Picture Happy Times

October 1, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
22 Comments

IMG_1711

Some weeks ago, fellow blogger from The Netherlands, Ruud Vermeij of Picture Happy Times, a blog with vintage photos of happy people, started sending me scans and information about photobooth images. He is always on the look-out for interesting items for his collection and kindly thought of me when booth photos turned up.

Above is one of my favourites. I adore this young man’s serious, quizzical eyes and gently smiling lips. His tousled curls and grandad cardigan (however not so grandad-ish in the era of this photo) remind me of my curly-haired Grandpa who was, in my memory, rarely ever seen out of a cardy.

The picture was found in a flea market photo album. According to Ruud all the pictures in the album were made in the early 1940s and came from a Belgian family.

Below is another photo of the same lad with a friend. It came from the same album. It was posted in Picture Happy Times under the title The Concept of Friendship. Below the photo is a copy of the text from the post.

unnamed

Friendship I think is being able of setting your own wishes, ambitions and interests aside for a minute. Friendship I think means being able to accept you will be disappointed and let down every once in a while.  

I’m not good at doing these friend-ish things. And that’s why beside Mrs. PHT I just have one friend and that – you guessed it – is me.

Photobooth Signs

September 30, 2015
Photobooth Signs, Vintage Photobooth
4 Comments

photoboothMachineSignsMetal

As you may have guessed by now, I love anything to do with photobooths, even the signage from them.

The fifty cents sign is aluminium. I guess that was cheaper to change as the prices went up. The other two are much heavier and possibly made of stainless steel.

They all come from the USA, via France. I bought them from the author of a famous book about photobooth photos, but more about that in another post.

A Gothic Love Story

September 29, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
9 Comments

IMG_1725

This fabulous photobooth photo and the story behind it, was emailed to me by artist and fellow blogger Ted Giffin.

This is the story –

On the left is Shannon. She was my sweet 16 girlfriend. I followed her around like a puppy. She moved from Indiana to Virginia Beach, Virginia. She went to the governor’s art school where she met Kathy a.k.a Guido, also an artist. She is on the right.

These two girls changed the course of my life. I believed that if I could make art like these two, then I would be beautiful. During my Freshmen year at Art School, Shannon, who at the time loved tape, taped this in my sketchbook. I had been carrying it around in my wallet, with a guitar pick. That blotch on the image, is worn in by the outline of the pick. As you may notice, they were “goth” punks at the time.

This image was made in a Virginia Beach photobooth, circa 1988. It is still taped into that, almost 30 year old, sketchbook…

I absolutely love it. If it hadn’t been accidentally changed by its time in a wallet, you could almost call it a piece of altered art. I also love Ted’s visual art works, which you can see here.

Lady Clown

September 28, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
17 Comments

photoboothLadyClown

As I mentioned in a previous post, images of clowns in photobooths are quite rare. Rarer still is to find a female clown in a photobooth. Of course this could just be a woman dressed up for a costume party. Either way it is a great photobooth photo.

It has just occurred to me that this may be a partner picture to my post of Farmer Jeb, as each image shares the same background and both show people in costume. I am unsure whether these came from the same eBay seller, but if they did, I bought them several months apart.

I would still say I find male clowns quite scary, but I dislike them less, the more I know about them. This lady, if she is a professional entertainer, is definitely not scary!

Calling Card

September 26, 2015
Photobooths in Print, Vintage Photobooth
17 Comments

photoboothBusinesscard02

I recently used this beautiful photobooth photo for a calling card to promote my blog. I was so enamoured of her face, I failed to notice the brown stain at the top right hand corner. Funnily enough, no one else has noticed it either!

photoboothBusinesscard01

 

Photomaton Diva GIF

September 25, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
6 Comments

1929

I have added this GIF to my original post Photomaton Diva. I like the way this feels like flipping through an album! Thanks again to my friends John and Zeus!

I have a wee detail to add about the above photos. My Photomaton Diva has a kiss curl. According to Wikipedia, “A kiss curl describes a lock of hair curling onto the face which is usually plastered down. Although the curl could be flattened with saliva (hence its alternative name spit curl), soap or hair lotion was more typically used.”

