It’s been a long day and a great opening night at the Convention. More news and photos tomorrow; needless to say, it’s been a huge success already. Great people, great photos, great art, and a lot of fun.

It’s Convention Week here in Los Angeles. I received the last three packages of art today (from New York, the UK, and France) and the last-minute preparations are underway. This is shaping up to be the most ambitious Photobooth Convention I’ve been involved in, with an international art show, attendees from at least four countries, a printed catalogue, a post-event chartered photobooth tour, screen printed posters, a ton of raffle prizes, even a DJ. It’s my hope that at least most of what we’re planning comes off, but the real goal of the convention is to get people together and share a good time in and around these machines we love. 

I’ve been heartened but not surprised by the helpfulness and enthusiasm the Photomaton artists have shown me, and their artwork, as it has slowly arrived over the last month, is really impressive. I hope people make the trip to come see the show; you’ll see things from private collections, pieces created just for this show, and other amazing works you’re never going to see anywhere else. Right now, outside the Musée de l’Elysée, I probably have the greatest collection of photobooth art in one place right now in my office. I can’t wait to put it up and on display for everyone to see.

We’re just over a week away from the beginning of the 2012 International Photobooth Convention, for which we’re making what can only be described as feverish preparations. The booths are lined up. The shirts are ready. The posters are ready. The art is arriving. The catalog is being printed. The raffle prizes are being gathered. And soon, people will be flying from Paris and Nottingham, from Chicago and St. Louis, to join us in Venice for a weekend of photobooth fun.

While I have a second before full-tilt convention mania hits, I wanted to post about a new location we learned of this week: following quickly on the heels of the news about the new booth at Netil House in London, Paul Walker at the legendary Fred Aldous shop in Manchester let us know about their beautiful Model 17, now installed and working in their shop. We’re excited to learn about a third photochemical machine in the UK, and we hope more will join these three pioneers.

London’s getting a new photobooth, thanks to the gang at Photoautomat. Check out their blog for all of the details on their opening, which will take place tomorrow, Thursday, May 3 at Netil House.

Well, so it’s not quite here, but it’s been designed, it’s beautiful, and it’s going to press this week. We have the talented Jared Purrington to thank for the awesome design (and our buddy Keith to thank for hooking us up with Jared), and L.A.‘s Level Press to thank for the screen printing. The posters will be for sale at the convention next month, and any left over will be available for sale through the website. It’s getting closer, folks…

My how time flies. The 2012 International Photobooth Convention is just a month away.

As the planning goes on behind the scenes, we’ve added a few events to the schedule. The Los Angeles Photobooth Crawl has been on the books for awhile, and on Sunday, I visited eight photobooth locations on a dry run for the event. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Last night, we actually closed registration for this post-convention event, which will happen on Sunday night, May 20. We’ve reached capacity at this point, but will be keeping a wait list, as people’s plans will undoubtedly change in the next month or so. Contact us if you’d like to get on the wait list.

Back by popular demand, Anthony Vizzari of A & A Studios in Chicago will be leading another workshop, in which convention-goers can learn “Alternative Processes in Photostrip Reproduction.” The workshop will be held on Saturday at 4:00 pm, and will focus on the hand reproduction of photobooth photographs. The workshop will be more of a lab than an instructional session, and experimentation will be encouraged. The workshop is limited to 15 participants, and has a $25 fee for materials. Sign up for the event by emailing me.

As part of the convention, we’re assembling what should be a terrific show of photobooth art. As we work on putting that together, we’ve spruced up some of the listings in our Art section. We’ve added a few photos of artists that were missing before, and added some new artists as well. 

We’ve also been working on other sections of the site. We’ve added what is just the third film we’ve found from that photobooth heyday decade, the 1950s. The film is Quicksand, a film noir starring Mickey Rooney (yes, noir Mickey Rooney) and Peter Lorre, who plays a man who runs an arcade on the pier, complete with a Photomatic booth. Thanks to Elisa for the tip.

A remarkable video clip made its way around the web last week showing a man in a nursing home coming to life after hearing some of his favorite music. The clip is from a documentary feature called Alive Inside, and we caught a glimpse of some photobooth photos in one scene.

In the realm of TV, we added scenes from a 1985 episode of the British talk show Wogan, in which guest Liz Rideal talks about her massive photobooth collage project, which is seen on stage. Thanks, Liz!

And finally, I’m a little embarrassed to admit it’s taken me this long, but I’ve finally added two new photobooth locations in my own backyard here in L.A. The Churchill in West Hollywood and Mohawk Bend in Echo Park both feature Photo-Me Model 21s that get a lot of use. We’re always glad to see new booth locations to help balance out the ones that disappear each month. Speaking of, the legendary Lakeside Lounge in New York is closing this month, and they’re looking for a new home for their beloved photobooth. Help keep this photobooth alive and well and in the East Village!

We’ve got lots of new additions to cover today, including a couple of interesting photobooth-related projects. First, a collaboration between two people on different continents whom we’ve gotten to know through the site, Katherine Griffiths in Australia and Dick Jewell in the U.K..

