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THE PHOTOBOOTH BLOG

Archives: Booth Locations

April 6, 2008

Another quick re-cap of photobooths in the news lately…

• I can’t seem to determine if the episode ever aired, as it’s not available on ABC.com or via any other less legal means, but a February taping of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took place at the Hughes home in Louisville, Kentucky, and a black and white dip and dunk photobooth was installed in one of the boys’ rooms. A Louisville Courier-Journal article describes the home, and an accompanying video shows the booth as an integral part of the photo-centric bedroom.

• Also, thanks to Chris F. for pointing us to the new video from Million Dollar Strong, made up of Mike O’Connell and Yoshido, a.k.a. Ken Jeong, the doctor from Knocked Up. Check out the moments from the video featuring the Bar 107 photobooth in our Music Video section, or watch the video on YouTube.

• The blog at Modern Mechanix has featured two blasts from the photobooth past recently: first, an article about Anatol Josepho from 1928 titled “Penniless Inventor Gets Million for Photo Machine,” and second, a shorter piece about the invention of the Photomatic machine: “New Automatic Machine Delivers Metal-Framed Photos.” It’s great to see these hard-to-find magazine pieces archived, at least for now, on the web.

• And finally, thanks to Tim, each of our photobooth locations now features a nifty Google map right on the location page, to make your photobooth-hunting even easier.

Brian | 3:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 3, 2008

Some recent additions to the site, as well as photobooth news:

• Photobooth auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the man behind Amélie, directed a video for ’80s French pop sensation Etienne Daho featuring animated photobooth photos, years before he and Audrey Tautou made photobooths hip again

• Adrian Saker’s 25 years in the photobooth, as seen above

• One of our favorite photobooth locations, Faces in Northampton, Mass., has replaced their color booth with a black and white machine.

• Grammy winner and tabloid idol Amy Winehouse was snapped carrying a framed set of photobooth photos out of her London abode as she prepared to move to the country; apparently this is big news, and you can find photos of the photostrips on this blog, and this one, and on the Daily Mail’s site.

• And finally, this bit is a little old, and we’ll have to do some more research to see what came of it, but Women’s Wear Daily reports on a vintage booth accompanying promotion for designer Stella McCartney’s products at Selfridge’s department store:

McCartney’s brand blitz at Selfridges isn’t just about commerce, however. Caricature artists will be on hand to draw customers’ portraits throughout the two weeks, and a one-man band commissioned by McCartney will play. The designer will also install a vintage photo-booth on Selfridges’ second floor, in which customers can take a shot of themselves for 1 pound, or about $2, which will be donated to the Red Cross. McCartney will make a personal appearance during London Fashion Week on Feb. 13.

25 Year Photobooth Portrait © 1982-2008 Adrian Saker.

Brian | 8:03 AM | Comments (2)

February 12, 2008

Ever since reading about San Francisco’s photobooths in a 2002 San Francisco Chronicle article as I was beginning my photobooth hunt, I’ve thought of the city as a photobooth haven. Never mind the fact that one of the locations in the article had a Polaroid booth and another location had gone digital by the time I was able to check it out, or that the author mysteriously recommends photobooth enthusiasts watch La Dolce Vita (great movie, nothing to do with photobooths) along with Amélie… On a quick weekend trip to San Francisco, we were able to add five booths to the list, check in on some old stand-bys, and confirm some cases where digital booths had taken over.

First, I’ll list a few notes on research done before the trip, based on a few years of mentions, rumors, tips, phone calls, and Flickr evidence (and please feel free to correct if you know otherwise).

• The photobooth at the Elbo Room is digital.
• The photobooth at Seventh Heart was photochemical, but has been gone since February, 2007.
• Treat Street is now Dirty Thieves, and seems to still have a photobooth, but people describe it as “Polaroidesque,” so who knows…
• Jungle Fun & Adventure doesn’t exist in San Francisco anymore.
• My Trick Pony’s booth was photochemical, and “died” in April, 2007.
• Studio Z seems dead; Fat City seems to have taken over, but do they have a photobooth?
• The booth at the 500 Club is a Polaroid booth (as of June, 2007).
• The Cellar doesn’t have a photobooth, and claims not to have had one.
• Studio Z is closed, so that one’s out, too.

Now, for the the run-down: my first stop was at Notte, on Union Street in Cow Hollow. The booth was there all right, but it wasn’t working that night, so I snapped a photo of it, to the annoyance of those in the roped-off section in the back where the booth lived, and moved on. I headed over to The Comet Club, where I’d heard there was a booth, but it was a digital one, so I headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, we headed down to the Embarcadero, and along to the Musee Mecanique at Pier 45. Both black and white booths are still there, and I had a nice chat with the man behind it all, Dan Zelinsky, who helped us out with a finicky bill acceptor and told us about his massive collection of abandoned photostrips. We took a few sets of photos, happy see that these great booths are still in action.

Later on that afternoon, I headed west to the Haight to check out a photobooth at Wasteland, a clothing store on Haight Street.The photobooth is located in the rear of the store, and is apparently used as a dressing room on occasion, as a sign inside the booth testifies. The booth provided very crisp black and white images with a clean white border, and in was good running order.

From Wasteland it was a little over a mile to the Buckshot Bar and Gameroom (which unfortunately comes up as “Buckshop” on Google Maps and has no website), where I stopped in just as they opened to test out their black and white booth. The booth had all of the right elements: photos of dogs, photos of bar-goers in various stages of undress, a half-dressed mannequin and a goose on top of the booth, and a Farrah Fawcett poster on the side. I tried to complete the scene by downing a beer in between the four flashes, and did pretty well, but the camera seemed a little cock-eyed in the booth, and didn’t capture my nearly-empty glass as I held it up. When the photos came out, not only were the sepia and nearly overrun with white border, but image they captured included the light from outside and not much of the entire right half of the seating area. Strange indeed.

