Our friend and prolific contributor Meags Fitzgerald let us know about a photobooth photography show she’s part of called Fotomaton: Selections, which opened this week at the Andy Gato Gallery at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida.

While the website is a little spare, more information and photos can be found on the show’s Facebook page.

As we were dong some further reading, we discovered that the show actually opened and closed on December 17th; it was a one night event. So, we’re sorry we didn’t have the chance to post about the event earlier, and hope that some of our readers found out about it through other means and were able to enjoy the works on display.

Merry Christmas to all of our readers out there, and thanks for a year filled with fascinating and creative developments on the photobooth front. 

Here’s a little greeting courtesy of our friend Klaas in Germany;

Some of our readers may recall the brief mention we made of the wonderful Fotomost Project we took part in with Martin and Ira from Schnellfoto.ru during the 2009 International Photobooth Convention in Chicago (check out photos of the end result in Moscow). Those who participated will certainly remember it, and have probably given up on the hope that they’d ever see the results of their efforts.

In a last-ditch attempt to get the thing done just one year late rather than two years late, I have finished the limited edition numbered set of 100 laserprinted (not photocopied) booklets showcasing the 24 photostrips sent from Moscow and the reply photostrips made in Chicago, along with the story behind the project and some photos of the booths used to make the project happen.

If you’d like a copy for yourself — and these make great stocking-stuffers for the photobooth fan, the photography lover, the Russophile, and anyone interested in a little cross-cultural fun — I’ll be happy to send one your way for $15 bucks to cover the cost of printing, assembly, and postage (slightly higher outside the U.S.). Choose your location and click the button to go to PayPal, or contact me to make other arrangements.

United States $15.00 International $20.00

Designer Philippe Starck has created a redesigned Photomaton for Photo-Me International dubbed the “Starbooth,” according to recent French press reports. And according to Photo-Me president Serge Crasniasnki, it’s an improvement on the previous look of the photobooth:

“The photo booth has not changed for 50 years. This is very sexy. The others were very ugly.”

Though there’s nothing particularly offensive with Mr. Starck’s design, I think a number of us would argue that photobooth design in general has changed in the last fifty years, in a direction straight downhill, becoming less attractive and more boring and lifeless with each re-design.

Then again, Mr. Crasnianski used Claudia Schiffer as a reference to describe this new booth; with no disrespect to Ms. Schiffer, Mr. Crasniasnki might be a few decades behind the times to begin with.

See another photo here.

Over the past week or so, we’ve made made additions to nearly every section of the site. The contributions keep rolling in (thanks, dear readers) and we’ve also had a moment or two to delve into the vastness that is the “Photobooth.net To-Do” folder, shrinking it ever so slightly. Here’s a tally of what’s new:

Photobooth locations:
Barbary, Philadelphia, PA
Highline, Seattle, WA

Album covers:
Stinky Toys, by the French punk band Stinky Toys.

Movies:
The Comebacks (2007)
The Joneses (2009)
A Casa de Alice (2007)

TV Shows:
“Quints by Surprise,” in which the family squeeze into a photobooth at an Amy’s Ice Cream location in Austin, Texas.

TV Commercials:
A JCPenney spot partially set in a photobooth.
A series of three commercials for French social security, all set in a photobooth: Rene, Paul, and Philippe et Isabelle.

Music Videos:
“Touch a New Day” by Lena Meyer-Landrut

“Never Said” by Liz Phair

In Print:
Emily Blunt in a photobooth in Interview Magazine.

Shots: A Magazine about Fine Photography, a 1989 large-format photography zine special issue dedicated to photobooths. 

Thanks to news from two Paris-based photobooth groups, La Joyeuse de Photographie and Foto Automat France, we have a burst of news from the new photobooth hotspot of Europe.

First, we have a new listing for Foto Automat France’s black and white photobooth at the Cinematheque Francaise, a perfect location for this mini-film studio. Foto Automat France is also running a black and white machine at Au vieux Saumur, one of the oldest bars in Paris.

From La Joyeuse, we have two new listings and one change. First, Le 104, where the striking red-striped machine has been replaced by a familiar machine, the photobooth that once lived at the Empty Bottle in Chicago.

At Citadium, the largest street culture shop in Paris, has a new booth as well.

Finally, La Joyeuse de Photographie is behind a collaborative project at Les Prairies de Paris called Labomaton, which features a modified Model 14 photobooth. Igor describes the project this way:

La Joyeuse de Photographie has teamed up with the photographer Fred Lebain by providing a photobooth in the hopes to create a unique project. The project, named Labomaton, was born as an idea that the silver photobooths haven’t yet said their last word, and that even today, artists from around the world could use these booths to their advantage in a creative and intelligent manner. We hope that this project could be exhibited by 2011.

