Louie Despres Photobooth Project

North American Photographer Louie Despres (above) has a number of wonderful photo projects on his website, which you can find here. I particularly love The Believers, and Vanity I – Bathrooms, but of course my favourite just has to be Vanity II – Photobooths.

One of my earliest memories is having my picture taken in a photobooth with my brother and sister when I was probably 3 years old. I marveled at the machine which flashed 4 times as you sat there in front of a darkened screen, then the humming sound of the unseen mechanics working inside the box, and, finally, the magic of the wet strip of four pictures delivered in the silver slot on the side. Suddenly, there YOU were, in beautiful black and white.

Please take a look at Louie’s collection. In addition to his self-portraits, like me, Louie is a collector. At the moment he has a project where he is asking for submissions of photobooth strips from around the world. If you would like to contribute, you can contact Louie through his website or Facebook.

Below is the strip I sent to Louie.