After dinner on Valencia Street, we checked out the San Francisco location of The Beauty Bar, an unassuming little place with a few hair salon-style dryers above the seats and some related paraphernalia on the walls. The photobooth took some solid, if a little dark, black and white photos, but the mechanism could use a little adjustment, it seems: our photostrip received a half-inch gash in the top frame on its way out.



On Sunday morning, before heading to the airport, I made one more stop: the RayKo Photo Center, not far from SFMOMA and the Moscone Center on Third Street. Michael Shindler’s beautiful 1947 Model 9 booth sits at the far side of the front area of the building, all gleaming metal and curved walls. The booth wasn’t working that day, but I had a nice chat with Michael about it, and Ann showed me some of the many photostrips the booth has produced, plastered on the walls. I poked around inside the booth and took a bunch of photos. I look forward to a return trip where I can see the booth in action.

Almost all of the photobooth locations I didn’t have a chance to check out this time around are in a pretty small area, which would make a good night’s work for a Photobooth.net reader. These aren’t all confirmed locations, but are places I was going to check out out if I had time: Annie’s Social Club, The Transfer, The Endup, Cassidy’s Bar, Club Six, and Thee Parkside Cafe. Let us know what you find…

Brian | 1:00 PM |

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)

December 6, 2007

The New York Times City Room blog asks the question, will Stumptown Coffee Roasters be “planning an outpost in the lobby of the Ace Hotel, a Portland transplant that is scheduled to open on 29th Street and Broadway in 2009”? A fair question, to be sure, but more to the point, will the Ace be bringing another photobooth with them to New York, along with their painted brick interiors, camouflage bedside bibles, and their Rudy’s Barbershops? We shall see - and while we’re at it, when is the Seattle Ace going to get its own photobooth, as well?

Brian | 10:34 AM |

November 29, 2007

Thanksgiving in Portland was a cozy affair, a little chilly but that means more hot toddies, right? We visited four black and white photobooths over two days, all of which were well maintained and in interesting locations. First, two notes about locations I had heard of and tried to visit: Despite what is written here, I can confirm that there is no black and white booth at Le Train Bleu. Also, the photobooth that was located at Rudy’s Barbershop on Division is no longer there, and has moved to either the Ace Hotel (according to the woman who answered the phone at Rudy’s) or Ground Kontrol (according to this Flickr discussion); no matter, as we’ve got both locations covered.

So, as far as we know, the only booth that remains undocumented is the booth at the Oaks Amusement Park, which we’re eagerly awaiting from a contributor who has offered to send in photos.

We’ll start with the booth in the lobby of The Ace Hotel, which was already posted in our directory but required an in-person visit to check out the details and see how the booth fits in with the general greatness of the hotel. The engraved glass, above, and the nice window sign, below, were particularly nice touches.



Also downtown, we visited the booth at Little Finnegan’s, the younger sibling of Portland’s venerable Finnegan’s Toys. Somewhat more rebellious and geared toward an older crowd, Little Finnegan’s stocks Last Supper lunchboxes and librarian action figures and the rest, and the photobooth fits right in.

After spending an afternoon on Hawthorne, I walked back on Belmont St. and found Holocene, a block up on Morrison, not long after they opened for the evening at 5pm. The place was empty, but the photobooth was in fine working order, and I even found a dime on the floor while I was taking my photos. Who says this is an unpaid job?

The last booth we visited lives at Matador, a dark little bar on Burnside on the way to Nob Hill. The photobooth is back by the kitchen, and is plastered with photos of drunken bargoers, often with shirts pulled up, pants pulled down, or whatever else seemed like a good idea at the time.

From a family-friendly toy store to a true dive bar, Portland’s photobooth scene seems healthy once again.

Brian | 4:48 PM |

November 20, 2007

The beautiful black and white photobooths of Berlin have tempted us from afar ever since we first caught wind of them, flipping through Flickr a few years ago. Thanks to our contributors, we now have listings in our directory for a number of Berlin booths, like this one, on Kastanienallee.

These photobooths now have a web directory of their own, with photos, addresses, U-Bahn info, and a list of new locations coming soon: Photoautomat.com (or .de, if you want to be authentic) is a great resource for info on these priceless old-style booths holding their own in the overwhelmingly digital Europe. The site also clues us in to the fact that the dip-and-dunk booth in Paris that we remarked on last month is actually a permanent fixture in the Palais de Tokyo and is run by the same fine folks as the Berlin booths; check out the info page about the Paris photobooth. We would be overjoyed to have someone contribute a photo and sample from this booth so we could put Paris back on the map - hint, hint.

Thanks to Ole for letting us know about the site.

Brian | 12:35 PM |

October 24, 2007

Photobooth.net is and always has been the work of two people, who, for all of our geographical separation, still can’t manage to cover the whole United States, much less the world, and though we make it a point to incorporate photobooth-hunting into pretty much any kind of travel plans we have, it’s a lost cause without the help of generous and helpful photobooth enthusiasts around the country and around the world.

From Utah to Berlin and Latvia to Portland, we’ve received invaluable contributions from people who have helped our listings grow to more than 250 entries around the world. Now, admittedly, we’re a little weak on the international side, but then again, so it seems are the booths themselves, and we’re pleased to have the listings that we do, proving that while endangered outside of North America, old-style photobooths are not yet extinct.

Contributions to Photobooth.net come in two forms: either a name and address of a booth location or the complete deal with booth photo and sample photostrip. For the time being, when we receive a contribution in the form of a tip about a location, we file it away in our ever-growing (though occasionally-shrinking) “To-Do List” of booths around the world, waiting for a time when someone contributes photographic proof, an occasion to visit the area ourselves and snap some photos, or the point in time (hopefully soon) when we revamp our photobooth listings. In addition to the current list of confirmed locations with photos, dates, and relevant information, we hope to list those unconfirmed locations contributed by others, mentioned in the press, or found on the web, in hopes that our readers will then visit them and make an official contribution - or, as the case may be, confirm for us that in fact, no photobooth at that location exists any longer.

