22 December 1999, Kilkenny, Ireland
I celebrated my birthday that year with a night in Kilkenny and a visit to its famous castle. It was a surprise to find a working photobooth located at McDonagh Station, as Kilkenny is a small town and Ireland has never been awash with them.
These come from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
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
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.
Early December 1999, Wellington, New Zealand
The only photobooth I was able to find on this trip to visit my travelling buddy Moana in Wellington, was a sticker booth in a game arcade.
I stopped in New Zealand on my way to visit friends in London before going to Dublin to spend Christmas with my sister and her Irish relatives. She and her husband Tim had decided not to make their home in Australia and had returned to live in Ireland where they had first met. They live there to this day.
Moana was working most of my visit and I only managed to get her husband Mark, into the booth. While not my preferred type of photobooth, in the event of nothing better, it is a least a cute souvenir of a trip. To see some previous posts and booth photos of Moana and I together, click here, here and here.
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.
18 October 1999, Melbourne
These are the next in my long series of photobooth photos which I started taking and collecting 41 years ago. I have not recorded any details of the location of the booth where the pics were taken, nor the reason for them being taken. I am sure there was a specific reason, as I never cut my photobooth strips unless some are needed for a special purpose. I was soon to be heading off to New Zealand, England and Ireland, so this was possibly a travel related photo.
These come from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
9 October 1999, Melbourne
This is seven month old guide-dog puppy, Charlie. He was my pride and joy for twelve months when I was his puppy-raiser. He was a very diligent worker. He became a professional dog after graduating with flying colours from his full training at Guide Dogs Victoria.
Charlie became a lifeline for a lovely woman whose eyesight had deteriorated rapidly in the years leading up to her application for a guide-dog. I imagine he would be well and truly retired by now, if not already in doggy heaven.
Although not recorded on the back of the strip, this was most likely taken in one of the Flinders Street photobooths, as I made every effort to get Charlie into town regularly for his socialisation and traffic training.
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.
12 May 1999, Melbourne
I took this strip of photos after a meeting at the greeting card company John Sands. I was still running my own greeting card publishing business but my health was beginning to fail. I was looking for options outside self-employment but still within the industry. I am not entirely sure what I expected of the meeting but nothing eventuated from it.
I imagine this was taken in one of the Flinders Street photobooths but as I made no record of the location, I cannot be sure.
This strip of photos is the first I have posted this year from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
In February last year I did a post about Damian Michaels whose altered, photobooth self-portrait I had purchased on Ebay a few weeks earlier. As a result of that purchase and an admiration of his work, I decided to commission him to alter one of my photobooth strips. The finished work can be seen below along with the original strip.
I was very pleased with the results. My favourite image being the last of the three. Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment, below.
You can find out more about Damian and his work by following the links below.
Damian Michaels is an American artist, writer, curator and publisher who has lived in Melbourne since 1994. His work is part of the outsider art movement. Outsider art is a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds. Damian sees his art as spiritual, psychological and an emotional mirror to the collective consciousness. His art is revelatory and message-laden but that message is for the viewer to interpret. It is not prescribed by the artist. This altered photobooth self-portrait is part of a series of works Damian has done using photographs old and new, as his canvas. Apart from loving this as the only piece of photobooth art I have in my collection, I enjoy its movement and humour. For me, it is an appropriate self-portrait of a man with a creative spirit and an apparently great sense of fun. To see more of his work and read more about him, follow the links below.
22 January 1998, Chadstone Shopping Centre, Melbourne
A quick strip of photobooth photos after a trip to the cinema to see The Spice Girls‘ movie Spice World. I guess it was the only film we could all agree to see, as I was never a fan of that group.
This strip is part of the series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
I recently wrote a post about a party for my friend Marie-Louise, that I was excited to be going to. One of my readers recognised her as an actor, so I have decided to show you this more recent, professional photo. It comes from her profile at the agency that represents her.
Her full name is Marie-Louise Walker and her IMDb page is here.
Still stunning Mar-Lou!
This is the original photobooth photo of my fabulously gorgeous friend, that I posted on 7 December. It was taken in a Melbourne photobooth in 1996.
Photobooth Journal 
