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My Aunt’s Visit – 27 October 2002

June 25, 2016
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
10 Comments

photobooth27:10:2002

27 October  2002, Leicester, UK

This photo strip of my Auntie Cecilie and I, was taken at Leicester train station. She was on her way to London to spend time with her daughters Xie and Rachel. I am lucky that people are so accommodating of my photobooth obsession, but the process can be daunting for some. I remember having to prompt Cecilie to change her expression, but didn’t do a great job of it myself!

Many of the photos in this long series are unremarkable. They make up a photographic album of my adult life, which gives me a lot of pleasure as I add each new photo to the collection. I also love the memories they bring back, when I write about them for this blog.

This strip of photos comes from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images. The project is now close to entering its 44th year.

 

 

Ted Giffin’s Portrait of Katherine

June 24, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
30 Comments

portrait-of-katherine

Ted Giffin – Mixed media on paper, 5″ x 5″, June 2016

The day before yesterday one of my blogger friends, Ted Giffin, asked me if he could use my Gravatar profile pic to make a portrait. Knowing and loving his work, “Hell, yes!”, was my immediate reply. I didn’t think anything more about it, as I did not expect Ted to be a super speed drawer/painter, or necessarily have the time to attend to the job in the immediate future. I was THRILLED when I opened my email app yesterday to find attached, the above scan.

I love Ted’s blog, especially when he publishes posts about his visual art. His drawings have a spontaneity I love. His paintings use heavy impasto layers to build up frequently colourful impressions of a friend or model. His view of the world when doing cityscapes, flowers or birds is often a riot of heavy layers of colour and texture.

Ted sent me an email with the scan and wrote –

I really do not know what color your eyes are,
but I thought bright green and blue and a bit of purple
would be nice.

 

Funnily enough, I actually do have green-blue eyes, albeit not as vividly portrayed above.

The portrait is based on the photobooth photo (below) which was taken in April 1997. It first appeared on this blog here.

Ted is an artist, musician and poet. His website is here. I urge you to take a look at more of his work.

photoboothGravatarApril1997

Ryan, Xie, Me – 11 October 2002

June 23, 2016
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
7 Comments

photobooth11:10:2002

11 October  2002, London or Leicester, UK

This photo strip was probably taken at a tube station in London, but could also have been taken in Leicester. Both my cousins from New Zealand were living in the UK at the same time as I lived in Leicestershire.

My cousin Krissie had her son Ryan in London. I like to spell her name Xie for fun, but also as her personality is as bright and enticing as a gift laden Xmas tree. As you can imagine baby Ryan is a strapping lad now. You can see more photos of Xie in this post from 2011, Xie Time Machine.

In my adult life, I think this is the shortest I have ever had my hair. As I was trying to improve my health by ceasing my exposure to the chemicals in hair dye, I asked Xie to cut it for me. This she did one day in a park opposite her flat. This was the second cut done by a hairdresser. Yuk. I like it much better when it is longer and madder.

Many of the photos in this long series are unremarkable. They make up a photographic album of my adult life, which gives me a lot of pleasure as I add each new photo to the collection. I also love the memories they bring back, when I write about them for this blog.

This strip of photos comes from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images. The project is now close to entering its 44th year.

 

 

Twins – 22 June, 1962

June 22, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
22 Comments

photoboothTwinsMF
As I still use a photobooth that produces images very like this one, it is hard to believe this photo was taken 54 years ago, today.

I recently bought this from an American seller. The listing stated that the pair above, were male and female twins, on the basis of an M and F marked on the back of the photo, along with the date. I don’t believe it. I think they are both boys. The letters could just as easily be referring to their names, Mackenzie and Felix for example.

I would like to know what you think. Are these twin boys, twin girls or a boy and a girl? Please leave a comment, below.

 

Faces Pulling Faces

June 1, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
16 Comments

photoboothBoys01

photoboothBoys02

photoboothboys03

There is no information on the back of these photos to indicate a place, names or dates, despite the previous owner having gone to the trouble of numbering each photo. Why they should have been numbered 1, 2, 3 is unclear, as judging by the clothes of the boy who appears in all three shots, the images were taken on two different days.

I guess the boy who is mugging for the camera in the first photo is a brother of the guy in uniform. It is a shame he didn’t join in the face pulling. Maybe he liked his perfect look in his military duds too much to play the fool whilst wearing them. Or maybe he was too nervous to think of it, as he may well have been off on his first posting overseas.

I bought these photos as much for the background as for the fabulous, goofy faces. It was the first time I had seen a battleship in a backdrop. I have since found a few more, which I will share with you in coming posts.

I am guessing these images were made during WW2 as the military theme would have suited the many last souvenir photos that would have been made at that time.

London Fancy Dress – 21 June 2002

May 30, 2016
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
33 Comments

photobooth21:06:2002

21 June  2002, Leicester, UK

While living in Leicester I made the most of its proximity to London by visiting there as often as I could.