Until that point, please take a look at our Guide to Contributing a Photobooth Location and keep on sending in those photos and scans!

Brian | 10:50 AM |

October 21, 2007

The photobooth at the Fun Zone in Newport Beach, a mainstay of that town’s boardwalk, was placed for sale by auction on eBay this week, with a starting price of $999. The booth received much interest, but no bids at its starting price, and according to the auction page, “The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale.”

Now, we don’t know if that’s because of a change of heart, or an offer too tempting to turn down that was received outside the eBay system, or another reason, but we’ll keep our eyes out for this booth, whether it remains in Newport Beach or moves somewhere else.

Thanks to Ricky for the tip.

Brian | 8:29 AM |

October 3, 2007

Amidst all of the news of Europe going completely digital, it seems one booth in Paris has either survived or made a comeback. One of the most frequent questions we get on our discussion board asks whether or not there are any more real photobooths in Paris, and it seems that a Flickr user has found one, at the Palais de Tokyo. It seems likely that the booth is there as part of an exhibition, and if it’s the current show, it’ll only be there until the beginning of 2008, so if you’re interested, head over and check out the great-looking old booth.

Brian | 7:12 AM |

September 25, 2007

Welcome Gridskippers!

Two big-city publications have recently come out with their top photobooth picks, Time Out New York covering the Big Apple in their weekly guide in print and online, and Gridskipper highlighting Los Angeles with all of their online Google Map-mashuppy goodness. Gridskipper’s piece, to be more accurate, is actually Photobooth.net’s top photobooth picks in L.A., as editor Helen Jupiter was kind enough to solicit our thoughts on the matter. Rachel Sokol also asked us our take on New York booths for her Time Out piece, so we’re feeling loved again after getting ripped off in print (paragraphs 9 and 10 sound familiar?) and insulted for taking the paper to task for it last month.

The Time Out piece, titled “Strip mining,” lists a dozen photobooths around the five boroughs, including a few digital booths but hitting the mainstays of the Manhattan/Brooklyn dip-and-dunk scene like Otto’s, Lakeside, Bubby’s, and the Bushwick Country Club.

Last week, continuing its long-standing interest in photobooths, Gridskipper has adapted the Time Out New York piece into a booths and booze list that dumps the non-alcoholic locations and narrows the selection to places where you can pose with a drink in your hand, or on your head.

Brian | 1:20 PM |

September 24, 2007

Another California county fair, another motherlode of photobooths. Though it didn’t equal the 23-booth haul at the Orange County Fair, the Los Angeles County Fair had eleven old-style photobooths, both color and black and white, in two locations at the fair. We tried out three of the booths, which were a little cheaper, at $4 each. First, a black and white booth with black borders. Next, a black and white booth with white borders. And finally, a terrific color booth with black borders. By mid-afternoon, when we visited the group of seven booths in the arcade area, the booths were mobbed with fairgoers. Thanks to Lisa for the tip.

In a sad bit of news, we’ve received word that the photobooths that have long been a part of the Children’s Museum in Boston are longer a part of the newly renovated museum. These two booths were some of the first I visited and cataloged before Photobooth.net was even a glint in our eyes. Sample photos from those booths will live on in our About Us page. Thanks to Kristen for the tip.

Brian | 7:57 AM | Comments (2)

September 21, 2007

So maybe we were a little premature in remarking about the photobooth/tattoo shop connection: looks like when push comes to shove, the photobooth’s got to go for L.A. Ink’s Kat Von D. According to a post on the Kat Von D Fanclub website, she’s selling her booth on eBay.

I know I know… It’s sad.. but I am re-doing the skate ramp in the front of the shop and it’s gonna take up too much room, SO! the photo booth must go….

I’ll be sad to see it go, but hopefully someone rad who will love it will take good care of it too!

The booth sits just inside the door of the shop, and is decorated with posters of Kat and a giant Lisa Simpson sitting on top. I have yet to visit the shop when the booth is functioning, but here’s hoping I get a chance before the auction ends.

Brian | 5:57 PM |

August 27, 2007

A brief trip to Santa Barbara gave us the opportunity to scout out a few photobooths in the area, bringing our California total to somewhere around fifty booths. On our way up the coast, we stopped at the Woolworth Museum, an informal collection of Woolworth memorabilia and related items in an old Woolworth location in Oxnard. After a tasty breakfast at the cafe, we took some photos in their beautiful Model 11 booth, though the chemicals are in desperate need of changing. Even more interesting that the booth itself was the great photobooth advertising display in the front window of the cafe, a backlit rectangular tower featuring enlarged photostrips slowly blinking on and off. I’d never seen anything quite like it; a small plaque on the bottom indicates that it is a product of the Auto-Photo Company of California.

In Santa Barbara, I had to rely on the kindness of a movie theater cashier who told me that while her theater did not have a booth, another one down the street did, as did a costume store a few blocks in the other direction on the same street. So, I took a set of photos at the Fiesta 5 Theatre’s color photobooth and then headed a few blocks down to Scavenge, to use their black-and-white booth, which sits in the entryway, almost outside.

Brian | 9:28 PM |

August 12, 2007

In the premiere episode of TLC’s L.A. Ink, which aired last week, we were introduced to Kat von D and her crew of tattoo artists as Kat oversaw the construction of her new shop. The opening credits feature the entire cast posing in a nicely decorated photobooth in her shop, and as we watched the shop come together, the only bit of furnishing yet in the shop was a generic gray Photo-Me booth, waiting to be put in its place.