Labomaton will participate in PHOTO-OFF, the young and upcoming photographers art fair (18–21 November, at La Bellevilloise, Paris).

Kate Burt, writing for The Independent on Sunday, has written a nice piece on the current state of photobooths in the UK, and around the world, titled “Camera obscurer: Meet the enthusiasts that are determined to keep photo booths alive.” She was kind enough to contact us for the piece, and includes some of our thoughts on photochemical booths. Also featured are digital entrepreneurs The Mighty Booth and The Expressive Booth, as well as our fellow photochemical enthusiasts Carole and Siobhan of Photomovette, Alex of Photoautomat, and Steve “Mixup” Howard.

Burt provides a brief history of the booth as well as a look at the current state of the photochemical machine, attempting to survive in a digital world:

However, enthusiasts argue, digital booths just don’t have the same appeal. Tim Garrett, who, with his friend Brian Meacham, co-founded the appreciation site Photobooth.net in the US, believes that “Digital ‘enhancing’ of the experience with cheesy voiceovers and graphics has taken away from the beautiful simplicity of the vintage booths.” The charm of the old-school booths, he continues, is “a special sauce of ingredients: the tiny precious images, beautifully lit and exposed; the instant gratification; the cramped space of the seating area that inspires intimate photos; the anticipation as you wait for the strip to pop out, unsure exactly how they will look; the pungent smell of the chemicals and the low whirr of the machine…” 

Thanks to Kate for a great piece, which you can also find archived on our site.

For our readers in Italy and around Europe, we’d like to make note of an upcoming exhibition of photobooth photos in Viterbo, Italy (about 90km north of Rome) at the Studio Fontaine. The exhibition is called “4x20 Lasciare Asciugare” (which translates to “Let it dry”).

Gianmaria Ponzi, one of the co-founders of the gallery, got in touch to let me know about the show. His description follows:

Sabina Scapin and I have founded a gallery of contemporary art in viterbo. Sabina is a photographer and I am, above all, a collector of vintage photos, the blurry and unusual, and a researcher of photos. We like the photographic portrait and have thought that the true portraits of the common people are more interesting and authentic. We have thought about picking up photos from photobooths, but we have found problems in Italy, because they cannot be found in the markets. We have made announcements in newspapers but without any answer.

We’ve bought them on eBay, and gone to Brussels and Berlin where there are photo markets. We succeeded in borrowing some photos on loan from our friends who had preserved them.

The show that opens October 30, 2010 will display around 100 photobooth photos taken over the last 50 to 90 years, and are almost all in black and white.

Please let us know if you attend the show, and send photos so we can let everyone know what it was like. Thanks to Gianmaria for getting in touch with us.

Our friends at Photomovette are taking part in a great event this Friday: a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the motion picture to the people of South East London. The New Cross Cinematograph Theatre opened October 22, 1910, in the same location where Photomovette have their black and white booth, an event and exhibition space called Utrophia.

We are very excited to be taking part in a very special event at Utrophia, home of our photobooth. The New Cross Cinematograph Theatre opened on the spot of Utrophia in 1910, providing the people of South East London their first look at moving image. It was officially opened by the Mayor of Greenwich and Deptford on 22 October 1910, and now, exactly a hundred years later, Utrophia are re-enacting the occasion with the creation of a portal that loops back to that time and space, charting the ensuing journey of how we captured and represented the light of life. Dress up, eat cake, marvel at light projections and document the process in true old-fashioned style in one of the only black and white booths in London!

For more on the event, see Photomovette and Utrophia.

Our friend Scot Phillips, whom we met at last year’s Photobooth Convention in Chicago, let us know about a unique event at the museum where he works: an art auction whose proceeds will go towards helping the museum purchase a photochemical photobooth.

The Massillon Museum is seeking help in the form of donated artwork to be auctioned to help raise funds to purchase their photobooth.

The Massillon Museum will host its one-night only Photobooth Project: Silent Art Auction on September 25th from 7:00pm to 10:00pm in the Main Gallery at the Massillon Museum. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Photobooth Project.

Each donor will be recognized in the event program. Upon purchase of the photobooth, your name will also be included on a plaque installed on the photobooth.

If you want to donate your original artwork, download an application from the website (www.massillonmuseum.org and click on the Support tab) or contact Scot Phillips at 
bsphillips@massillonmuseum.org. 

Donations outside the fundraisers will be greatly 
appreciated. If making a donation, just specify that you want it to go to the “Photobooth Project” fund.

The deadline to donate artwork is Saturday, September 18th. You may donate artwork from now until the deadline, just contact Sandi to arrange pick up/drop off — don’t hesitate. We greatly appreciate your consideration and hope you will help make the Photobooth Project a success. Hope to see you at the Silent Art Auction!