Josephine Baker was one of the most famous wearers of the style.

josephine-baker-2

Photomaton Diva

September 25, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
26 Comments

photoboothFrenchDiva01

photoboothFrenchDiva03

In the above photos, the sitter looks as glamorous as a silent movie star. As her headdress doesn’t fit with her outfit, I am guessing she is trying out a bridal accessory, possibly to see how it worked in a photograph? Below, without the intricate head-piece, she looks less of a star but very much an elegant woman of the twenties.

These photos were taken on 25 November 1929 at a Photomaton studio in Paris. They came in their original folder which shows the prices you would’ve paid if you had chosen to make enlargements. There is only one photo missing from the strip of six, which would have been cut at the studio, in order that one would stand upright to fit the paper frame.

I cannot work out what the numbers beside the listed countries represent, as they cannot be the price in local currency. Taking Les États-Unis (USA) as an example, the equivalent set of photos in the 1920s would have cost ten cents, not $2.25 or 225 cents. France is listed on the back with 72 beside it, while the price on the front is marked as 6 francs.

The name of the shop or department store that is stamped in purple at the bottom front of the folder, I am unable to make out. I can find no record of anything other than a, now defunct, café at 26, Boulevard des Italiens.

photoboothFrenchDiva02

photoboothFrenchDiva04

photoboothPhotomatonFolder02

Outside of folder.

photoboothPhotomatonFolder03

Inside of open folder.

1929

A Quirky Couple

September 24, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
14 Comments

photoboothTatiUNDSela

Isn’t this a wonderful portrait of what I presume to be a long standing, married couple? There is a relaxed warmth and familiarity between the two. I love their hats and the man’s upturned face and eyes. Is he looking at something or someone, or just good at choosing a comic photographic angle? There seems to be a benign amusement in the woman’s eyes. Is her partner a perennial joker, no longer very funny to her but loved none the less?

Is there anyone out there, who has the time and inclination to work out the inscription on the back of the above photo? Obviously they are names, but the surname of Konrad, is the only word I can make out. I bought this from the USA.

photoboothTatiUNDSela02

Three-Time Academy Award Winner In A Photobooth

September 23, 2015
Vintage Photobooth
8 Comments

photoboothMerylStreepFromTedlette

Here is yet another sweet gift from my friend Ted Stutz of TedBook’s DAILY PICS. As with all of Ted’s gifts, it arrived in the post unexpectedly. I love surprises, but most of all surprise photobooth photos!

Perhaps it is just my fancy, but I do think this lovely lady is the divine actress Meryl Streep. She jumped into a time machine and travelled back to the 1930s. Always a stickler for authenticity, she went there to aid her research into role the of Kate Mundy in Dancing at Lughnasa. Whilst there she couldn’t resist the allure of a local photobooth to appraise her era-appropriate costume and hairstyle.

This photo was taken in the USA on 8 August, 1938. All this beautiful woman needs is a blond dye-job to be Meryl’s spitting image. Do you agree or disagree?

This post is inspired by a series on the blog Tattered and Lost – Vernacular Photography.  Search for Time Traveling Celebrity to see all of the posts in this fun category.

images

Vinson – A Much Loved Guide Dog Pup – 22 September 2000

September 22, 2015
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive), Polaroid Photobooth
15 Comments

photobooth22:09:2000

22 September 2000, Melbourne, Victoria

Another of my guide dog puppies, Vinson was adored by all children, but especially by two, Giosue and Francesco. Their adoration of this dog made giving him up more difficult than usual. Telling them that he would no longer be with me when they came to visit, was heart-breaking, such was their devastation at the news.

Vinson graduated and became a fully fledged guide dog. He was sent to Japan where he had to relearn all his commands in Japanese. Unfortunately he was unable to deal with the noise and frantic pace of life in Tokyo, so he was retired. He was adopted by a family from a smaller city, where, I hope, he lived very happily.

These come from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.