When I visited Lucas Echo Park in March, I was informed that their photobooth was gone and had been sold to a woman for her tattoo shop; now it all makes sense. Kat’s shop, called High Voltage, turns out to be two blocks from Photobooth.net’s western HQ. It looks like the shop will feature the photobooth as an added touch, like the skate-ramp Kat requested in this episode. We’ll be keeping tabs on the show to see what develops.

Brian | 4:25 PM |

August 5, 2007

The Orange County Fair, now in its 115th year, is held annually in Costa Mesa, California, and is home to a popular and well-maintained collection of photobooths. The photobooths, 23 in all, are in three locations around the fairgrounds, and are of four types: three and four photos per strip in black and white and in color.

When I heard that the fair had real, old-style photobooths, I had ideas that I’d head down and try out all of the booths, because how many could there be - four, five, six at the most? When I found out there were 23, and each one ran five bucks a pop, I had to modify my plans, and decided to take at least one strip in each different kind of booth, and try at least one booth in each of the sections of the park.The booths are all decked out with large signs that read “PHOTOS” for the black and white booths and “COLOR” for the color ones, and all booths have banners on top that flap in the breeze.

The booths I tried were all working very well, and the entire operation runs very smoothly thanks to the attendants at each group of booths who sell specially made tokens. I had a nice talk with Junior about the company that he works for and the future of the photobooths. The company that suplies these photobooths sticks to fairs only, and does about eight a year between February and October, up and down the west coast. The interiors of most of the booths appear the same as most I’ve seen, except for a small rectangle cut out near the floor for the power cable, and all of the booths are missing the plaque detailing the date of manufacture, serial number, and model number. A few booths had a “Jail” or “Miss U.S.A.” hinged cutout attached to the wall to add a little something to the photos.

The three-shot strips (one in color and one in black and white) were the most interesting - the color strip came out particularly nicely. The other booths I tried were three black and white machines (one, two, and three), and a color machine. It was tough to keep all of the booths straight and remember which ones I’d used, especially without any serial or model numbers. I came up with some letters and numbers to keep them separate, which is how they’re cataloged in our directory.

I had considerably more luck here than at the Ventura County Fair where I went the day before, which had no photobooths, even though I had called ahead to confirm. I think the woman I spoke with thought I meant the “Old Time” western sepia-toned costume photo stall; I guess I need to be more specific. The Magnum, P.I. ride I saw made the trip worthwhile, though.

Brian | 9:53 PM | Comments (1)

July 26, 2007

After a very successful trip to Seattle, I had more modest hopes for our visit to Victoria and Vancouver, and was happy to come away with two booths in each city, opening up a new province in our Canadian listings.

The first two booths are located in the Bay Centre, the main shopping center in downtown Victoria. The first photobooth is located on the ground floor, next to the elevators, and is a Photome Studio Model 17P.

The second photobooth, also a 17P, is found in the food court on the fourth floor of the mall. Both are color machines that provide crisp images with white borders and a rounded frame on each photo (though the frame is more gray than white on this one).

Taking the ferry from Victoria, we transferred to a ferry to travel the rest of the way into Vancouver, and I stopped in the Model 17C photobooth at the Pacific Central bus and rail station.

Finally, in downtown Vancouver, the Pacific Centre Mall was home to another Model 17P booth, located in a passageway between the Pacific Centre and the Vancouver Centre. More white borders, rounded frames, and crisp photos.

Brian | 11:59 AM |

July 24, 2007

A trip to Seattle last weekend brought the opportunity to expand and update our listings in this very photobooth-savvy town; thanks to the enthusiasm of friends and the patience of my wife, I hit ten locations in Seattle and Kirkland, all of which are run by Will Simmonds and Photobooth Services. I was in touch with Will before I arrived, and was able to confirm some locations before heading off on the hunt. Just to update, according to our research, there are no longer dip and dunk photobooths at the following locations that may have, at some point in the last five years, had photobooths:

Hotwire Cafe, Espresso Roma and Retro Viva in the U-District, Fun House on 5th Ave., Hello Gorgeous, Earl’s On the Ave, Tommy’s Bar, The Duchess, Private Screening in Fremont., Pretty Parlor, and Neumo’s.

Now, if any of those places do still have dip and dunk photobooths, please let us know, and we’d be happy to update our listings. Now, on to the booths we visited this weekend:

Our first stop was Re-bar, a bar and club that was preparing for a heavy night of techno when we arrived, but was thankfully quiet and empty. A driver’s license left as collateral at the door was all we needed to avoid the cover and jam into the photobooth, located just inside the club area.

From Re-bar, we headed up to Capitol Hill to the new location of the Cha Cha Lounge, downstairs from Bimbo’s Bitchin’ Burrito Kitchen. Having spent some good times (at the bar and in the booth) at the Cha Cha in Silverlake, I was excited to visit the original, or at least the newest incarnation of the original. The photobooth has some nice Cha Cha-themed decorations inside and colorful blankets for a curtain, and fits right in along with the tiki lounge/Mexican wrestling theme.

Goldie’s on 45th was on my list, but I didn’t think we’d have a chance to stop by until we were driving by it, on our way to the High Dive. We had some time to kill, so we stopped in, caught the tail end of a tough air hockey match, and snapped some photos in their photobooth.

Our final stop for the evening was the High Dive in Fremont. It had a photobooth, but also happened to be the venue for a band that a friend of a friend belonged to, so I didn’t feel like I was dragging anyone there. We had a great night enjoying the music, and stopped in the photobooth on our way out. It was a fun night, and I was impressed, as I would be all weekend, that all of the photobooths we sought out were where they were supposed to be, and in good working order. Some of them had some messy chem stains in a couple of frames, and they all starting taking photos more rapidly than any other booths I’ve been in - hence the caught unawares look in the first photo of every strip - but they were all working fine, for which Will and Photobooth Services are to be commended.

