing on the photobooth experience, and are looking for submissions. The show, called “A $3 Love Affair,” will feature hundreds of photostrips, pictures that use the booth in “unprecedented” ways. Submissions are due by April 1, 2006, and the show opens on April 8th.

They’ve got such a good little blurb about the photobooth experience that we’ll quote some of it whole, right here:

…when the flashes start going, your mind is nowhere but there, concealed in that tiny, unique environment, elevated to some other state with a rush of adrenaline; and suddenly, the rules are different- you’re only separated from the natural world by a small piece of fabric; but for some reason, that’s enough; and within the walls of the photobooth, acquaintances become friends, friends become lovers, serious people become goofballs, everyone becomes part of the same team; and then that’s it- it’s all over so quick and you can’t even recall what just happened as you stand waiting for what seems like an eternity for your photos to drop in that slot (which really makes you start to question if it did happen at all!); and they finally do, and they’re wet and smell funny, and you pass them around and laugh, or maybe you tuck them inside a notebook to secretly savor or reflect upon at some later date.

The show has the following submission guidelines:

• Submit as many photobooth strips as you want. There is no limit! Do it by March 20, 2006
• Will only accept submissions created on or within actual photobooth strips (not accepting digitally manipulated strips, photobooth stickers, photocopied strips, or any other form of reproduction …paint on’em, scratch your tag on it, whut ev’s… just give us the OG strips, OK?)

We particularly appreciate the last one, and look forward to seeing what the Padlock gets. Thanks to Mike for letting us know about the show. We expect to see some photos from the opening, and we’d love to hear what the show is like from some Photobooth.net readers.

Brian | 10:06 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 14, 2006

The Philadelphia City Paper art roundup makes a brief mention of Liz Rideal’s new show “Above and Below Ground,” which opened recently at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia. “British artist Liz Rideal’s stark photo-booth images of plants and flowers are on view.” Some of Liz’s work can be seen on her website.

UPDATE: Edith Newhall writes a review of Rideal’s work in the Philadelphia Enquirer:

The photo booth is a strange place. It’s secretive, claustrophobic, and must be a kind of heaven for the narcissist, like a guest bathroom with an immense mirror.

And let’s not forget the thrill of instant gratification. No wonder Andy Warhol, that most voyeuristic of artists, was among the first to explore its potential. It is also a relic of our futuristic coin-operated past, like the juke box, the phone booth, the automat (which originated in Philadelphia) - 20th century inventions that were intended to make life more convenient for all. This is the nostalgic photo booth, the one that Liz Rideal has been using as her studio of sorts for the last 20 years.

If any Photobooth.net readers are in the Philadelphia area, please stop by the show and let us know what you think.

Brian | 8:34 AM | | TrackBack

February 9, 2006

A piece in Nextbook about artist Will Corwin focuses on his portraits of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, but also mentions a work depicting “two lovers kissing in a photo booth.” Though the work isn’t pictured in the article, the author kindly offered a link to Corwin’s Flickr page, where we found a photograph of the piece, entitled “kiss,” described as “Acrylic, crayon and graphite on plaster on wooden panels, 96” x 72”, 2002, collection of Jaime Brieva.” Very nice.

Brian | 10:19 PM | | TrackBack

January 25, 2006

Photobooth repairman Humberto Verdeza is the subject of photobooth art exhibition on now at Niagara Bar, at the corner of Avenue A and East 7th in New York City.

Curated by Ethan Minsker and Ted Riederer, the show opened on December 5th of last year and is going on as we speak. We urge Photobooth.net readers in the NYC area to head on over and tell us what you see. The artist statement reads, in part,

Over the years, I noticed Humberto coming in the bar and fixing the photo booth in the back room. When he finished his work, I would sign his slip of paper. One day I asked if he ever found any interesting photos. He said no, but showed me the test shots he did of himself. I asked if I could have them. “I’ll make some kind of art out of them,” I said as he walked out of the bar.

The curators let each artist involved in the show pick one photo of Humberto out of a stack of more than 40 strips, and do what they would with it. Twenty-five artists are listed on the site, and we look forward to hearing what their work is like. Thanks to Sean for the tip and the link.

Also, on an unrelated note, this is officially the 100th post in the Photobooth.net blog. Thanks to everyone who has contributed, commented, and perused the news over the last year. We’re glad to know you’re there, and we appreciate your interest and support.

