This is my Mum, Margaret. The photo was taken in 1994 for an international drivers license for her first trip overseas. Sue was living in Dublin and I was just back from France when we met up with Mum and Dad in London. Now 82, Mum is still a working violinist, teaching four afternoons per week. She is also involved in many local musical projects and concerts, along with my Dad, David.
14 January 1999
January 1999, Cheltenham, Victoria
This is my favourite strip of photos of my sister Sue and probably my all time favourite photobooth photos. There is something about the movement in them all and the pixie-like impishness of the last photo that really appeals to me. It was taken in an old black and white photobooth at Southland shopping centre when Sue was 5 months pregnant with her son Calvin Patrick. It was our third outing to find me a bridesmaid dress for her forthcoming wedding to Tim Meaghan. I am not sure who was being fussy, Sue or me, (or both of us) but we still hadn’t found one at the end of this trip.
Liarne and Kate 1993
July 1993, Spain
I left Guatemala and returned to London early in July. Within days of my arrival back at my Holbrook haven, I had news from a friend in Australia, Liarne Corke, that she would soon be in the UK. A few days after her arrival in London, we bought cheap flights to Spain, hired a car and explored the southern coast for a week. Liarne and I had met as a result of sharing the same ex-boyfriend. Our beloved Ricky-TP has the unusual trait of staying friends with every girl he has ever gone out with. We are both still good friends and Rick, too is still a very important person in both our lives.
This photo was taken in a photobooth that was on a back street, near the edge of a steep decline, in front of a row of homes. We were in Arcos de la Frontera in Spain. It is the only time I have managed to get Liarne into a booth, so far. It was also the first time, in adulthood, that I had been photographed in a booth with someone else. It has also turned out to be the earliest uncut strip in my collection. All in all, a very special strip of photos.
Some months ago I was sent an email from Ebay for the day’s listings of photomatic photobooth items. These two darlings were listing as a buy it now for $9.99. I immediately clicked on the link to make a purchase but the items had been removed. They had been re-listed as two separate auctions. The first one sold for $70.99, the second for $92.00. Needless to say I was not the winning bidder on either lot. It made me very happy about the wee, wee prices I have paid for my many treasures. I bet the seller was thrilled!
Ebay Sale October 4, 2011
Since the time I started buying photobooth photos online, the prices have gone up and up. I am occasionally amazed at how high a price will go. I can see why this photo is desirable, as it is quite old and very unusual, but $153.50? My feeling is that the competing bidders had money making projects in the works. Will this photo eventually appear in an exhibition or book?
The L Magazine Photobooth Cover
The L Magazine Centre Spread.
While searching through storage boxes on an unsuccessful quest to find a group of missing photobooth photos, I discovered this magazine I had kept as a souvenir of a trip to New York. I am always on the lookout for anything related to photobooth photographs, from badges to adverts, articles, anything. I was thrilled that this free edition was out on the streets of the city at the time of my visit. I also loved that it focused on my favourite old-style chemical booth pics.
14 January 1993
January 1993, London
Moana and I had decided to start our journey in Guatemala. We hoped to do Spanish lessons in Antigua before heading off to explore the region. In the months leading up to our departure there was something nagging at the back of my mind, that I chose to ignore until my last day in the UK. Moana and I had organised our tickets through an agency that also researched whether we needed any visas for our trip. Well, they said they had looked into it. Despite them knowing I was travelling on an Australian passport they had failed to check entry requirements for my nationality and I, stupidly, had also failed to check.
Del Holbrook had organised a lovely farewell lunch for Moana and I, to which Helen White had been invited. After Helen arrived, something she said made me realise what my nagging concern actually was – did I really NOT need a visa? I was encouraged by all to make a phone call to check, the result of which was an abrupt departure without my lunch, a quick set of identity snaps in a photobooth at Victoria Station and an emergency interview at the Guatemalan Embassy to get the visa I should have organised weeks earlier.
Found Photo Greeting Card
This greeting card was found in a box of things my sister Sue, left with our parents before moving permanently to Ireland. I dashed off this card for her, when she was first living in Dublin in the early 1990s, before she had met her husband Tim, before she had decided to make Ireland her home.
Written inside the card – “Dear Sube, I’ve had a special personality profile done for you at a local singles dating agency. Lucky, you! You can choose from any of the men on the cover to be your next snog, bonk or (who can tell) husband? I bet you are as excited as I am. You must get in touch with Bashful Boys Agency as soon as possible as these guys will be snapped up quickly! Be sure to quote their code number – I’d say 009 looks like your type. Failing this why don’t you just send me some photobooth photos of you and Andy together? xxxx love from Baff.” “Baff” was/is one of Sue’s nicknames for me. Ah, the lengths I was beginning to go to to extricate photobooth photos from a loved one – didn’t work, unfortunately.
I have no idea where these booth photos came from originally but they were obviously not part of my treasured collection, as I would not have parted with any of those. I have a vague idea they were cut from old ID cards as they are mostly laminated. I hasten to add that this particular effort does not represent the quality of cards I was making to sell!!
September 1992
September 1992, London
When this was taken, again in London, I was very busy with my three part-time jobs and still very much looking forward to my Central American adventure. I must have taken this for a reason, as is the case with most of the previous photos I have posted. The fact that there is only one left of the strip, confirms this, though I have no recollection of the use that was made of the others. I was not yet in the full swing of collecting and taking photos just for fun. That frenzy was yet to come as will be seen in future posts…
Selected images from the photomaton advertisement campaign from Chanel, “Cocomaton”, with some behind the scenes shots. Please click the above thumbnails for a larger view of each pic.
Photobooth Journal 