We begin our fifteenth (!) year of keeping track of all things photobooth with a major update of posts on photobooths in moving images. Over the last few years we’ve let discoveries and contributions in the realms of movies, TV shows, commercials, and music videos collect on our to-do list, and today, we’re glad to finally present more than a dozen instances, from the surprisingly major to the completely minor.

Thanks to all our wonderful contributors for sending in links, tips, and screen grabs over the years.



The Glass Wall, directed by Maxwell Shane (1953)



It’s Always Fair Weather, directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen (1955)



Your Three Minutes Are Up, directed by Douglas Schwartz (1973)



Falsche Bewegung, directed by Wim Wenders (1975)



Repeater, directed by Christopher Monger (1979)



Nô, directed by Robert Lepage (1998)





Same Same But Different, directed by Detlev Buck (2009)





Bande de filles, directed by Céline Sciamma (2014)



December 7th, directed by John Ford and Gregg Toland (1943)

In addition to films, we’ve also added a number of television shows, music videos, and commercials. Click the intriguing images below to see more from each of these photobooth-friendly creations.

Fall is in the air, and it’s time to return after our post-convention vacation. Over the past few months, we’ve been chipping steadily away at the big to-do list of contributions, updates, and news from our readers around the world, and we’ve got more in the pipeline. 

Later this week, we’ll have a post gathering together all of the new additions we’ve made to the site since June, but for now, I’ll leave everyone with a shot of Milton Berle coughing in a photobooth mirror, from an ad for Vicks Forumula 44 cough medicine (hat tip to @classicshowbiz and Charles for the link).

Our friends Ole and Asger, founders of Photoautomat, were featured on last week’s episode of BBC’s The Travel Show. It is a great piece and showcases a portion of their beautiful collection of outdoor photobooths in urban Germany.

See the full video here.

It’s been a busy few months around here, and as we end 2013, enter 2014, and prepare for the upcoming 2014 International Photobooth Convention, it’s time to take stock of the latest additions to the site.

We start with Le Photomémo, un jeu de mémoire. This limited edition memory game uses beautiful vintage French Photomaton photos as the cards which players are challenged to remember and match. The game was created by Les instantés ordinaries; check out their site for this and other lovely photo projects. Thanks to Les Matons for sending us a copy!

Next, a few locations. First, another Ace Hotel means another black and white photobooth, this one at the Ace Hotel, Shoreditch. Angelenos, now that I’ve moved from L.A., I’m counting on one of you to visit the new Ace Hotel there and send us info about their booth.

Next, a photobooth at a mall — yes, they still exist! This one is at the Illinois Star Centre Mall in Marion. Thanks to Stephanie for sending us the photos and info.

And second, a new black and white machine at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver, a project by Fotoautomaton.

Please send us your location updates, as the world of photochemical booths is constantly changing, and we can only keep up with your help.

As always, we have a few more TV shows to add to our ever-growing tally, one old and one new. Thanks to Rob and Anthony for tipping us off to a great, fleeting photobooth appearance in the pilot of the “The Fugitive,” the television show that inspired the Harrison Ford film (which also features a photobooth, strangely enough).

And second, from 2012, an episode of the U.K. children’s TV show “Shaun the Sheep,” part of the wonderful family of Aardman creations, in which Shaun has to visit a photobooth when he discovers he’s accidentally been cut out of the farmer’s family photo. Thanks to Katherine for the tip.

Two recent films have been added to our list over the last few weeks, both contributed by our French friends Les Matons. First, from the trailer of Jonathan Caouette’s Walk Away Renee, we see some of the same photobooth photos of Caouette and his mother, Renee, that he used in his first film, Tarnation.

Second, a French romantic comedy, La chance de ma vie, in which a photo-themed rom-com montage features some photobooth-style photos.

Finally, the biggest event for me in the past few months: a visit to Auto Photo Canada in Montréal. For more than ten years, I’d been hearing about the Grosterns and their photobooth business, and I’d always wanted to have an opportunity to visit. 

A trip to Montreal in November, which involved cold weather and a lot of free time, offered that chance. After a false start in which I ended up at their old warehouse, which they’d vacated months before, I spent a great afternoon with Jeff and George and their colleagues, talking booths and listening to their great stories. 

I’m very grateful to Jeff and George for their hospitality, and for taking the time to show me around the offices, warehouse, and shop. I got to hear first-hand the long and illustrious history of Auto Photo Canada, and see their machines and their process in action. Meags Fitzgerald was working on a project there that day, as well, so it was a nice chance to catch up with her, too. My visit once again proved that the photobooth business is filled with interesting, friendly people, and I was very glad to have had the chance to stop by.