Brian | 2:49 PM | | TrackBack

January 24, 2006

UCR California Museum of Photography recently opened a new exhibition titled “Create and Be Recognized: Photography on the Edge,” which features the work of photobooth artist Lee Godie.

The program,

curated by independent curators Deborah Klochko, former director of The Friends of Photography at the Ansel Adams Center, and John Turner, a historian and scholar of outsider art, will be the first comprehensive survey of photo-based projects created by untrained visionaries.

The program runs through April 15, 2006. If you attend the show, please let us know what you see, and what you think.

Brian | 7:00 PM | | TrackBack

October 29, 2005

A recent article in the Palo Alto Weekly tells about a new exhibition at the Palo Alto Art Center called “Romancing the Shadows,” described as “an exhibit of alternative photography progresses including tintypes, daguerreotypes and Van Dyke prints.”

The exhibition also includes some adapted photobooth photos in the work of artist Kimberly Austin. Her set titled Adam & Edna features photobooth photos of her grandparents in the pieces “Yippie!” and “Never Forget,” seen above. The photos, enlarged to 8 1/2” x 11”, are Van Dyke prints mounted on wood.

More information and images at SFCamerawork.org and Braunstein/Quay Gallery.

Brian | 9:48 AM | | TrackBack

October 19, 2005

This weekend’s trip to Pittsburgh yielded a photobooth, photobooth art, photobooth as publicity, and a photobooth photo as official street signage. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, I visited the Warhol Museum, home to an excellent Auto-Photo Model 14C in the basement.

The booth, nestled under the stairs at the far end of the lower level, provides nice, crisp, high-contrast photos, with a very white background. Both sides are open, and the booth is set a foot or so away from the wall, allowing for a little room on the far side for a number of people to gather in the booth at one time; our record for identifiable people was six in one shot. Across the hall from the booth is a marker denoting the high-water mark during a recent flood; apparently, the booth was damaged but the Warhol either repaired it or got a new (old) one. I’d love to hear the full story.

On the first floor, I enjoyed three works by Warhol that began as photobooth photos: silkscreened portraits of Ethel Scull (1963), Judith Green (1963-64), and Bobby Short (1963):



After viewing the museum’s seven fascinating floors, I headed down to the basement to use the photobooth, and checked out the “Weekend Factory,” described on the Warhol’s website as a “lively studio program where museum visitors can create art while exploring Andy Warhol’s artistic practice.” I took the photostrip I’d just taken, photocopied it, took some highlighters to it, and made a Pop button out of it for a mere 50 cents. What a bargain!

While I was in the “Factory,” I also spotted the Warhol’s Education Programs pamphlet, which features eight photostrips on the front and back cover. Very nice.

As I headed out Sandusky Street and over the 7th Street Bridge to get a view of the skyline and ballparks, I noticed that the bridge had been officially re-named the Andy Warhol Bridge, complete with colorful signs taken from his photobooth self-portraits. I’d venture that this is the only example of a photobooth photo used in an official city sign. But I’d be happy to hear otherwise. With such a ripe climate, all I need is to find some more photobooths in the Pittsburgh area. This can’t be the only one.

Brian | 8:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 26, 2005

It’s time for a new category here on Photobooth.net: poetry. This week I came across the first example I’ve seen of poetry about the photobooth, a work called “Photomaton,” published online in the first issue of Elixir Magazine. The poem, by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti, describes an experience with a “two euro” photobooth in a Paris Metro station. The poem has not shown up on Ranson-Polizzotti’s page of audio files of poems, but we’ll provide a link if it does.

Brian | 5:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 17, 2005

The latest edition of “eBay’s weird world of photobooth stuff” features half a photostrip of black and white shots purporting to depict Chicago stage actor Danny Belrose (not to be confused with Evangelist Danny Belrose, with his “Wrods of Guidance”). The description states that the photos were taken “sometime in the mid 90’s” and show Belrose “making out with some unknown snarler.” In a rhetorical leap, the description also boasts that the strip is “a well-preserved example of original, collectible American photobooth art.” Nice.

Brian | 2:58 PM |

May 11, 2005

Another copy of the 2003 Billy Childish book “photo-booth” has been listed on eBay this week, with a starting bid of £50. The description for the item once again mentions Tracey Emin, the most well-known personality photographed in the book, as well as Sexton Ming, and describes the book as having “a very small press run of only 50 books.”

Another copy of the book was listed on eBay in mid-April and eventually sold for nearly £100. The current copy is a little different, with gallows woodcuts covering the front, and, as the description reads, this copy is “signed Billy 03 in red pencil on the back cover.”

