Happy summer to all of our readers across the country and around the world! To kick off the summer, Jeff from The Art of Waiting has launched a contest centered around photobooths that he has invited us to help out with. 

Head over to the contest page to find out more about it, and get going on your entry! 

The Art of Waiting’s summer contest hearkens back to a simpler time. A time when waiting for your betty crocker leftovers to reheat in the sears roebuck oven didn’t seem like an eternity. A time when waiting for the television commercial to end was more of a fascination than an annoyance. A time when waiting 3 minutes for a strip of 4 pictures to drop into the slot was the only option. You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout Willis. Old style, wet chemistry, dip ‘n’ dunk photobooths have a special niche in the analogue photo world, and as a staple of summer carnivals, festivals, and fairs for many decades, they seemed to be an appropriate subject for the summer contest. 

We’ll be back in September with some outstanding entries and the contest results. Get boothing (and waiting)!

Last night saw the opening of an exhibition at the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont called Picture Yourself: The Photobooth in America, 1926–2010. Nakki Goranin, author of American Photobooth, organized the show, and told us a little about what can be found there. The exhibit includes

…my working Auto-Photo 14 and my wooden 1934 handmade photobooth plus parts of a street photographer’s photobooth (circa 1930s)… Many vintage photos from my collections, an original handbook written by Anatol Josepho, one of his original lenses, etc.

We look forward to seeing photos from the event and hearing about how it went. 

During the 2009 International Photobooth Convention, we screened a short documentary that takes the viewer on a 3‑minute tour inside a photobooth as a photostrip is being developed. If you have ever wondered what is humming and whirring while you wait for your photo, wonder no more: we finally got around to uploading the short to YouTube. The video is in real-time, so you can see what happens at each stage of the development process. The video might have benefited from a musical score of some sort (a la Sesame Street), but opted instead for the natural sounds of the booth’s inner-dialogue.

We’re happy to be able to bring a report from the opening of the new photobooth in Vienna we mentioned last month. Thanks to Ole for the report and to Asger Doenst for the top three photos. The final photo is by fashion photographer Josef Gallauer; if only every photobooth operator were lucky enough to have Mr. Gallauer capture them and their booth.

After more then one and a half years of preparation and negotiation, the classic Photobooth found a wonderful spot in the courtyard of Klosterhof inside the Museumsquartier in Downtown Vienna. And it is here to stay.

The booth is accessible daily from 6 a.m. until 1 a.m. 4 Photos 2,- Euros.

On May 21st, 2010 we opened the Photobooth Vienna with a party. Famous actor/director Peter Kern gave a speech and actress Katharina Lorenz gave a little performance before we invited our guests to take a seat inside the newly renovated booth. The party went on until after midnight.