The next day, we headed over to Kirkland to meet friends, and hit the booths at Waldo’s and The Shark Club, both solid booths in unremarkable locations.

On Monday, I met Will Simmonds and we headed to the Pacific Science Center, so he could show me his two special black and white booths. The first booth is professionally decorated with a dinosaur theme to match the “Colossal Fossils” exhibit going on this year; it’s also unique as it’s the first dip-and-dunk booth I’ve ever seen or heard of that accepts credit cards, which it did very well.

We headed across the Center campus to Building 3, where we stopped for awhile at the second photobooth on the site, which is a pretty interesting machine. It’s a traditional Model 20 with a twist: the “guts” of another Model 20, the photobooth minus the half with the stool and curtain, attached to the end of the photobooth and encased in transparent plexiglass, rather than the normal lightproof enclosure necessary for processing the photos. This second set of mechanical innards is electrically connected to the working booth, and mimics the process going on inside, complete with flashes, rotations of the spider arm, and everything else that happens to make the photobooth magic. The booth does not contain chemicals, nor does the paper make its way through the process, but the ability to see how the stages work while it’s happening inside the real booth at the same time is invaluable. Will explained that the demonstration booth would be getting more signage and lighting to help better explain the process, but it’s a great start. I had a great time meeting Will and talking about the business aspects of running a multi-state photobooth operation, and I applaud his commitment to the black-and-white photobooth.

Later on that day, I hit two more photobooths, to bring the Seattle-area haul to ten: first, I stopped in the Showbox downtown during box office hours and snapped a strip in their photobooth, and then, on our way to catch a Mariners game at Safeco, we stopped at Cowgirls Inc. to use their photobooth, tucked nicely between the semi-truck cab as dj booth and the Simpsons pinball machine. Nice.

Next up, British Columbia…

Brian | 12:45 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 |

June 11, 2007

As we remarked about a few months ago, a photobooth that spent many years entertaining beachgoers in Asbury Park, New Jersey, has been on its way back home after 15 years at a store in Vermont.

Bob Crane from Save Tillie was kind enough to let us know that the booth is back just in time for summer and is being enjoyed by a new generation of beachgoers. The photobooth, a black and white Model 14, is located at the Shoppes at the Arcade in Asbury Park. For more information and photos, check out the page on Save Tillie’s website about the return of the booth.

The photo booth from Asbury Park, New Jersey’s historic Palace Amusements has been returned to the Shore community, 15 years after it was sold to shop keepers in Vermont, and is now a major attraction at a Cookman Avenue store.

For over three decades, the Palace’s photo booth produced strips of four black and white wallet sized photos of visitors to the Shore side amusement park. Now refurbished by the Save Tillie preservation group, the booth is installed on the lower level of The Shoppes at the Arcade, 685 Cookman Ave.

“At a time when so much of the amusements history of Asbury Park is fading into memory, we’re thrilled to be able to bring back one of the Palace’s favorite attractions,” said Save Tillie president Bob Crane. “Photo booths are a timeless treat, and this one especially so for with everyone who enjoyed it at the Palace.”

The booth entered the Palace in the late 1950s and remained in operation there until the Shore’s largest indoor amusement park closed in late 1988. For a time thereafter, it operated at Sandy’s Arcade on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, and eventually was sold to Slim and Pamela Smith, a Jersey Shore couple who had moved to Burlington, Vermont where they operated a clothing store. The Smiths operated the booth in stores in Burlington and Bristol, before donating it to Save Tillie last winter.

Save Tillie member Dan Toskaner refurbished the operating mechanisms of the booth over the winter and spring, giving it a new strobe light and making other mechanical improvements. In appearance, however, Toskaner said the booth will be completely familiar to those who used it at the Palace, down to a collage of very old photo strips including pictures of employes of the Palace and Sandy’s Arcade.

Save Tillie was formed in July of 1998 by fans of Asbury Park, of the Palace and of Bruce Springsteen to save Palace artifacts, including three iconic wall murals, from the wrecking ball. By directive of the State of New Jersey, 35 Palace artifacts, removed when the National Register of Historic Palaces building was demolished several years ago, are in storage and must be reused on a new building that eventually will rise on the Palace lots.

We’re also happy to report that the Palace photobooth is also our first entry for the state of New Jersey. We look forward to more contributions this summer from Jersey Shore-goers out there. Thanks to Bob Crane and Dan Toskaner for the great news and for the photos of the booth and Tillie himself!

Brian | 12:59 PM |

June 4, 2007

I had a day in New York this past week to check out some photobooths that had long been on Photobooth.net’s “to-do” list, as well as to see if some rumored booths were really where we thought they were.

Taking a lesson from some previous, less successful outings, I did a lot of research beforehand to ensure that I wasn’t going out of my way to find a booth in a bar that had long gone out of business, or look for a chemical photobooth that was actually now a digital booth. So, for the record, as of June, 2007, here are some updates that I collected before leaving for New York:

• Jake’s Dilemma had a photobooth; it was digital, and now it is gone.
• Crocodile Lounge has a photobooth; it is digital.
• Pop Burger has something that is occasionally described as a photobooth, but is not.
• Gershwin Hotel has a photobooth, but it is digital.
• BB&R has a photobooth, but it is digital.
• Gallery Bar has a photobooth, but it is digital. I called to find out, and it was described as digital, “but like an old school aesthetic.” Still digital.
• Milk Studios only has a photobooth when they have parties, but don’t own their own.
• Southpaw had a real photobooth, but now have a digital booth.
• Magnetic Field had a real photobooth, but very recently went digital; thanks to Raul for letting me know and saving me a trip. This is a real loss; the booth produced three photos per strip and made for many a happy bar-goer, it looks like.

So, with those potential stops cleared up, my first stop was at the Victoria’s Secret store on 34th, thanks to a find on Flickr last week. Sadly, I was a little late, as a store employee showed me where the booth had been and told me it had been removed a few weeks prior. Oh well.