We’ll be planning the Convention in Chicago over the next few months, and will have more updates as soon as they’re available. Happy new year!

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a chance to post news on the blog here, but that doesn’t mean the site has been dormant. On the contrary, we’ve had additions to the site in almost every category over the last few weeks. We’ll take a look at new locations, movies, TV shows, newspaper articles, and album covers today.

First, a bit of history: 

In a February 1970 Los Angeles Times interview with singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, the author describes Webb’s upcoming album this way:

…[A]nother current project is a new album, with Webb compositions sung entirely by Webb. Jim’s been working on the recording for about six months: he has daily sessions—morning and afternoon, often breaks for dinner and returns to work into the small hours. The LP will be called ‘Confessions in a Photo Booth,’ but he’ll introduce the new material, all of it, in his concert debut on Saturday at the Music Center.

In an August 1970 Billboard column (see it here on Google Books), the album is named as his first on Reprise. By the time it was released, “Confessions in a Photo Booth” had become “Words and Music,” so the world was robbed of what could have been a prominent photobooth-titled album.

Continuing in the world of music, Callan Furlong wrote to let us know that his EP The Fool I Was Before features photostrips on the cover.

And finally, while browsing the aisles at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, I spotted this recent CD from The Living Sisters:

We have a few new locations to mention, the first not too far from (my) home, at Dexter’s Camera in Ventura, California, where Photo-Me installed a black and white booth this week. Thanks to Matt and Raul for letting us know about the booth.

The second is slightly further afield, in Riga, Latvia, where Kate Tyler found a color machine, one of the only original booths still active in Europe. Time for a road trip to Riga! Please keep your contributions coming.

Next, we’ll move on to television, where the photobooth continues to be a mainstay of current shows: this time, reality juggernaut “The Bachelor” took a turn in the booth. During Week 7 of the most recent series, the Bachelor and one of his ladies visited the photobooth at Orange Dracula in Seattle, and took some photos.

Looking back a few decades, Les Matons clued us into a 1960s French TV show, La Caméra Invisible, that featured a photobooth in an episode:

We were excited to read a nice newspaper piece on our buddy Anthony Vizzari and his company, A & A Studios, this past weekend. The original article in the Chicago Grid is here, and we’ve got it archived here, as well. Congratulations, Anthony and all the crew at A & A.

We’ve also added a few new movies to roster. Last year’s Academy Award-winner in the Documentary Feature category, Undefeated, features a photobooth shot of a young Bill Courtney, who would grow up to be the coach at the center of this story.

Going a little further back, we have a few more passing photobooth shots in the animated short The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, as well as in the 1984 West German film Wundkanal.

Finally, a French film about a woman obsessed with the photobooth who ends up meeting the photobooth repairman… Sound familiar? Well, it’s not Amélie. It’s Lucille et le Photomaton, a 1993 short by Sébastien Nuzzo that we’ve long been meaning to add to the site.

Not a week goes by here at Photobooth.net West without receiving an update or two (or ten) from our loyal and generous readers. We have a European-centric batch of contributions to present today, with a few American surprises.

First, we have a raft of updates from the folks at Photoautomat.de in Berlin. A number of booths have moved from previous locations, and fresh machines have debuted in new locations, as well.

Check out the new photochemical booths at the following locations:

• Kulturbrauerei
• Markthalle Kreuzberg
• Prenzlauer Allee
• Warschauerstraße / Revaler Str. I
• Warschauerstraße / Revaler Str. II
• Weserstraße

The fact that these booths are constantly moving and re-appearing in Berlin is a testament to their ongoing popularity, and Berlin remains one of the world’s great photobooth capitals.

We also have a few bits of photobooth media from Europe: a French print ad for an optician using a photobooth, a graphic novel by Jean Teulé called Filles de nuit, and the film Le scaphandre et la papillon, known in English as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

And finally, an Italian giallo, 4 mosche di velluto grigio.

Both the front and the back of the album “Les eglantines sont peut-etre formidables” by the duo Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem, uses photobooth photos, as well. Thanks to Les Matons for these updates.

Stateside, we have new photos of the redecorated booth and resulting photos from Jack White’s Third Man Records and Novelties in Nashville. 

Also, good news for Colorado: the state has another pin in the map at Fargo’s Pizza in Colorado Springs. Thanks to Brittany for both of these updates.

We’re also very happy to be able to add Nebraska to our list of states that can claim they’re home to a photobooth. 