A few months back, Dick Jewell, the man behind the first published collection of found photobooth photos and a major contributor to the Musée de l’Elysée exhibition, contacted us to ask for some assistance on a project he was working on. He was working with Katherine Griffiths, a photobooth enthusiast and collector and one of our helpful, far-flung contributors in Australia, to animate a collection of photobooth photos of herself over nearly 40 years. We helped out where we could, and recently, they let us know that the project was complete. You can view the film, which features photos of Katherine taken between 1973 and 2011, on Vimeo here.

Talking about Katherine’s project is a good reason to mention her website as well. Her Photobooth Journal blog covers her thoughts on the booth, looks back at old photos of herself, and includes ruminations on all kinds of vintage photobooth photography. We recommend taking a look back through the archives when you get a chance, and we wish Katherine the best.

We also have a few new additions in the Movies and TV section: the 1997 film The Boxer starring Daniel Day-Lewis and a 2009 French thriller called Ne te retourne pas:

Thanks to Anthony for pointing out a Radio Télévision Suisse TV piece which follows French singer Hugues Aufray as he visits the Musée de l’Elysée exhibit. You can watch the video on RTS.ch here.

And just yesterday, the CBC aired a segment called Following the Photobooth Faithful, in which reporter Julia Caron interviews Meags Fitzgerald as well as Jeff Grostern of Auto-Photo Canada to talk about the current state of the photobooth in Canada. Give the piece a listen, it’s well worth it.

And, speaking of our faithful international location contributor Meags, we encourage everyone to check out her IndieGogo project: it’s called Photobooth Expedition, and one of its goals is to help make Meags’ trip to the 2012 International Photobooth Convention a reality. It’s less than two months away, folks: time to make plans! We hope to see you there.

Tonight is my last in Switzerland, after a wonderful almost-week filled with good times hanging out with old friends, quality time spent thinking about, talking about, and using photobooths, plus a few mountain railways and raclette thrown in for authenticity’s sake.

On Saturday, I headed down to Montreux and up into the mountains and Rochers-de-Naye for some snow and sunshine before returning to the Musée one last time. I shot some more footage and took some strips with Danny, Carole, and Siobhan.

We enjoyed a walk down to the lake and through Ouchy, and planned to meet up in Geneva later that night. Danny went on his way back to Istanbul (eventually), while the London and Chicago contingents and I met up at Curiositas for a tasty dinner. Anthony, Andrea, Carole, Siobhan, and I all said goodbye until May, which isn’t so far away.

On Sunday, I headed to Zürich, and immediately upon arrival, sought out Martin Balke, the father of the Swiss photobooth, with whom I spent the rest of the day. We talked, we took photos, we looked inside the machine, we talked some more… He and his family treated me to an authentic Swiss dinner, and I very much enjoyed spending time with them.

It was a real pleasure getting to know Martin and hearing fifty years of stories from this brilliant and passionate man, who still maintains the only native Swiss photobooth still active in the country. Now that Anthony’s refurbished Model 14 has arrived at the Musée in Lausanne, Martin’s machine has some company, but his photoautomat is unique survivor, a different strain of photobooth altogether. Though I’d seen scans of the photos it produces, there’s nothing like holding them in your hand; they’re quite simply the best photobooth photos I’ve ever seen.

This morning, after a few more funiculars and cog railways, I met up with Martin again for more good conversation, and then spent an enlightening hour and a half researching Prontophot, the Swiss photobooth company that started in the 1930s and was later taken over by Photo-Me, from material in the collection of the Swiss National Museum. Thanks to Nora, whom I met in Lausanne, for tipping me off to the stuff, and to Betty at the Museum for taking the time to show it to me. There were some fascinating finds in those files…

Tomorrow, it’s back to Los Angeles, and less than three months before the photobooth convention. We heard from many people from all over the world at the Musée who pledged to come to L.A. for the convention, so now we’d better make it great. We’ll keep you posted.

Many of us gathered at the Musée this morning to hang out again, take more photos, and say goodbye to those who were leaving, like Jan Wenzel, Marc Bellini, and Nakki Goranin. Marco Ferrari initiated a multi-strip project with many participants that we hope to see the results of soon, and everyone had a good time. 

In the afternoon, a group of ten of us took a little field trip to the Swiss Camera Museum in nearby picturesque Vevey. 

We took in all of the amazing objects on display in the large collection, and had a good time talking about cameras, which was not surprising. The museum was very impressive, but we lamented the lack of a photobooth. Mutoscope machines, magic lantern projectors, a camera obscura… but no booth.

After the museum, we all headed for some sightseeing, and took the funicular up from Vevey to Mont Pélerin for a phenomenal sunset over the Alps and Lake Geneva. Pictures were taken.

It was a great night for fans of the photobooth as the Musée de l’Elysée’s long-awaited exhibition opened to the public, with a packed house of hundreds of photobooth enthusiasts, photography buffs, historians, artists, and others filled the museum’s three floors and kept the photobooth in the cafe running non-stop. 

I saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, some of whom we’ve known for years, others just a few days. It was great to finally meet Marco Ferrari, as well as Les Matons, Helene and Christian, all of whom have been invaluable sources of news and information for the site. It was also great to see Igor again, in a meeting as brief as our first one, last year in Paris.