Another artist has been added to the list here at Photobooth.net, an American painter named Lordan Bunch. Bunch, who has exhibited his work around the world over the last few years, makes small, photo-realistic paintings adapted from old photobooth photos. More info on Bunch can be found at this Davidson Gallery page and this Museum of Contemporary Photography page.
Also added today, Arty Carter’s A Life In A PhotoBooth 1974–1999, now found in our Projects section.
“C.I. 1929” © 2001, Lordan Bunch.
Photo-London, billed as “London’s first international photography fair,” opens next week, offering thousands of photographs for sale to the public. A preview of the show from the Times of London describes the breadth of the show, and includes a mention of the works of “lesser-known young photographers such as Jan Wenzel, a German artist based in Leipzig, who creates his pictures in an old passport photo-booth.”
A quick search revealed this bio of Wenzel, mentioning his “künstlerischen Arbeit allein dem Paßbildautomaten,” and another hit led to story called “Pass-Bilder: Die Fotofixkunst von Jan Wenzel,” an informative piece that also links to his recent book, Fotofix (or Fofofix, as Amazon calls it…)
I’ve never heard of Wenzel’s work before, and from the photos and descriptions I see, it looks fascinating and different than anything else I’ve seen. Time to add him to our Art section.
Photo: Jan Wenzel, “Interieur #3
Last year, I began searching French eBay for photobooth (or photomaton) items, such as the photobooth stool I noted last April. One of the items I mention in that entry is a publicity brochure for Photomaton, the French manufacturers of photobooths, and though it’s taken me awhile, I’ve finally got the item scanned and uploaded into our In Print: Ads section.
The brochure, a tri-fold piece that looks like it dates from sometime in the 1990s, is a brief bande dessinée adventure by Ted Benoît, a renowned illustrator in the “ligne claire” school of graphic artists. A private investigator, Ben Marquette, wanders Los Angeles, stopping at photobooths along the way, outside a movie theater, in a train station, and in a shopping center.
I haven’t translated the entire thing, but in the frame I’ve included here, Marquette mentions something to the effect that as he looks at the machine, he knows immediately that it will do something to his cheeks and give him the eyes of a Boston terrier. I’d appreciate any help if someone cares to expand on this poor job, and explain the last sentence (“to stripe my shelves”?) as well.
UPDATE: According to the author (see comments), that last line means “something like ‘blot out of one’s records (or note book, etc)’.”
Back in February, when we posted a note about Liz Rideal’s photoboothed plants on display in Philadelphia, we were suprised to come across another example of Rideal’s photobooth work we’d not heard of before. Somehow, in front of our watchful eyes, perhaps the largest photobooth photos ever managed to slip by.
As reported by the BBC in an article titled “Kerfuffle on Broadcasting House,” a giant piece depicting four photobooth photos was on display from May to July of 2004, covering over restoration work at the BBC’s Broadcasting House on Regent Street in London.
The huge piece (22 metres x 15.4 metres), created by enlarging tiny composite images taken in a photo booth, shows the artist’s hand drawing back a sumptuous red curtain.
The gigantic photographic image, surely the biggest set of photo booth photos ever made, covers the ‘prow’ of the BBC’s iconic building, currently undergoing restoration work.
Information about Kerfuffle is available on Rideal’s website, as is more information on the artist herself. Also, check out Photobooth.net’s artist page for her.
Photo © BBC 2004.
The photobooth gallery exhibit entitled “A $3 Love Affair” has extended its deadline for submissions until April 1, and changed the opening date to April 8. Brian blogged about the show in late February.
The Padlock Gallery in Philadelphia is preparing for a show focusing on the photobooth experience, and are looking for submissions. The show, called “A $3 Love Affair,” will feature hundreds of photostrips, pictures that use the booth in “unprecedented” ways. Submissions are due by April 1, 2006, and the show opens on April 8th.
