I love this handsome, kind looking, older gentleman. He has a sanguine face and a gentle smile. There are some remnants of sadness in his eyes, as he has seen his fair share of trouble throughout his long life. However, he always pulled through it with a renewed sense of optimism and hope for the future.
This small photobooth photo comes from the USA and probably dates to the mid 1950s.
My own piece of photobooth small town noir.
I don’t normally publicise books about mugshots on this blog but as a minor part of my collection, they hold a level of fascination for me in much the same way as photobooth photos.
For some time now, I have been an avid follower of Small Town Noir a mugshot blog by Diarmid Mogg. Since 2009, Diarmid has collected over 1,500 mugshots, all from the same small American town, New Castle, Pennsylvania. His collection is an extraordinary set of photographs covering the middle of the 20th century, from 1930 to 1960.
Meticulous research goes into each post which shows the original police mugshot, often accompanied by newspaper clippings, birth and death records plus details of the alleged crime. Anything that can be discovered about the life of the person beyond the day of their incarceration is also included. If you love to time travel through photographs, are interested in vernacular American history or just love a good yarn, this is a blog for you. Hopefully, very soon, it will be a book for you, too.
Diarmid has for a long time wanted to pursue a published hard copy edition of his work. He has teamed up with an innovative publishing company called Unbound, which uses a crowd funding model to
produce books by proving that there’s a demand for them before the publication process starts. Diarmid continues the story –
“We’ve worked together on a proposed outline for the book, which is exactly what I’d dreamed about: 150 full-page photographs on good paper, with 70,000 words of text; the pictures arranged chronologically from 1930 to 1960, so the passage of time is evident as you flick past changing hairstyles, fashions and types of photographic film stock; with the stories building up one after the other into a fractured portrait of a particular place and time that there’s really no other way to access.”
If enough people pledge to buy the book, he can do this, so please get behind this wonderful project by clicking on this link to make it happen:
http://unbound.co.uk/books/small-town-noir
My apologies for the last post which was accidentally sent due to my inexperience with using WordPress on my iPad. Hopefully now that I am back on my desk-top, I will be more successful.
While probably not the most exciting of booth photos, I did enjoy the smirk on this woman’s face and her obvious pride in her hat, which appears to be covered in real roses. There is nothing about her coat or the rest of her clothes that suggest a woman of great style or substance but still she took pride in her appearance and quite possibly in her luxuriant rose garden.
This photobooth photo measures 40 x 50 mm and comes from the USA. I would guess this photo was taken in the mid 1950s.
There is something about this photobooth diva that reminds me of one of national treasures, Ms Kylie Minogue. (See pictures, below.) Affectionately known in Australia, as Our Kylie, the dininutive singer has also, at various times in her career, been tagged with the honorifics Goddess of Pop, Princess of Pop, Disco Queen, and the less than flattering Singing Budgie.
Unidentified lady in 1950s photobooth strip from Germany. It was listed as Stripe of Young Woman, which is appropriate given the visual effect of the backdrop curtain.
Photobooth Journal 