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