They’ve got such a good little blurb about the photobooth experience that we’ll quote some of it whole, right here:
…when the flashes start going, your mind is nowhere but there, concealed in that tiny, unique environment, elevated to some other state with a rush of adrenaline; and suddenly, the rules are different- you’re only separated from the natural world by a small piece of fabric; but for some reason, that’s enough; and within the walls of the photobooth, acquaintances become friends, friends become lovers, serious people become goofballs, everyone becomes part of the same team; and then that’s it- it’s all over so quick and you can’t even recall what just happened as you stand waiting for what seems like an eternity for your photos to drop in that slot (which really makes you start to question if it did happen at all!); and they finally do, and they’re wet and smell funny, and you pass them around and laugh, or maybe you tuck them inside a notebook to secretly savor or reflect upon at some later date.
The show has the following submission guidelines:
Submit as many photobooth strips as you want. There is no limit! Do it by March 20, 2006
Will only accept submissions created on or within actual photobooth strips (not accepting digitally manipulated strips, photobooth stickers, photocopied strips, or any other form of reproduction …paint on’em, scratch your tag on it, whut ev’s… just give us the OG strips, OK?)
We particularly appreciate the last one, and look forward to seeing what the Padlock gets. Thanks to Mike for letting us know about the show. We expect to see some photos from the opening, and we’d love to hear what the show is like from some Photobooth.net readers.
The Philadelphia City Paper art roundup makes a brief mention of Liz Rideal’s new show “Above and Below Ground,” which opened recently at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia. “British artist Liz Rideal’s stark photo-booth images of plants and flowers are on view.” Some of Liz’s work can be seen on her website.
UPDATE: Edith Newhall writes a review of Rideal’s work in the Philadelphia Enquirer:
The photo booth is a strange place. It’s secretive, claustrophobic, and must be a kind of heaven for the narcissist, like a guest bathroom with an immense mirror.
And let’s not forget the thrill of instant gratification. No wonder Andy Warhol, that most voyeuristic of artists, was among the first to explore its potential. It is also a relic of our futuristic coin-operated past, like the juke box, the phone booth, the automat (which originated in Philadelphia) — 20th century inventions that were intended to make life more convenient for all. This is the nostalgic photo booth, the one that Liz Rideal has been using as her studio of sorts for the last 20 years.
If any Photobooth.net readers are in the Philadelphia area, please stop by the show and let us know what you think.
A piece in Nextbook about artist Will Corwin focuses on his portraits of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, but also mentions a work depicting “two lovers kissing in a photo booth.” Though the work isn’t pictured in the article, the author kindly offered a link to Corwin’s Flickr page, where we found a photograph of the piece, entitled “kiss,” described as “Acrylic, crayon and graphite on plaster on wooden panels, 96” x 72″, 2002, collection of Jaime Brieva.” Very nice.
Photobooth repairman Humberto Verdeza is the subject of photobooth art exhibition on now at Niagara Bar, at the corner of Avenue A and East 7th in New York City.
Curated by Ethan Minsker and Ted Riederer, the show opened on December 5th of last year and is going on as we speak. We urge Photobooth.net readers in the NYC area to head on over and tell us what you see. The artist statement reads, in part,
Over the years, I noticed Humberto coming in the bar and fixing the photo booth in the back room. When he finished his work, I would sign his slip of paper. One day I asked if he ever found any interesting photos. He said no, but showed me the test shots he did of himself. I asked if I could have them. “I’ll make some kind of art out of them,” I said as he walked out of the bar.
The curators let each artist involved in the show pick one photo of Humberto out of a stack of more than 40 strips, and do what they would with it. Twenty-five artists are listed on the site, and we look forward to hearing what their work is like. Thanks to Sean for the tip and the link.
Also, on an unrelated note, this is officially the 100th post in the Photobooth.net blog. Thanks to everyone who has contributed, commented, and perused the news over the last year. We’re glad to know you’re there, and we appreciate your interest and support.
UCR California Museum of Photography recently opened a new exhibition titled “Create and Be Recognized: Photography on the Edge,” which features the work of photobooth artist Lee Godie.
The program,
curated by independent curators Deborah Klochko, former director of The Friends of Photography at the Ansel Adams Center, and John Turner, a historian and scholar of outsider art, will be the first comprehensive survey of photo-based projects created by untrained visionaries.
The program runs through April 15, 2006. If you attend the show, please let us know what you see, and what you think.
