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…

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.

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.

Just a quick note for those of our readers who enjoy a little Facebook now and then: Photobooth.net now has a Facebook presence, a group where old-style photobooth enthusiasts can gather, share information, and keep up on what’s going on in the world of dip and dunk photobooths. Join the community, say hello, and look around. We’re just getting started, and welcome your input.

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!

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.

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. 

Everyone’s got a photobooth proposal story, these days. People Magazine tells the story of Brian and Alli and the Dallas Morning News talks about romance at the state fair. Both stories feature a scan of the photostrip, catching the proposal in mid-moment.

And in other news, Billy Bob Thornton, who has himself proposed a few times, apparently owns a photobooth, which he mentions in an interview in the Times of London:

“It’s full-on,” he explains enthusiastically. “When people come over they get in the booth and have their picture taken. I even have a book now, and anybody who comes by the house has their picture put in the book — even repairmen.”

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. 

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.