Archive

Tag Archives: self-portrait

Luna Park, St Kilda, Australia – August 1994

November 21, 2011
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
Leave a comment

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.

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.

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.

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?

Daphne and the Missing Evidence

November 9, 2011
My Friends in Photobooths
2 Comments

I met Daphne in my time as a student at the Université de Savoie. Like me she was there to learn French. As an historian of seventeenth century French history, Daphne had a firm purpose in needing to understand the language better and was a dedicated student.

I believe we became firm friends the first day we met.  She is a feisty and passionate woman who knows how to spin a great yarn, and that she frequently did on our regular walks together, through the countryside that surrounds the medieval, alpine town of Annecy.

One walk, coming out of a wooded copse into open farmland, something about an empty old Victorian bathtub, that had been left in a field for watering the cows, prompted a funny story from Daphne.  The tale resulted in me taking off most of my clothes, leaping into the tub and posing for pictures as though I was having a bath. It having been the middle of an icy, northern hemisphere, mountain winter, my nude bath scene cost me no small measure of discomfort and goosebumps. Daphne assures me she has the photos somewhere but to this day I have never seen them.  I am wondering if I still want to.

We have shared other adventures together such as a visit to Paris where we met up with Georges to visit the Musée Rodin, a touristy day out in Toronto with a lunch at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and fine dining in Montreal that resulted in food poisoning for her mum and I.

This fun and varied photo strip of Daphne was taken somewhere in France in March 1994 as a (very special) present for me.

Cherie Time Machine

November 7, 2011
Photobooth Time Machines
5 Comments

My relationship with Cherie is an unusual one. I don’t know her and I didn’t find her photos online or in a junk shop. In 1997, I wrote to New Idea Magazine about my photobooth collection and plans for an exhibition, which unfortunately never eventuated. I asked if any of their readers would like to contribute pictures. I received two replies, Cherie’s being one of them. She wrote a short note saying “I hope these help you out… please send a photo of the finished project”. I replied to say thank you, as she had included her return address in Walloon, Queensland, but as the project didn’t happen, I never contacted her again.

So after 14 years, these are Cherie’s pictures. It was too much to hope that anyone with her name was still living at the address I have, but there are a few others with the same surname living elsewhere in Queensland. Now the hunt begins to find her and tell her what happened to her cool pics. Wish me luck!

Neufchâtel, A Leclerc Supermarché, Three Kids and a Photobooth

November 6, 2011
My Family in Photobooths, Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
20 Comments


April 1994, Neufchâtel, France

Today I am wallowing in the joy of having yesterday received a most wonderful and extraordinary gift from the now grown up little girl in this picture. Rosie was married to her Mr (W)Right earlier this year. They have sent me, from the UK, a supremely polished, high-quality, printed and personalised book of their wedding photos. I was immensely disappointed not to have been able to attend the celebrations due to my illness, so was exceptionally chuffed to receive such a fine gift.

In a very twenty-first century move, they have both changed their surnames into a lovely amalgamation of their two original patronymics. Mr B. Wright and Ms R. Holbrook are now Mr and Mrs Holbright. Having been a long, long time ago, adopted by Rosie and re-christened Kitty Griffbrook, I now, too, will be changing my name, however Griffright (Rosie’s choice)to me has not quite the ring to it as Griffbright. (My suggestion). With my tangled mass of unruly hair having “fright” as part of my unofficial name is daunting to say the least, but I will by necessity, go with Rosie’s final decision!

This photo of me, Ros and her brother, Rich (Roo) was taken at a booth at a Leclerc supermarket in Neufchâtel on the 30 of April 1994. I was invited to stay at Del’s cottage in Normandy, on my way to Paris, before starting my nannying job. Also in our party with Del, Rosie, Roo and I, were Del’s delightful neighbours Val and her daughter Ella, with whom it is impossible not to have a great laugh. I regret that I didn’t get the two of them into a booth that day, too.

Lindsey Time Machine

November 5, 2011
My Family in Photobooths, Photobooth Time Machines
Leave a comment

This is Lindsey. As mentioned in my post Della Time Machine Linds is the hospitable hubby of the Holbrook household. For many years, he was pretty much the only man in a house full of kids and manic foreign women. Taking in boarders was Del’s thing and Linds went patiently along for the ride, come what may. There was the occasional male boarder, warmly embraced by him, as a slight antidote to the mayhem of the overwhelming majority of female guests. Like Del, he was generous and welcoming to all. He was and still is a humorous, patient Dad and an affectionate friend.

Looking at these photos I find it fun to see the strong resemblance between him and his son, Rich, who is now about the same age as Linds would be in the first photo.  I am not sure if he knows I have these booth pics of him. They arrived one day in the post from London, as a delightful surprise present from Del along with other family photobooth pics.

My Much Missed Grandma

November 4, 2011
My Family in Photobooths
6 Comments

My Grandma Parkes was everything a grandmother should be. She was kind, a patient teacher (I learned numerous crafts from her), cuddly and a great cake baker. She was a professional musician all her life, working as piano accompanist to my grandfather Cecil, who played the violin. I was very fortunate to have been able to spend one night a week with both my grandparents for the whole of my final year at Loreto, Mandeville Hall. Ceramics was not offered there at that time, so I went each Wednesday night to classes at Hawksburn, a short walk from Grandma and Grandpa’s home. We invariably had chops and boiled veggies for dinner.  I loved it!

This photo of May Parkes (née Broderick) was taken in the late 1980s for a passport for a trip to New Zealand. I wish she had stepped into a photobooth more frequently as I’d love to have one or two booth pics of her as a young woman. She was a most attractive lady in her heyday.

Dental Hygiene, Babar and the Eiffel Tower

November 3, 2011
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
2 Comments

April 1994, London

I was not yet ready to head home to Australia as I was keen to develop my new language skills by using them in some way. Through The Lady magazine I applied for a position as a nanny with a French couple living in London. They were planning to move to Paris in the coming month. Once established at their huge apartment, a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, I was told by my employer that the main reason I had been given the position over another candidate, was my “beautiful white teeth”. It was a compliment I’d never before received, let alone them having been the reason for my securing a job!

My charge was an 18 month old little boy named Alex. He was sweet and smart and an absolute joy to look after, especially as my work finished at 5.00 pm – no night duties, hoorah! We had fun together, going out for fruit and veggies at local shops and a regular street market, visiting the park under the Eiffel Tower three or four times a week and exploring other parts of Paris via the Metro or on foot. His room was decorated with an extremely large array of Babar the Elephant paraphernalia, posters and toys. Assuming his mother was a big fan, I commented on the theme.  Apparently it was his father’s childhood nickname. Much to his dismay he was the frequent recipient of Babar gifts, the trend having intensively accelerated after the news he was to become a daddy. On my departure for Australia, I was given one of his Babar toys as a memento, which I treasure to this day.

So here I am flashing my fabulous pearly whites. This could be another photo for a French visa or a random stop at a booth, I am no longer sure.  It was taken on 22 April 1994 when I was very close to leaving for Paris.