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…