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Monthly Archives: July 2014

Lori and Me – Part 1

July 10, 2014
Lori and Me, Vintage Photobooth
17 Comments
photoboothDonnaOverCute1969#01

On the back – “…over cute in all these pictures”

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1969 Donna

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On the back -” I love you. Do you love me? No or yes?”

This bubbly young woman is probably named Donna although that piece of information has been deduced from a single dedication on a photo, presumably given to the owner of the album from which all these and many other photobooth photos came. She is identified only as “me” in the rest of the pictures. Given the vagaries of this process of deduction, it may not be the name of the girl who most frequently appeared in the album, but I think it is likely, and thus she will be Donna to us.

Donna is photographed with many boyfriends and girlfriends, over a period of 4 years from 1969 to 1973, in a large series of photobooth photos which I will share with you in coming weeks.

For me, finding a series of photos of the same person over a period of years, is one of the highlights of collecting photobooth photos. It is particularly fascinating to see someone, in the formative years of their life, grow-up before our very eyes.

As with another long series that I posted last year, Becky and Friends, I will be adding highlights of this series to my Photobooth Time Machines category. In the category files, each post is shown in reverse order of date of publication, so to see the photos chronologically, you need to start at the bottom of the page and work upwards.

In this first instalment we have blondie Donna in the photobooth with friends Carlos and Bessie. All the photos were taken on the same day in 1969, somewhere in the USA.

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On the back – “Me, Carlos, Bessie. 1969”

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On the back – “1969 Me and Carlos (HA HA)”

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On the back – “1969 (Yes!)”

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Carlos and Donna

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Bessie and Carlos

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Bessie

Me In A Photobooth Book

July 9, 2014
Photobooth Art, Photobooths in Print
12 Comments

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This is a page from Meags Fitzgerald’s book Photobooth A Biography, which I recently reviewed in this post. As you can see, I made it into the book as did some other enthusiasts and artists involved with photobooth photo making, collecting and preservation.

Below is the original photo from which Meags did her drawing of me. It was taken in Chapel Street in Prahran, Melbourne on 11 August 2011.

In the coming weeks I will showcase some of the work of the other people pictured here. I am looking forward to sharing their works with you.

photoboothMeags01

Zoe’s German Half-Sister

July 8, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
24 Comments

photoboothGermanZoeWannamaker01
photoboothGermanZoeWannamaker02

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The Housewife’s Journal – Novelty Framing

I find this dour faced lady fascinating in her determination to keep the same unsmiling expression in her three excursions to a photobooth. I wonder if she kept up this photographic po-face for her entire life?

Despite this lack of humour I do like her face. She reminds me of a favourite English actor, Zoe Wannamker. I struggled to find photos of an unsmiling Zoe. She seems to have a naturally sunny disposition. She is beaming happily in most of the Google images I could find but you may be able to see the resemblance in the two pictures below.

images Unknown

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I tried to decipher the wording from the bottom of the novelty photo and use a translator to work out what this says. I am not familiar enough with the German language to make good guesses where the text is unclear, so was unsuccessful. Can anyone out there help me?

Lac Aux Castors – Montreal

July 7, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
7 Comments

photoboothLacAuxCastorsCanada

This is an undated photobooth photo from Lac Aux Castors (Beaver Lake), Montreal. It is being published today, as Lisa from The Long Way Home Diaries commented last week that she liked a photo of me using the same gesture in one of the booth photos in Dick Jewell’s film, Katherine Griffiths 1973 – …..

I stumbled across this pic when sorting photos for this week’s posts and thought of her immediately. Lisa’s blog is a very personal and interesting one that often focusses on her creative Polaroid self-portrait photos. I encourage you to take a look.

 

Oxford Circus Tube Station – 9 December 1999

July 4, 2014
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
6 Comments

photobooth09:12:1999

9 December 1999, Oxford Circus Tube Station, London

This poorly developed colour strip of photos shows me wind swept and cold on a typical London December day. I am holding a Tube travel pass I still had from 1988. (See below). I was visiting friends in London on my way to seeing my sister in Dublin to celebrate my eight month old nephew’s first Christmas.

Travel Card 1988

Travel Card 1988

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This strip of photos is from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.

Tattoo Man – Part Five

July 3, 2014
Tattoo Man Series, Vintage Photobooth
12 Comments

Polaroids of Tattoo Man’s Lady Love

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From Ebay scan.

Below are two Polaroid photos showing Tattoo Man’s girlfriend sitting in a black and white photobooth. You can see the series of posts about him and his lady, here. These were sold by a different Ebay seller to the one from whom I bought my examples from the series. I was surprised and excited to find them. I was also convinced that there would be fierce competition for them in the last minutes of the auction, as there so often is with booth related ephemera. Luckily for me, I was the only bidder!

As you can see from the images, these were taken on the same day as the strip of photos at the top of the page. Given their love of photobooths and each other, this could only have been taken by Tattoo Man himself.

I love finding more information about the actual strips through these polaroids. Four poses for only two dollars, less than 15 years ago, sounds like a bargain to me. Also, it is clearer in the colour photos that the bow is one from a gift of some type, rather than a questionable fashion accessory. More information could be gleaned from the photos by someone, like Meags Fitzgerald, with more knowledge about photobooth models and their eras than I have.

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One of two new additions to my photobooth related ephemera collection.

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The second new addition.

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Detail from the top polaroid showing a strip of black and white photos ready to be collected.

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With her Tattoo Man. (From my collection.)

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From Ebay scan.

Leicester Station Found Photo

July 2, 2014
Found Photobooth Photos
17 Comments

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Leicester Railway Station, 16 June 2002

I found this strip of photos on my way to work when I lived in Leicstershire in the East Midlands in the UK. A friend who was looking through my collection recently, commented that he appears to be very professionally posed before the camera. He does have the knack of presenting himself in a dramatic and interesting way. Could he be a local actor, used to striking a pose without a mirror?

Having turned out of well, I imagine that the photos took too long to process and that the sitter was forced to leave the strip due to the imminent arrival of his train.

This is a standard sized strip of colour photobooth photos which measures 41 x 97 mm.

Dick Jewell’s Film – Katherine Griffiths 1973 – …..

July 1, 2014
Photobooth Art, Photobooth News
27 Comments

FP+spine

I have written about Dick Jewell previously on this blog. In 2011/2012 we worked together on a film of my photobooth photos. With so many Read More