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Never Ashamed To Be A Bin Diver

November 24, 2011
Found Photobooth Photos
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Luna Park 08/09/1996

When living in London, as my fascination with the products of automatic photography grew, I started to collect discarded photobooth photos. I have many to share but thought I’d choose a random one from Melbourne, to start with.

There used to be two old black and white, “dip and dunk”, chemical photobooths at Luna Park, a very old amusement park in the bay-side Melbourne suburb of St Kilda. Living only a short tram trip away, it was easy for me to pop in on a regular basis. Entry to the park has always been free, so it never cost me anything to scrounge around the bins and behind the booths, looking for jettisoned photographic ephemera, whilst taking a few snaps of my own for posterity.

Some days I would find complete undamaged strips, other days a few remaining remnants. I find these torn photos, melancholic and charming in their beaten up, unloved state. One can see why this pic didn’t meet the sitters’ standards, with the blank, black, blob of doom above them. Yet, I can see merit in the one picture that worked, enough to have made me treasure it, if I had been one of the subjects.

Xie Time Machine

November 22, 2011
My Family in Photobooths, Photobooth Time Machines
4 Comments

When I was living in Leicester and my cousin Krissie was living in London, for fun, I started writing her name as Xie. I used the X the same way it is used for the “Chris” syllable, as found in the spelling Xmas.*  It is her Rock-Girl Superstar name, which fits her perfectly, because to me she is a superstar.

Xie is as optimistic and generous as her mum and has an amazing sense of humour. She loves dogs, walking, fun and being mischievous…and cigarettes. Xie adores cigarettes. (I occasionally share one or two with her, just to stop her feeling like a pariah, you understand.) She is also a fabulous mother to her 9-year-old son, Ryan, who is the baby in the pics, and a supportive and loving wife to her hubby, Tony, also pictured.

To spend time with Xie is to be entertained, to laugh and be uplifted. She is one of my most favourite people in the world, but of course from what I have just written, you didn’t already know that!

The only down side in this cousinly love affair is, that apart from a blissful 2 years in the UK, we have never lived in the same country. Even then, when we finally managed to be on the same island, we were not in the same region. We made as much time as possible to see each other, always including her sister Rachel, when we could, and had some fine adventures exploring the countryside around Leicester and cool shops and cafés in London.

These pics were taken over a relatively short period, mostly in the UK, and are in chronological order.

* As I don’t know anyone who pronounces the “t” in “Chris’mas”.

NB For those of you with an etymological bent, the spelling Xmas should be pronounced the same way you’d say Christmas. The X comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as “Christ“. Xp was also a commonly used form to shorten the manual labour of producing hand written manuscripts. Wikipedia has a great article on the 1000 year-long history of this abbreviation.

Luna Park, St Kilda, Australia – August 1994

November 21, 2011
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
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Lydia and I

August 1994, Melbourne

My last weekend in Paris was spent with Helen, Moana and her then new boyfriend, now husband, Mark. Not having met him before, Mark made a BRILLIANT first impression.

In our first exploration of the city together, the four of us decided to climb the Eiffel Tower. When we reached the top, Mark whipped out a hidden bottle of bubbly complete with champagne flutes. So many envious eyes were on us, as we watched the cork pop and fly off into the Seine. With the attention of all on the platform, focused acutely on his every word, he made a toast to us and our Parisian adventure together. I’m not sure about Helen or Moana but I felt like a veritable celebrity, sipping my drink in the elegant, albeit plastic flute, taking in the views of Paris and being the centre of attention. It was definitely a highlight of my three months in The City of Light.

Once back in Australia I again started making hand-made cards but with more drive and flare than I’d ever done before. I took a part-time job as a shop-chick at The Nature Company gift store, in Little Collins Street, (now unfortunately defunct), and set to work establishing as many outlets as I could for my paperwares.

The photo above was taken at Luna Park in St Kilda soon after my arrival home. I had lived with English national Lydia in Seynod, France while studying in Annecy. She was just out of Uni and full of a wonderful joie de vivre. She stayed with me in Melbourne for a week. During her stay we went to Phillip Island on a quest to find some of her long-lost relations.

She Heard Her Broken Heart Would Heal in Time

November 20, 2011
Vintage Photobooth
19 Comments

Actual Size

Another favorite from my collection. Look at the broad nose, flat chest and vague signs of a five o’clock shadow. Is it just me or is this also a man in drag or is it simply that there were not as many woman using depilation techniques and make-up in the 30s and 40s? The lack of an adam’s apple could be evidence I am wrong. Maybe it is just me. And my Dad. He also thought it was a man.

