When I published this animation the other day, the movie was
static until clicked. That opened a link to another page where the gif played and the image was very large. Apparently the size of the original files was the issue.
Thanks to Lemuel from the blog History Geek for telling me why it wouldn’t play automatically and for telling me how to fix the problem. If you are reading this blog you will likely find a lot to interest you at History Geek, so check it out here.
Livia Satriano published author and writer of the vintage photo blog Assez-Vu, has been kind enough to pen a piece about the film project I did with Dick Jewell, for the online magazine Lost at E Minor.
Her mentioning the film Amélie, reminds me of a post I have been meaning to write about a series of peculiar photos I found discarded near Melbourne photobooths in the early nineties. More of that soon, I hope. In the meantime please click here to read her article.
The publishers of Lost At E Minor describe it as “an online publication of inspiring art, design, music, photography and pop culture: low brow sensibilities mashed with high brow movements. The site was founded in 2005 by brothers Zolton and Zac Zavos, who are also behind the Australian sports opinion website, The Roar. The site is compiled by a worldwide team of writers.”
Livia is an Italian media graduate based in Milan. She works as a freelance writer and researcher, mainly writing about music, art and culture. Here are more of her articles at Wunder Buzz.
Livia Satriano‘s blog is well worth checking out, too. She says Assez Vu is “a collection of visual memories: all things odd and beautiful from the past. Sometimes remembered, more often forgotten. Surely worthy to be seen.”
When I published this strip of photos the other day, the response was very positive. More than one comment suggested the photos would look good as a mini-movie, aka a gif animation. I don’t have the software to do it myself, so I used a free gif-maker web page. I like the result but more experiments with other, longer series of photos might give me more of that mini-movie look I’ve seen elsewhere.
I made a gif!
Emulsion is peeling from the surface; there are cracks and tears in the paper. Although this photobooth picture is in very poor condition, as part of a series of photos of a German man over a lifetime, it is important to me to preserve as it shows him at him youngest.
I was in two minds whether to include so many non-photobooth photos here at Photobooth Journal. I would normally link the booth pic to another post of the rest of the photos on my other blog at Mugshots and Miscellaneous. However, I was inspired by a post at Ian Phillips’s illustration site of photos of one young man through various sittings and in various fashionable attire. Whether the images cover a long period of time, as shown here, or a much shorter period there is some fascination in following more than one moment of a person’s life, sliced out of time by a photograph.
Ian Phillips also has another fabulous vintage photo blog called Swimming in Pictures that I highly recommend for a squiz.
I bought this item under the title Original Saddam Era Military Identity Card From Iraq. Not being able to read the arabic script, there is no easy way for me to ascertain whether that statement is true. Regardless of its authenticity, it is an unusual item that shows the wide international usage and popularlity of the photobooth.
The fact that the gent in the booth is sporting a fabulous tache also makes for a great means of celebrating and promoting Movember. This charity fundraising event started its meteoric rise to international acclaim in a pub in Adelaide, South Australia in 1999. So you Mo Bros out there, how is yours growing and which charity are you supporting this year?
A vintage photobooth machine in action. This picture shows a booth installed in a shop, that appears to be a chemist or some type of general store. You can see examples of the types of options one had to get a booth photo enlarged and the white coated operator who directed the sitters to move and pose at different angles for each shot.
There is no identification on the back of this small, standard sized photobooth photo. It came from the USA via Ebay, which makes me assume these are US Navy boys. I think it could come from pretty much any time from WW2, right up to the 1970s as this type of uniform seems to have changed little over that period. My one worry about designating the clothes US Navy kit, is that these collars do not have the stripes that are on all the other examples I can find online.
What an extraordinary face and one hell of a “do”. This pic is from the USA and looks to me to date from the late 1960s.
Can’t make out what the writing on the back is about. I can read 2361 Lake but the rest of it I cannot read. Is it an address?
Like the similar photo that I published on 31 October, this 110 x 80 mm photobooth photograph is probably an enlargement made in a photographic store that had in-shop photobooths as part of their business.
There is no connection between this photo and the other in terms of provenance. However they are very similar in terms of scale, subject and outfit. Both boys are wearing uncommonly adult hats, heavy overcoats and formal neckwear. Photographer and blogger Alessandro Ciapanna commented that often photo studios kept props of all sizes on hand to lend to the subjects/customers for the shoot. Initially I thought he meant the hats only, but maybe the coats and ties could also have been props?
Alessandro also commented on the other post that “he looks like a small mobster”. Thus the title of this post was born. One or two other pics may well be added to this blog in future, to a new series called Mini-Mobsters.
Still unsure what type of hat this is despite searching in Google images for Homburg, Trilby etc …
Photobooth Journal 