Next stop was Daffy’s in Soho, where I had heard from a number of sources that a real photobooth lived. Sadly, after looking in every nook and cranny, I asked an employee and he said it had been recently removed, and was perhaps seasonal. I wasn’t sure which season he would be referring to, but nevertheless, it was gone, and I was zero for two. Looks like there might still be a photobooth at the Daffy’s in Philadelphia; perhaps a reader in Philly can let us know and send in some photos.

I headed out to Brooklyn, hoping for greener pastures, and found success, finally, at Bubby’s in DUMBO, where, like Bubby’s in Tribeca, a wonderful black and white booth can be found next to the video games and the bathrooms. After a delicious lunch at Bubby’s, I went for a walk and picked up this week’s copy of the The L Magazine, with a cover photo and photos inside of photostrips (from Bubby’s and elsewhere).

I took the train to Williamsburg, and headed once more to the Bushwick Country Club, where I’d had two unsuccessful attempts in 2005. The bartender unlocked the bar for me, and I spent an hour there as the only patron; it was a little early, but I was happy to finally use the booth and enjoy their two-for-one drink special. The photobooth had a BMX bike on top that was being raflled off, next to the velvet Elvis. Opposite the booth, the wall was covered with contributed photobooth strips showing Country Club members having a good time. Upon returning home, I was happy to discover that a Photobooth.net reader had contributed photos from the booth the day I left for New York, and we’ve used hers in our entry for the BCC. When it rains, it pours, I guess.

Brian | 12:05 PM | Comments (4)

May 14, 2007

We have more than 20 photobooth locations listed in only three cities: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Our to-do list of places we’ve heard about but haven’t had a chance to visit includes locations all around the country, but these three cities seem to be the national photobooth hubs. In the past week or so, I’ve visited two more local L.A. locations, one of which has had a photobooth awhile, Backstage in Culver City, and one of which is a long-standing store that recently added a booth: Pull My Daisy, in Silver Lake.

We’ve also come across news of a new photobooth at Quimby’s, a Chicago bookstore specializing in “the importation, distribution, and sale of unusual publications, aberrant periodicals, saucy comic booklets and assorted fancies as well as a comprehensive miscellany of the latest independent ‘zines’ that all the kids have been talking about.” The Quimblog has some great photos of the booth itself, its innards, and some nice sample photos from their new addition. Anyone visiting Chicago is encouraged to visit Quimby’s, take some samples, and buy some cool books and zines.

On another note, news of another step toward the death of the photobooth as a functional technology, at least in Europe, where dip and dunk photobooths are essentially dead already (more on that later): a new service allowing customers to upload digital photos which will then be checked for “biometric compatibility” and mailed back as a set of four passport-approved photos.

UPDATE 5/25/07: Thanks to Liz from Quimby’s, we’ve now got an entry for their new photobooth in our directory. And with a superstar of the literary world, Dishwasher Pete, in the sample photo. Nice!

Brian | 7:26 AM |

April 11, 2007

Every time we discover a new photobooth, another one seems to disappear. Sometimes this happens to the same booth, and today we present listings for two photobooths in the Los Angeles area that came and went before we even had a chance to notice. Ricky visited photobooths at a salon called Lucas Echo Park and at a nearby Rite Aid pharmacy in December; by the time I visited in March, they were both gone. Another one of Ricky’s submissions, the photobooth at Café 50s in Sherman Oaks, has also gone away, replaced by a digital booth.

While we’re happy to be an up-to-date guide for people looking for photobooths to visit as they travel the country, we also think it’s important to keep track of those dip and dunk photobooths that are no longer with us, or no longer where they once were. As we move into our third year of operation and get closer to a whopping 200 photobooths in our directory, look for some changes to the way we present our listings, making them easier to search and browse, and making it easier to tell which booths are still actually up and running.

Brian | 12:19 PM |

March 20, 2007

Thanks to the time and generosity of a photobooth enthusiast in Germany, our international photobooth listings have grown by five booths. As we near 200 photobooths in our list, we’re happy to have five fantastic-looking outdoor photobooths from Berlin in the database. Klaas first submitted the Rosenthalerplatz photobooth back in 2006, and this week, has passed on five more locations, all black and white booths that live outdoors and are accessible year-round, 24 hours a day. The photobooths are found on Zossenerstrasse, Warschauerstrasse, Marienburger Strasse, and at the S-Bahn Rathaus Steglitz rail station (plus one more on the way).

Update: S-Bahn Treptower Park has been added, bringing the total for Berlin to six booths.

Klaas’s photos are particularly evocative: check out the full version here and below the fold.

Brian | 10:29 AM | Comments (3)

February 19, 2007

I guess I should have stayed in Las Vegas another week: thanks to a comment on a previous post, we’ve seen flurry of black and white photobooth pictures of NBA All-Stars in Las Vegas for the game this past weekend.

The photobooth was at the Palms Casino, for an “All Star Media Availability” event on February 16, and the photos showcase the goofy grins of Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, LeBron James, and other familiar faces. Thanks to Amy for the original comment, which led us to Kevin Garnett, and then to a few Google Alerts that led us to the other photostrips around the web. You can check out seven photostrips here and four others here (with some duplicates).

The photos, as seen on Yahoo! Sports, are credited as “by Jennifer Pottheiser,” (see more of her NBA photos here) which brings up the age-old conundrum of how to credit a photobooth photo. The subject is usually the one who initiates the photographic action by inserting money or pressing a button, but when you get down to it, a machine is taking the photo, and we can credit the subject who pressed the button, the person overseeing the booth, or the whoever grabs the photo out of the slot and scans it.

Photo: Shaquille O’Neal, by Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images on Yahoo! Sport.