I do have a penchant for the androgenous sitter in any photo.  I am always on the look out for them. Somewhere, I have hidden away, a brilliant cabinet card photo of a very posh looking “lady” who is the spitting image of actor/author/polymath (and one time comedy partner of House star, Hugh Laurie), Mr Stephen Fry. If you know what he looks like, you will understand that that makes her a very unusual looking woman.

I bought this from one of my favourite online sellers, Albert Tanquero. Check out his store if you have an eye for the curious. The title of this post, She Heard Her Broken Heart Would Heal in Time was used by Albert in the listing of this item. I do love a bit of romantic creativity in an Ebay seller!

Serial Killer Portraits

November 19, 2011
Vintage Photobooth
10 Comments

On a popular Australian TV panel show, Spicks and Specks, there is a game that asks each panelist to choose whether the subject of a photograph is a musician or a serial killer. It is extraordinary how many times they get it wrong, choosing a guitarist as a mass murderer or a psychopath as a pop singer. With only one external representation of a person, it is easy to make false judgements.

Without wanting to trivialise such an horrific subject, I bought the photos above, because the sitter reminded me of Myra Hindley. She was one half of the duo responsible for the gruesome UK Moors murders in the early 1960s. I think my photobooth lady, above looks more like a sinister serial killer, with her sharply plucked eyebrows and unsmiling expression, than Myra herself,who is pictured below.

The tendency towards judging a person’s character from first impressions or one or two pictures, making our minds up on flimsy, visual evidence, is well-known to us all. How often do we see someone walking down the street and make judgements on their characters and lifestyles, based on how they look in that minute? How often do we assume a handsome Hollywood star, with a good PR machine on his side, to be as kind and sweet as the characters he portrays, only to eventually find out that behind the scenes he is a manipulative harpy or wife basher? How often are media representations of people, through careful selection and editing, used to manipulate our opinion?

Are we supposed to sympathise with the innocent abroad, falsely accused of drug smuggling? Yes? Then choose a flattering, smiling, professionally taken photo of the person. And if we are supposed to despise the calculating drug mule, caught red-handed with the dope? Well then, choose an unsmiling photo, taken from a bad angle, by a drunk friend, in bad lighting. Doesn’t matter that it is the same person, the perspective of the publisher is what we are seeing, not necessarily the reality.

Have a look below at the same lady of those wild staring eyes, photographed again, without the severe make-up and with more sympathetic expressions. I can now see her as a model or movie star.

In our media savvy world, I think we are mostly aware how often our opinions and emotions are played with by the Fourth Estate… or are we? I think we enjoy having our prejudices confirmed in the popular press and quietly disregard the tricks used to persuade us to a certain opinion.

Cherie Time Machine Update

November 18, 2011
Photobooth Time Machines
3 Comments

Cherie and Kelly

Cherie and Eileen

Cherie Passport Photo 1995

On the 7th of November I posted a story about Cherie who had sent me some photos, after I wrote to New Idea Magazine about my photobooth collection. I asked if any of their readers would like to contribute pictures and Cherie responded. Since publishing the post I have been busily trying to find Cherie and my darling Facebook came to my aid. I wasn’t sure if I was contacting the right Cherie as the surname had changed, but the face in her profile sure looked familiar.

Cherie 2011

Once I had established I had the correct Cherie, I sent her a link to her Time Machine. She responded with the comment below –

“wow… it is a time machine indeed… well technology improves over time and you can find most people on facebook… like me :) . two things i would like to share… one is that 3 years ago my house burnt down and i lost everything i own… including all my pictures… so these bring a smile to my face… and secondly i am now a professional practicing artist and i remember now sending these thinking what a cool art project it could be!… blast from the past indeed. thanks for sharing these!”

Later in a follow-up email she told me more –

“I grew up as an airforce brat (my father was in the airforce)…so i moved around very often and also overseas so i had plenty of these photobooth photos of friends from all over … these 3 are – 
The black and white one is me and a friend Kelly Woodhouse when we were at high school… maybe 1997-98. It would have been Ringwood shopping centre Victoria. I was only 13-14 years old then!
No.2 is a pic of me and my best friend from art school Eileen Potter… we would have been at art school then! 1994 i think. Midland TAFE Perth W.A. We were 19-20 years old. 
The solo pic is my passport photo for when i travelled to the U.K. in 1995… for 9 months… as a nanny for some time and then the rest of the time …. party animal :)… i turned 21 that year in London.”

Please check out Cherie’s artist page. She is currently being represented by Art and Soul Gallery in Boonah, Queensland. You can also see more of her work at her blog, the address of which I am hoping Cherie will supply in a comment, as I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get back to it! From her blog I remember that she is a mum to five boys, (FIVE!!) and that she is working towards a new exhibition.

I am so thrilled to have found one of my long lost photobooth sitters. As the blog grows and more people read it, who knows how many more might turn up?