This photo strip was taken at Leicester train station when I was on my way to my cousin Rachel’s home for a fancy dress party. I hasten to add that I was not in costume for this photo strip.

The last photo in this strip is one of my favourites.  I was trying to emulate the reproductions one sees of movie stars’ high school yearbook photos – daft and self-conscious. I think I did it really well.

Many of the photos in this long series are unremarkable. They make up a photographic album of my adult life, which gives me a lot of pleasure as I add each new photo to the collection. I also love the memories they bring back, when I write about them for this blog.

This strip of photos comes from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images. The project is now close to entering its 44th year.

 

 

The Actors’ Agency – Part 8

May 27, 2016
The Actors' Agency, Vintage Photobooth
23 Comments
photoboothGeorgesAss


An enlargement of the photobooth photo is at the bottom of this post.

Here is another Parisian actor’s file card from the 50s or 60s for your perusal.

Poor Georges. He looks scary, right? He has a face and eyebrows made to play a supernatural villian, like Count Dracula or other type of ghoulish creature. He also has a name to play a bad guy. Bad-ass George Ass. Apart from having such a wonderful face, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a photobooth photo of someone so quirky, who also has a listing on the IMDb. Wow, a real actor for a change!  What? You didn’t think I bought the card solely due to his funny surname? Preposterous!

Unlike some of the other file records from this agency, there are a lot of details listed on the back of this card. (See below). He lived at 291, Rue St Denis in the 2e arrondissement of Paris. He was born on the 14th of September, 1909, making him between 45 and 55 years of age at the time this image was made. He had grey eyes and dark brown hair. He was long and slim at 174.5 centimetres tall, (5 feet 8.7 inches) and weighing only 65 kg. Even more perfect for a role as a vampire, I say. In addition to his native tongue, he spoke Russian (good for Cold War villian roles) and had some English. His sporting interest was cycling.

Poor Georges had some minor roles in film but the closest he got to getting a role that really suited him, was when he played a prisoner in Paris brûle-t-il? in 1966. Alas, from there it was downhill all the way. He was a priest at a funeral in Borsalino in 1970, which was definitely a sombre role and could be regarded as slightly macabre, I suppose.  He then played a deacon in Doucement les basses in 1971. A corrupt deacon, one hopes. He had an uncredited role as a man on Rue des Rosiers in Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob in 1973. I like to imagine him breaking windows or vandalising something in that bit part. Unfortunately for Poor Georges, his next and final credit was as a seated man. We can only hope that he was a bad-ass seated man!

There are some other great photos in this series, so stay tuned to Photobooth Journal for more posts.

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photoboothGeorgesAss 1

Toothless Cutie Plus One

May 26, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
21 Comments

photoboothtoothlessCutie&friend

Here we have two cheeky little misses. The booth chair being too low, makes them appear to be very, very small and almost pixie-like. Adding to that impression is the goofy gap-toothed smile on one and the cute freckles on the other.

With two similarly, badly cut fringes, (“Gee, thanks Ma!”), I would suggest they are sisters. But of course they could be best friends with a penchant for playing hairdresser with mummy’s dressmaking scissors.

This strip is from the USA and probably dates to the late 1960s or early 70s.

Just What Is Going On In This Photo?

May 19, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
20 Comments

photoboothSerbianCouple

When I was living in Guatemala, my companion and I boarded with a local family who took in travellers from all over the world. We met some fabulous people and some peculiar ones. We learned to be wary of a very odd young lady, who amongst other unusual habits, would offer her hand to recent arrivals and ask them to “sniff this”. It was invariably at breakfast time, after she had just emerged from her bedroom, so the offer was usually brusquely and firmly refused.

So has the gentleman with his bodgie hairstyle, (look it up, those of you who don’t come from Oz) proffered his hand for a good sniffing, or for a strangely ardent kiss? The photo is so funny and weird. What do you make of it?

The photo was from a Serbian seller, so I hope it is from Serbia. It was taken in Hagen, Germany, in December 1964.

(Update 19 August, 2016) My thanks to Peter from Documenting the Obvious for working out where this strip was taken.

photoboothSerbianCouple 2

Togetherness – Sultry Lady, Lucky Soldier

May 18, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
13 Comments

photoboothSultry1940sWW2couple

Someone has kept these two battered and dirty photobooth photos side by side for a long time, possibly in a purse or wallet. They found their way to a US flea market in unison, too.

With no information on the backs, these photos could have been taken anywhere, but the uniform of the soldier and the style of luxurious, tumbling curls of the young woman mark these as having been made at a particular time; WW2. There is a melancholy look to their smiles. Was it a wartime romance cut short by an imminent departure for duty, perhaps?

It is cute that they both blinked at the same time in the second image. It gives the impression that they are both meditating on their love, sending their thoughts to each other through their heads-together embrace. You can see the soldier’s hand at bottom right of each image, holding his girl tight. He never wanted to let her go.

I hope it wasn’t just the photos that remained together. Now that these photos are mine, I can guarantee, that at least in these two dimensions, they will never be parted.