Brian | 1:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 12, 2007

We spent the past weekend in Las Vegas, and I hoped to find a couple of photobooths, ready for enthusiastic partygoers to document their weekends of debauchery. I should have known that in a place so heavily trafficked and constantly upgraded as Las Vegas, most of the booths would be digital. At the arcade at New York New York, the photobooth was digital, as it was at the arcade at MGM, and from examples I’ve seen on the web, the photobooths at Stratosphere and the Rainforest Cafe are both digital, as well. A photobooth in front of the Imperial Palace casino closed last year, and was probably digital anyway. So, I was pleased to find a Flickr photo of a photostrip from a real dip and dunk chemical photobooth in Las Vegas.

On Saturday afternoon, I paid a visit to this photobooth, at the Golden Palm Hotel. From the MGM Grand, where we were staying, I took off along Tropicana Boulevard toward the Golden Palm, about a mile away. I expected a brief stroll, but it was more like a hike, over two giant pedestrian bridges, through the parking lot of the Excalibur, over Interstate 15, and around the chainlink fence and into the Golden Palm’s parking lot. Crossing I-15 from the Strip is like entering another world, and the hotel was pretty dead. It used to be the Golden Palm Casino and Hotel, but it seems to be the Golden Palm Hotel and Lounge now, with the “Casino” unceremoniously painted over on their sign. The photobooth was indeed a real Photo-Me booth, but it was in the lounge, and the lounge didn’t open for another four hours. So, I was stuck snapping a photo through a locked exterior door, and I hope an intrepid Las Vegas photobooth enthusiast will send us a scan of a photo from this booth at some point in the future. I also hope I’m not right, and that there are a few more old-style photobooths still around in Las Vegas.

Brian | 9:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 29, 2007

Phoeniz Arizona’s Trunk Space, home to a photobooth we’ve long had on our “To Visit” list, is having, as we speak, a sort of going away party for their photobooth technician, Mike.

More about Mike: He has worked at this job for 21 years! In the past 2 months he has lost all his profitable photobooths (the ones at Spectrum got robbed twice) and the other mall went digital. He has kept our photobooth from getting removed (due to poor sales) more than once.

The gallery, whose booth was voted best photobooth in Phoenix, is home to “Experimental Theater, Performance, Music, Puppets, Weird Stuff, Circus Side Show Acts, Fine Art, Handmade Gifts, & Espresso drinks, as well as being a meeting place for artists, curious people and weary travelers.”

We’ve seen a lot of photos from the booth on Flickr and LiveJournal, but we’d really love an official contribution to our Locator in the form of a photo of the booth itself and a nice high-quality scan of a photostrip. It would double our count of Arizona photobooths, and we’d love to have the ‘Space represented.

Brian | 9:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 19, 2007

A not-to-be-missed photobooth buying opportunity is happening right now, as a Los Angeles-based photographer is having a moving sale that includes a 1945 Auto Photo booth. The booth, which looks like a classic rounded-end Model 9 and seems to be in absolutely mint condition, comes with a stock of paper, chemicals, parts, and a copy of the original manual. If you’ve got $16,500 to part with or make the best offer received, the booth is yours.

A piece of downtown Los Angeles history, manufactured at the original Auto-Photo factory on Santa Fe. Sit down, drop a quarter in the slot, and the fun begins. The original air compressor fires up, the lights turn on and off four times, an amazing mechanical contraption processes your portraits, and two minutes later, out slides a vintage looking b&w photo strip. Ready to use.

If only we had enough time to start a fundraising campaign for the purchase of an official Photobooth.net Photobooth - this would be the one. We’ll try to keep tabs on where this beauty goes.

Brian | 8:22 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 10, 2007

Save Tillie, a “volunteer organization comprised of 1,000 friends of Asbury Park,” New Jersey, is an organization dedicated to saving the Palace amusement park and its iconic Tillie image. After the demolition of the building in 2004, the group “saved more than 125 internal artifacts from the Palace and the Tillie mural from the Cookman Avenue wall…; In the last few weeks, another prized element from the Palace’s past is on its way home: the photobooth.

In a great story on the Save Tillie site, the group tells the story of the photobooth, which had been at Palace for 30 years, making a move to Folkheart, a store in Vermont, in 1988. Now, nearly twenty years later, as the photobooth sat in disrepair and Folkheart’s owners prepared to close up shop, they donated the booth to Save Tillie. Folkheart was long on Photobooth.net’s radar as home to the only booth in Vermont, so we’re saddened to hear that it’s no more. Any other leads, readers? Now, back to the story:

On December 28, 2006 Save Tillie members Dan Toskaner, Frank Saragnese, and Mary Lynn Purcell drove to Vermont with a large trailer to rescue this valuable Palace artifact. Despite some dust, grime, and a large spider web inside the camera window, they found the machine to be in remarkably good condition. The exterior oak and white/gold speckled Formica is completely intact. The illuminated script “Photographs” sign still sits on top. In recognition of its history, someone stamped a small Tillie face next to a handwritten $2.00 sign. Best of all, beneath a sheet of plexiglass on the outer graphic panel there is a homemade collage of very old photo strips. The owners of Folkheart confirmed that these strips were already there when they bought the booth, which means that they were taken at the Palace. Save Tillie is hoping that some of the people in these photos can be identified.

The photobooth is currently undergoing restoration, and will be ready for action again soon; Save Tillie hope to return it to use in Asbury Park, where it began its life. Besides being a great story about nice people who care about history, the story is a testament to the power of the photobooth and the pull it has on generations of New Jersey amusement park-goers and Vermont store-browsers and all of us. We wish the best of luck to the folks at Save Tillie, and hope they keep us updated with the progress and the future of their beloved booth.

Photo of Save Tillie volunteers and the booth outside Folkheart from savetillie.com.

