Your 2009 International Photobooth Convention organizers are hard at work preparing for the event from their respective corners of the country as the big day gets ever closer. We’re now just one month away from the opening night, April 3, at Center Portion in Chicago. 

We’ve had a lot of interest via email and through our Facebook group, and would encourage all photobooth artists, collectors, and experimenters out there to contribute to the event, whether or not you can attend. As part of the convention, we’ll be curating a group show of art created in and inspired by the photobooth as well as collections of vernacular or found photobooth photos. Check out the Call for Entries (PDF) if you’re interested in submitting a piece or collection for the show. 

As part of the 2009 International Photobooth Convention to be held in Chicago in April, we’ll be putting on a group show of art created in and inspired by the photobooth as well as collections of vernacular or found photobooth photos. 

We’ve posted a Call for Entries (PDF) which we encourage you to download and check out if you’re interested in submitting a piece or collection for the show. 

The text of the Call for Entries follows:

2009 International Photobooth Convention Group Show

CALL FOR ENTRIES

The 2009 International Photobooth Convention is now accepting entries for a group show at Center Portion in Chicago, Illinois, to be held April 3–4, 2009. The exhibition seeks to showcase artwork created in and inspired by the photobooth, as well as collections of vernacular or found photobooth photos. The show is open for entry to all artists working in any media, so long as they utilize or reference the photobooth. All entries will be included in an accompanying digital gallery on Photobooth.net, while selected artists will be asked to show their work at Center Portion for the duration of the Convention.

For review by the show’s curators, please submit digital files of your entry. Files should be in jpeg format at 300 dpi. Please provide a short bio, artist statement, and any other pertinent information (in PDF or .doc format). Digital files may be uploaded using the following address:

https://www.photobooth.net/convention/submit

Digital submission entry deadline: March 15th, 2009. Selected artists for the International Photobooth Convention Group Show will be contacted by March 20th with shipping instructions.

Please direct all questions to convention@photobooth.net

We look forward to your contributions to the event.

Photobooth.net and 312photobooth.com are very pleased to announce the 2009 International Photobooth Convention, a two-day event featuring photobooth art, workshops, lectures, projects, and of course, free photochemical photobooths. The event will be held at the Center Portion artist project space in Chicago’s Logan Square, Friday and Saturday April 3rd and 4th, 2009.

We were last involved in the International Photobooth Convention back in 2005 in St Louis, held just a few weeks after we launched Photobooth.net. In the four years since then, we’ve learned a lot and made a lot of connections around the world, which ought to make this year’s event even bigger and better than the last.

The convention is being organized by the same group that put the 2005 event together, Tim and Brian from Photobooth.net and Mr. Mixup, joined this time by Anthony Vizzari of 312photobooth.com, who is graciously sponsoring the event and organizing the event on the ground in Chicago.

We will be sketching out the schedule for the event over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to the convention page for more details as they’re finalized.

We hope some of our readers will be able to join us in Chicago, and for those who can’t, we’ll be updating the blog throughout the event, as well as following what’s going on through our Twitter account, so be sure to follow along if you’re interested.

For those interested in submitting work for our photobooth gallery show, we’ll be announcing our call for entries in the next few days. Please send any questions about the show, or the convention in general, to the convention organizers, and we hope to see many of you in Chicago in April!

It’s been a little quiet here on the blog as we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes preparing for some changes and events in 2009. Check back on Monday for an announcement about what we’ve been planning, and if you’re a photobooth enthusiast, block off some time in early April. It’s been awhile since our last International Photobooth Convention, hasn’t it?

Happy to find a photobooth-related event in Southern California, I ventured to the Santa Monica Airport this afternoon, armed with a stack of Photobooth.net postcards, to attend the second annual Vernacular Photography Fair, which we noted here a few days ago. The event, held in a gallery space at the Santa Monica Art Studios, consisted of ten dealers from around the country who specialize in “found photography, anonymous imagery or snapshot photography,” as well as hundreds of photography enthusiasts browsing, buying, and talking photos.