PS I have packed up the photos to return to Cherie. Hopefully they will be posted this week-end.

Kellogg’s Junior Rangers Gem

November 16, 2011
Vintage Photobooth
9 Comments

This young cowgirl was snapped in a photobooth at the Kellogg’s stand at the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936.  The expo was a World’s Fair held at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas (USA) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Texas’s independence from Mexico in 1836. It was widely credited as protecting the state from the worst effects of the Great Depression due to the huge number of jobs it created.*

In my collection of unusual photobooth novelties, this is a favourite. The certificate gives an indisputable provenance to the photo, superb cultural details, (I love the pledge), date and best of all, the name of the sitter, Ann McDaniel. With the booth decorated with a marvellous faux log cabin backdrop, the hat prop and undoubtedly long queue before the sitting, this must have been a very exciting experience for Ann. A treasured souvenir, given that it is still here after 75 years, it is a shame she didn’t have children or grandchildren who loved it, too.

*Thanks to Wikipedia for that info!

G’day Back-at-cha!

November 14, 2011
My Friends in Photobooths
7 Comments

This wonderful, creative strip of pics was sent to me from London in 1991 as a birthday present from my South American travelling companion, Helen. It is one of my all-time favourite pressies.

She is pictured in both these booth photos with her boyfriend of the time, David.

Travels with My Aunt

November 12, 2011
My Family in Photobooths, Polaroid Photobooth
5 Comments

Aunty Cecilie

Part of my passion for travelling came about at least in part through the fact that my mum’s sister, Cecilie, had moved to New Zealand soon after I was born. She and her husband Gregor made regular visits to Melbourne with my cousin Kristine and later with her younger sister Rachel. I was always incredibly excited that they were coming and immensely envious of their “jet-set” lifestyle, for we never flew anywhere. The free toys my cousins received in-flight were better than anything they might have brought us for presents, their stories of what happened during a flight more riveting than any others and airports were the most exotic of locations, even if you were not the one who got to go on a plane.

During one of their visits to Australia, when I was approaching the age of 15, I remember moaning on to my uncle about the fact we never went to visit them in Hamilton. He was totally unsympathetic. Why should I feel that I needed to wait until my parents had the money to bring the whole family along? He said I should come on my own. Initially I thought he was mad or joking, as I protested that my pocket-money, even if diligently saved wouldn’t be sufficient to get me there until the next century, which was then 23 years away. “Well get a job” he said,”You save up enough for the airfare and we will look after the rest”.

So I did. Three months before I turned 15 I got a weekend job at The Bake-Inn Hot Bread Kitchen in Bentleigh and just days after my 16th birthday, I took all the money I had saved, bought a ticket and flew to New Zealand. Mum and Dad gave me enough to top up my spending money to $100.00 for a one month tour of the North Island with the rellies. I still have my best souvenir, a stuffed toy kiwi made out of possum skin, that was named Rewi by Krissie.

I have lost count of how many times I have since visited Cecilie in New Zealand, my Uncle Gregor now, sadly, deceased. She always encourages me to return and is a very generous and inexhaustible host, always taking me on an adventure to places I’ve not visited previously. We once also met up in the UK to be tourists together and a very happy pair we made, too.

Like my mother and both my grandparents on her side, Cecilie has been a professional musician all her life, having trained as a pianist from her earliest years. She has a wonderfully optimistic outlook which is helped along by another very important passion in her life, which she shares with me and my mum. She is a madly dedicated, dog lover. Having recently bid farewell to one of her much-loved rescue-pooches, Mia, she last week welcomed Ellie the kelpie-cross into her life. It is my dedicated intention to get her and her new baby into a photobooth one day, my Snowy-Dawg having suffered the experience only recently. One has to admit it is not a dog’s favourite of pass-times.

This is an undated Polaroid booth pic taken several years ago, presumably in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Elizabeth and Mary or Elian and Mario?

November 11, 2011
Vintage Photobooth
18 Comments

Being completely exhausted from days of working on yesterday’s post, my longest one so far, I have decided to take it easy today and just show you more of my favourite old booth pics.

These two intrigue me. They were listed under the title Unfortunate Sisters when I bought them online. As you can see they are both wearing the same outfits down to identical lacy shirts. From the writing on the back, one would assume that we have pictures of Elizabeth and Mary Carmen, twin sisters, each one having dedicated their portrait to the other. But why are the dedications both in the same hand writing?  Are they alike enough to even be non-identical twins? What of the large and masculine hand of Elizabeth? Both of their jaws are manly, broad and firmly set, not to mention their strong noses. Look at Elizabeth’s picture more closely (if your click on it you will get a larger version), do you think that her skin texture is a tad coarse?

I am not convinced they are women at all. The hair looks genuine enough. That is what most mystifies me about this unusual pair.  What do you think?