Brian | 8:05 PM | | TrackBack

December 4, 2006

A few months after moving here to L.A., I’m still tracking down photobooths I’ve heard about in bars and restaurants around the city. Friday night, we ventured downtown to Bar 107, described in a Gridskipper review as “a very respectable hole in the wall on 4th, [bursting] with ironic hipster chic one might think lacking on the left coast- red walls, ginormous NSFW Bible art, stuffed deer heads, random signs, etc.”

The black and white photobooth in the back room is nestled behind a few curved booths with just enough space in between to allow for entrance to the booth. The height of the booth (the one to sit on) comes up to the height of the drying slot and makes it almost difficult to get the photostrip out once it’s finished. The booth makes some nice photos, and the bar has got a good feel to it.

Try to get a glass of tap water maybe, though, rather than being stuck with their $4 a bottle “Liquid Salvation Ultra-Hydrating Water” like we were.

Brian | 5:27 PM |

December 1, 2006

We learn today from Andrea at hula seventy, home of “Photobooth Friday,” that the beloved photobooth at Niagara in New York City has been replaced with a digital booth, and one that at least temporarily wouldn’t take their dollars, to boot.

We’d had problems with the booth before, but it was also the center of a few photobooth projects, including a Photobooth art show earlier this year. It’s too bad this booth didn’t survive, and we mourn its removal.

Brian | 1:57 PM | Comments (2)

November 22, 2006

It’s time once again for Gridskipper’s monthly mention of the photobooth (see September’s and October’s); this time, it’s a mini-list of the best bars in New York to document your night out with a photostrip.

Picture yourself in a booth in a bar, man, drunk on Red Stripe and tangerine Skyy. Photobooths are the best strip of nostalgia $3-4 can buy you. The delights are manifold. The cloistered privacy behind the curtain. The blinding flash. The minute long wait while the pictures print. And finally, four B&W photos stacked vertically, a portrait of your life over 3 seconds.

It’s nice of Gridskipper to credit us on the photo, but all we ever did was link to it; the original photo of Ashley and Nick is on eatmydesign.com, which we came across through Flickr.

UPDATE, 11/29/06: Not to just keep recycling Gridskipper posts that mention photobooths, but they’ve gone and done another, using a few photostrips from the booth at the Short Stop in L.A. Calling the Short Stop Hipster Biodome, the piece mentions the photobooth among the “pool tables, a dance floor… arcade games, [and] Bloc Party on the stereo.”

Brian | 10:46 AM |

November 16, 2006

Less than two years ago, Photobooth.net was founded with the goal of collecting and spreading knowledge about old-style photochemical photobooths around the world. Since then, we’ve been featured on the CBC , the BBC, and in numerous newspaper and online articles around the country. An article in this week’s Gazette in Frederick, Maryland, is a first for us, though, in that it references Photobooth.net as an authority on photobooths, without the story being about the site in any way. We know our listings on Maryland are woefully inadequate, but we’re certainly pleased to be cited as an authoritative source on photobooth locations in the article about the black and white photobooth found CineGraphic Studios in Frederick. Now that the booth is in the public eye, maybe a Photobooth.net reader can take a photo and a sample strip and send it on in.

Read “1, 2, 3 Smile!” on gazette.net or archived in our In Print section.

Brian | 5:28 PM | | TrackBack

September 30, 2006

In between road trips this summer, each of which netted one solitary photobooth sighting (here and here), I spent a brief afternoon traversing Massachusetts’ North Shore in search of a few remaining locations I hadn’t had the chance to visit in my five years living there. Now that things have settled down in L.A., I’ve had a chance to get the locations on the site.

First, I headed to Salisbury Beach, and to Joe’s Playland. Each of the two locations across the street from one another had a working booth, both black and white. The first was fairly normal, but the second was notable for its wider paper and three shots-per-strip setup, similar to the booth at Playland Arcade in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

Around the corner from Joe’s, I wandered into Carefree Amusement, which was fairly deserted, but did feature a nice black and white booth. I had trouble getting it to produce a strip, but the woman in charge gave me her key to open it up, check it out, and try it again. Thanks!

I headed next to Salem, and to Salem Willows Park, home of the Salem Willows Arcade. I found two booths next to one another, one black and white and one color. It was nice to see that at the height of summer, all five booths I found were working, turning out great looking photos.

We’ve now got 18 locations for the state of Massachusetts, three of which were short-term at museums and the like; that leaves 15 photobooths around the state. I know I’ve missed a few at some metro-area malls, but I’d love to know if there any that have missed our attention in bars, restaurants, and arcades around the state.

Brian | 7:45 PM | Comments (2)

September 16, 2006

In a review of downtown LA’s Bar 107, which is next on our to-do list for its photobooth, Gridskipper mention’s the bar’s booth, and then goes on to define the photobooth in general as “the best frat boy excuse for breaking the touch barrier since five billion decibel music.” The photobooth is all things to all people, indeed. We’ll visit soon, take in the “ironic hipster chic one might think lacking on the left coast: red walls, ginormous NSFW Bible art, stuffed deer heads, random signs, etc.,” and report back.

Brian | 11:34 AM |

August 18, 2006

This just in from the Dallas Morning News: a free photobooth at the front of the Imperial Palace Casino in Las Vegas is no more. According to the News Travel Column, “This great freebie falls victim to what has been a series of changes and revamps at the center-Strip casino since it was bought by Harrah’s.” We haven’t had any reports from people who have used the booth in the past to know if it was a traditional or digital booth. If anyone has memories of using the booth, please, comment or drop us a line.

Brian | 3:07 PM |

July 28, 2006

Just as the first trip across the country this summer saw a new location or two, the second trip has spawned a couple of discoveries as well. First, thanks to the Flickr ‘photobooth’ tag feed, I heard about a photobooth at Tex Tubb’s Taco Palace in Madison, Wisconsin a few months ago, and last week, had the chance to visit as we passed through town. The restaurant looks like a great place, though we didn’t have time to eat there;