I was happy to make the acquaintance of Babbette Hines, whose book Photobooth was one of the inspirations that helped launch this site more than four years ago. We had a nice conversation about the joys of photobooth photos, and commiserated about the recent upswing in prices that have made collecting them less affordable than it used to be.

I also enjoyed meeting a number of other folks, including dealers Myles Haselhorst of Ampersand Vintage in Portland, Leonard Lightfoot of Vernacular Visions, John Nichols of the Santa Paula Snapshot Museum, as well as the folks who put together the event. I’m hoping Photobooth.net can be more involved next time; I could see a lot of interesting ways to collaborate. Two years after moving here, it’s great to finally get a little more involved in the vintage photography scene. Thanks to everyone at D3 Projects for putting this together.

This weekend in Santa Monica, California, D3Projects, in conjunction with a variety of dealers, artists, and other groups, is presenting their second annual Vernacular Photography Fair, an event which should be of interest to all photobooth fans in Southern California.

In the press release on their website, D3 describe the event as “Two days of vernacular photography, featuring top dealers nationwide — photos & books for sale.”

Vernacular photography — also known as found photography, anonymous imagery or snapshot photography — is a genre of photography making its way into the spotlight of fine art. Artists, collectors and dealers rediscover photographs estranged from their owners and lost in time at flea markets, estate and yard sales, attics and even in abandoned boxes on the street. The new owners of these photographs give them a new life and relevance in the world today.

Found photographs, anonymous images and snapshots from the 20s until the late 70s will be offered for show and for sale to the public by the following art dealers: Jane Handel, Leonard Lightfoot, Ray Hetrick, Babbette Hines, Diane Meyer, Carl Mautz, John Nichols, Desiree Dreeuws, Ron Slattery and Myles Haselhorst.

We’ll be attending and look forward to meeting other photobooth and found photo enthusiasts. We’ll have a report on the event next week.

We’ve got a few updates this week, from the four (or at least three) corners of the media world. First, from mainstream TV, an advertisement that proves you can use a photobooth to sell anything. The Venus Embrace razor is the product in this case, in an ad that encourages women to use the razor and “Reveal the Goddess in You.” In one of a half-dozen scenes in the commercial, two girls go into a pseudo-photobooth and giggle under the heading “Goddess of Friendship.”

From the world of art and photography, we bring a two-page feature and brief interview with us here at Photobooth.net in the internationally-distributed magazine ISM: A Community Project. The piece, called Photobooths: The Art of the Self Portrait. It’s a nice piece, and it’s a great magazine, available at select newsstands or on ISM’s site now; we encourage you to pick up a copy.

And finally, another old photo with with what must be a great story behind it. At the risk of starting up a “Photomatic of the Week” feature, I thought I’d post this eBay gem, because it’s a great photo and a little unusual.



Not only does this Photomatic feature the great “Souvenir of the Nation’s Capital” backing, but the young soldier in the photo is sitting behind a prop with the body of what looks like the cherubic new year of 1941 painted on it, which makes for a great image. Written on the photo itself and mostly faded at this point is the question “Guess Who?”, and on the reverse is written the date “January 13, 42.” This date doesn’t make much sense with the New Year 1941 image, but it’s still a great photo.

The photobooth from The Collective is for sale on eBay. Photobooths pop up from time to time on eBay, and while we try to keep track of them, sometimes they slip through the cracks. From this point forward we will move photobooths for sale on eBay to the discussion group, unless there is something unique or spectacular about the booth.

While we’re at it, there are also some nice looking photobooths for sale by way of Canada.