If you’re headed to Slowdown in Omaha for a concert, a party, or a pub quiz, check out their black and white photobooth and give it a spin. Thanks to Robb for the update on this booth.

We have a few updates from American movies and TV, as well. 

First, a brief credit sequence appearance in the 1973 pickpocket drama Harry in Your Pocket, as the camera pans over the contents of pockets picked by the “cannon,” Harry (James Coburn).

Another more recent film, Safety Not Guaranteed, also features a brief photostrip moment.

Last month, thanks to Photoautomat.de, we made what to us seemed like a remarkable discovery: a mainstream American film starring perhaps the most critically acclaimed actor and actress of the last thirty years, with a scene set in a real photobooth, with real photobooth photos. How did Falling in Love, a 1984 film starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, escape our notice until now? We’re not sure, but it just goes to show there’s always more out there, and it encourages us to continue our quest to uncover more photobooths in cinema. 

And finally, we’ve got a 2013 commercial for Diet Coke starring its new creative director, designer Marc Jacobs (who has also had a photobooth or two in some of his stores)

We’ve got a little bit of everything in today’s update, thanks to people from all over the country and the world who have written us to let us know about photobooth appearances. Thanks to Greg, Andrew, Aimee, Siobhan, Katherine, Meags, and Les Matons for the tips that led to this most recent raft of additions.

First, in the world of film, Nights and Weekends:

Next, the recent adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:

The Dutch film Left Luggage:

Christopher Nolan’s debut film, Following:

And finally, the French film Scenes de crimes:

Next, in television:

From the UK, a social history documentary show, “The Secret History of Our Streets”:

“Dead Like Me”:

And another season brings another episode of “Modern Family” that features a photobooth:

A few commercials: 

For Barclays personalized debit cards:

And for the Swiss company Sympany:

And finally, the ever-popular photobooth in a music video:

First, from The Great Park, the video for “I Know What I Make Isn’t Fine”:

From Mano Negra, “Pas assez de toi”:

And from Jim Kroft, “Canary in the Coalmine”:

It’s been pretty quiet on the photobooth news front lately, but the stream of tips about photobooths in movies, TV, advertisements, and beyond has been as steady as ever. Here are a few of the new additions we’ve made over the last few weeks:

New movies:

Tabloid by Errol Morris

The Queen of Versailles by Lauren Greenfield

Celeste & Jesse Forever by Lee Toland Krieger

21 Jump Street by Phil Lord and Chris Miller

TV shows:

A 2001 episode of Malcolm in the Middle

Last week’s episode of “Brickleberry”

Locations:

And finally, a new photobooth at a local favorite, Golden Road Brewing in Glendale. 

After assiduously seeking out photobooth locations all across the world, planning itineraries around places where I knew I’d find photobooths for the last ten years, it was a pleasant and unfamiliar surprise to head to a brewpub for lunch and find an unexpected machine just sitting there, practically shouting at me “Shouldn’t you know I’m here?!” I enjoyed a beer and a sandwich and an unexpected set of photos to boot. 

Today, we’ve got a raft of updates in our TV and Commercials sections, thanks to our helpful readers. 

First, the second appearance by a photobooth, this time a real Model 14, in the show “The Big C.” Thanks to Anthony for the tip on this scene, in which one character protests “photobooth discrimination.”

I’ve been catching up on the excellent new show “Girls” lately, and Hannah (Leah Dunham) and Marnie (Allison Williams) have at least three photostrips in their apartment, as seen in episodes 2 and 5:

I finally came across a copy of the Weird Al Biography from A&E, in which we see a number of photobooth photos of a young, not yet weird Al with his mom.

Thanks again to Anthony for telling us about the episode of American Pickers with Jack White in which the guys trade a mounted elephant head for one of Jack’s photobooths (you’ve got to see it to believe it).

And just last night, on the second episode of the new series “Longmire,” a photostrip provided a clue in the death of a girl. Thanks to Gary for the tip on this one.

I’ve also added updated, higher quality images for some of the first TV shows I posted to the site back in 2005: Roswell (I had no idea that was Katherine Heigl…), As Time Goes By, and The X‑Files.

In the world of commercials, I spotted one running on ESPN a few days ago, an ad for Corona Light featuring the adventures of everyman Stan, shown in a series of still photos. Once Stan has a Corona Light, his life gets more interesting, and he finds himself in a photobooth. Of course.

And finally, thanks to Siobhan for tipping us off to two ads (adverts, I suppose) from the UK, for the TV show “Take Me Out,” and for Thinkbox, an ad which stars Harvey and Rabbit. 

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!