Brian | 7:57 AM |

April 16, 2005

Two oft-cited but hard to find photobooth art books are currently listed on eBay. The first is photo-booth, a zine-like photobooth pic book by Billy Childish (prolific rocker, poet, artist, author). It purports to be the artist’s personal copy, but my guess is that it probably isn’t Billy’s personal copy, rather one of a small number of Artist’s Proofs that were printed. Rare, nonetheless.

The second book, Andy Warhol Photobooth Pictures, is the exhibition catalog from the 1989 Andy Warhol photobooth exhibit at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York. I have never seen this book in person, but occasionally see it listed in online bookstores. It never lists for less than $250. Perhaps this is a chance to get it for cheap.

Tim | 2:09 PM |

April 3, 2005

An Artdaily.com preview of the upcoming Christie’s New York Spring 2005 Photographs sale includes a mention of the well-known Holly Solomon photobooth photos. The set of six strips, taken at photobooths at 47th and Broadway in 1963 and 1964, is expected to fetch $40,000-$60,000 when the auction takes place April 26. The Warhol piece at right, a painting over silkscreened images, was adapted from one photo taken during Warhol and Solomon’s photobooth sessions. Asked about these sessions, Solomon, who died in 2002, said, “We went to Broadway and 47th Street, where they had this photobooth. Andy met me there, and we had a bunch of quarters. He was very particular about which booth. We tried a whole bunch of them… Actually, if you’re in a photobooth for a long time it gets pretty boring…” For more from Solomon on these photos, read this International Center of Photography article.

Brian | 3:30 PM |

March 18, 2005

An Artnet article this week informs us that the Neue Galerie for German and Austrian art in New York has brought in a photobooth to complement their exhibition “Portraits of an Age: Photography in Germany and Austria, 1900-1938.” The $2 black-and-white booth “hails from New Jersey, however, not Weimar-era Germany.” The exhibition, which features more than 100 vintage photographs, runs through June 6, 2005.

Brian | 10:56 AM |

March 13, 2005

Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules, boxes “filled with a staggering array of art works, source and publicity material, correspondence and memorabilia,” are set to go on display at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia this week. The exhibit, which naturally includes photobooth strips, has prompted an article entitled “Trash or treasure?” in Melbourne’s daily The Age.

Brian | 3:10 PM | Comments (1)

March 5, 2005

Opening tonight at Seattle’s Soil Art Gallery is a new exhibition called “knock-off.” Based on a 2003 trip to Italy, the installation by Nina Zingale and Gina Rymarcsuk uses photobooth photographs of figurines of religious and historic figures bought on the street. As the description reads

This reference to “Fotobooth,” as though that’s a common name for something we all know, is somewhat misleading, and it seems clear from the small images available on the website that the images have been manipulated enough so as to be far from real photobooth photos anymore.

Brian | 9:19 PM |

I have been trying to track one of these down for some time. The Pyramid Arts Center (now known as The Rochester Contemporary) in Rochester, NY had an exhibit entitled Photomaton: A Contemporary Survey of Photobooth Art in the late 80s. A copy of the catalog is being hawked on eBay. (hands off Mark Mothersbaugh) I am presently coordinating a snipe attempt. Update in 8 days, 19 hours.

Tim | 12:56 AM |

February 12, 2005

If you find yourself in Edinburgh in the next few months, head over to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art for the Andy Warhol Self-Portraits exhibition, which opened this week. A review of the show in the Herald gives an overview of the pieces in the exhibit, which include Warhol’s famous photobooth self-portraits.

The exhibition closes May 2.

Another article on the exhibition, from Scotland on Sunday, mentions Warhol’s “early works and the original photo-booth snapshots on which they were based.”

Brian | 3:10 PM |

February 10, 2005

Inspired by conceptual artist Pierre Bismuth’s nomination, alongside Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry, for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for their work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Artforum Magazine this week took a brief look at “Conceptual Art at the Oscars.”

While Bismuth’s work behind the scenes of the film has received recognition, the article points out that is has not always been so. Der Fotomatonreparateur (The photobooth repairman) by German art collective Die Tödliche Doris, is given as an example of an instance in which conceptual art has likely inspired a film (in this case, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie), but has not been recognized.

See the Photobooths in Movies and TV entries for Eternal Sunshine and Amélie. Also check out more examples of photobooths in art.

Brian | 2:14 PM |

© 2005 - 2008 PHOTOBOOTH.NET •

• Powered by Movable Type 3.33