In April of this year, I made my first trek (ok, let’s be honest, pilgrimage) to Photo-Me, USA in Grand Prairie, Texas. I had spoken to Gary Gulley on the phone over the past 3 years, but it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person and put a face to the voice. (Now knowing what his face looks like, I see it occasionally in photostrip form from time to time — most recently in a local St. Louis Post Dispatch article announcing the Photobooth Convention) All the folks I met at the Grand Prairie office (Gary, Tom, Matthew, Bambi, Amber, Linda, Yuri, Hugo, Dawn, Ed) were incredibly nice, and each made me feel right at home. I was treated to a tour of the plant, the highlight of which is their wall of retired photobooths (literally stacked 3‑high, reaching up nearly 20 feet). They also have a wealth of articles and photobooth art that have been sent to them over the years. They have a collection of photobooth picture calendars the Rainbo Club in Chicago produces every year, as well as many other cool photobooth relics. They also let me see their collection of original photobooth patent applications from an array of different countries. I am willing to admit the whole thing was somewhat of a religious experience (lunch, by the way, was memorable as well — Al’s Burger joint just west of Dallas — a big-ass burger on what else but Texas toast?).

I then made a return visit to Photo-Me earlier this month while I was in town for a friend’s wedding. Once again, it was great to see everyone, though I didn’t have as much time to make the rounds. The place was pretty busy, lots of booths being readied for shipment, and lots of phones ringing. I got to wander the warehouse again and soak in the sheer enormity of their photobooth collection. Very cool. Lunch this time was equally delicious — a fine little Mexican restaurant whose name slips me at the moment. If you are looking for good Mexican grub in Grand Prairie, give Gary a call. Tom took some time to show me some of the original blueprints for the first Photo-Me machines (models 10 and 11, I believe). He has a lot of photobooth history in his head, and there is a lot of history to be had. Eventually, we need to beef up a section on Photobooth.net dedicated to photobooth history. Given the time it took me to post this little bit about my Photo-Me visit, however, makes me think it might be a while before we have a formidable history section. Thanks Gary, and the rest of the fine folks at Photo-Me.

At the end of the day…the 7th International Photobooth Convention was a terrific success. From the dozens of people who stopped by over two days to take pictures in the booths to the artists who came from around the country and around the world to experiment, collaborate, and talk about their work, the convention was well-attended and kindly praised by the enthusiasts who stopped by. The convention received great coverage in the local daily and event papers, a spot on the Sunday evening news, and two interviews on the Monday morning news. The convention also helped this blog garner its first comment (from someone other than us) and first trackback, both exciting steps.

The whole “posting throughout the convention” idea didn’t really work, because all involved in making the convention happen were busy from morning to night setting up, taking down, cleaning up, shouting out, speaking up, and all the rest. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be putting together a convention wrap-up page where the current convention info now resides.

For my part, I have to say the convention was more fun, more interesting, and more gratifying than I had expected it to be. Admittedly, Tim and I had set pretty low expectations — “If it’s just the three of us, it’ll be a huge success!” — so when actual tens of people came to take photos, to collaborate on projects, to hear my talk and watch Amélie, and to chat with us about photobooths, it was a very pleasant surprise. On a personal level, I had never before had the luxury of free and open photobooths in a studio space, so thanks to Tim’s generosity and willingness to foster his fellow artists and enthusiasts alike, I was able to experiment, test out ideas, and so some work I’m happy with as a starting point. I didn’t know what to do with myself at first, without having to find crisp bills and fend off waiting kids, but I quickly got used to just pushing a button and waiting for the flash.

The convention was also a great learning experience for me and for others, as well, as we got a look inside the booth, and became familiar with terms like “transmission,” “toner,” and “spider assembly,” as they pertain to the tiny, miniature darkroom that lives inside each and every traditional-style photobooth.

I’d like to say my thanks to all of the people who attended the convention, from the UK to the East Coast to the greater St Louis area, all of whom contributed to a terrific weekend, the biggest convention so far, and an example of how to run a successful, fun, and fulfilling participatory art event. Thanks Tim, thanks Steve, and thanks St Louis! Check out my Flick photoset for photos from the convention. And thanks to Mark Pike for pointing us out to Boing Boing.