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Tag Archives: self-portrait

Marco Ferrari Self Portraits 

March 15, 2017
Vintage Photobooth
7 Comments

I have written about Marco Ferrari and his photobooth art before. He is a passionate lover of this special genre of photography and I am a passionate lover of his work.

Marco uses his booth photos to create beautiful fine art prints. I am the proud owner of two examples. He doesn’t have his own booth in London, where he currently lives, so makes his art using public machines, some of which he maintains. When using booths he services, he can control exposure but, unlike other booth artists, he doesn’t control the timing of the photos. This not only leads to beautiful, spontaneous images but is a testament to his creativity and skill.

For him the booth is a safe environment for the subjects he wishes to photograph. Most of the people he works with are not used to posing for a photographer, so the closed, private environment of the booth allows the sitter to relax. This contributes to their ability to freely express themselves in the way they pose. Marco has an idea of what he wishes to achieve in a photo session, so directs the sitter from outside. When the photos are finished he shows them to the subject and suggests ways they could change or improve what they have done.

“I try not to direct too much because I don’t want the same photos from everyone. I try to capture their unique personality.”

I was very touched and excited when this original strip of photos arrived in the post as a gift from Marco. These are from one of the booths he maintains, so he was able to achieve the sepia tones by adjusting the developing chemicals. I love the poses he has chosen but I am especially enamoured with his wonderful, curly moustache.

If you have not already seen it, please read this post and check the links to Marco’s work.

A Visit To London – 26 January 2003

March 13, 2017
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
18 Comments

26 January 2003, Leicestershire, UK

I took this photobooth strip at Leicester Station on my way to London to visit my cousin Rachel and her husband Mark.

This strip of photos comes from my series Photobooth 45 Year Project. The complete set of posts to date, can be seen in reverse order at the link Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive) under the Categories heading in the side bar, on the right of this post.

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.

For those of you who are new subscribers or visitors to this blog, UK artist Dick Jewell made a video using photos from this project in 2012. It can be seen on Vimeo here.

 

Nuneaton – 8 December 2002- Part Three

February 12, 2017
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
7 Comments

photoboothnuneaton08122002no-2

8 December 2002, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK

This photo strip was taken at Nuneaton train station at 10.35 pm. The conductor held the train for us while we impatiently, and increasingly frantically, waited for this strip to pop out. The first of three strips I made on this trip from Dublin to Leicester and more details about the people with whom I was travelling can be seen here. The second of the strips, can be seen here.

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 45 Year Project. The complete set of posts to date, can be seen in reverse order at the link Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive) under the Categories heading in the side bar, on the right of this post. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images and have many year’s worth of photos to post before I get up to date.

Nuneaton – 8 December 2002- Part Two

February 12, 2017
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
3 Comments

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8 December 2002, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK

This photo strip was taken at Nuneaton train station at 10.20 pm. Back in the good old days, when most UK train stations had photobooths, I was able to document a trip from Dublin to Leicester with booth images. The first of three strips I made on this trip and more details about the people with whom I was travelling can be seen here.

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 45 Year Project. The complete set of posts to date, can be seen in reverse order at the link Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive) under the Categories heading in the side bar, on the right of this post. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images and have many year’s worth of photos to post before I get up to date.

Crewe – 8 December 2002- Part One

February 11, 2017
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
16 Comments

photobooth08122002

8 December 2002, Crewe, Cheshire, UK

This photo strip was taken at Crewe train station at 8.35 pm. I was on my way home from celebrating an early Christmas with my sister and her family in Dublin. I was travelling with my husband, (now ex), my cousin Krissie and her son Ryan. According to my notes on the back of this strip, Ryan was four months and seven days old.

Krissie and her partner Tony, were living in the UK at the same time I was. Her sister Rachel was also living there. It was a fantastic two years of hanging out with them at every opportunity, and the longest time I have ever lived in the same country as my cousins.

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 45 Year Project. The complete set of posts to date, can be seen in reverse order at the link Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive) under the Categories heading in the side bar, on the right of this post. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images and have many year’s worth of photos to post before I get up to date.

Fake Fur Fabulousness

August 19, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
37 Comments

photoboothSerbiaLady1970s

I bought this photo from a gentleman in Serbia. As for the other two photos I have posted from the same seller, I hope this is a Serbian woman, or in the case of this having been taken in the late 1970s or early 1980s, (the most likely possible dates of the image) a Yugoslavian woman.

I was very taken with the look on this young lady’s face. The position of her poised hand, gently resting on her chin, gives her a quizzical, thoughtful appearance. This is intensified by the lovely, faraway look in her eye. I wonder if she chose this position to make sure her ring was captured in the frame? Her fake fur coat looks warm and cozy but not like any real animal I can think of, save for a hyena.

As with all my photos, I wonder how this little gem escaped its home and made it onto an auction website? Maybe this was given as a token of affection to a boyfriend; the one who gave her the ring, perhaps? And as relationships come and go, the owner may no longer have cared enough to keep the image. Unfortunately, we will never know, but she is loved and respected here at least.

 

Dublin Via Birmingham – 6 December 2002

August 8, 2016
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
14 Comments

photobooth06:12:2002

6 December 2002, Leicester, UK

This photo strip was taken at Leicester train station. It was a very convenient place to get some photos, as I passed or stopped there almost daily, during my two years in Leicestershire.

I was on my way to Birmingham to meet my cousin Krissie and her baby son Ryan. He was four months and five days old. (It is funny the things I write on the back of photos.)  We were going from there to Holyhead, to catch the ferry across to Ireland, in order to celebrate an early Xmas with my sister and her family. We were on our way home again by the 8th. I cannot remember why the trip was so short or so early, but it may have been to do with my then husband’s work commitments.

I quite like this sequence. I wish there was a colour booth still operating in Melbourne. The only one I knew of, which I last used as recently as 12 to 18 months ago, was at Melbourne Central Station. I looked for it recently and was most sad to find it gone.

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 45 Year Project. The complete set of posts to date, can be seen in reverse order at the link Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive) under the Categories heading in the side bar, on the right of this post. I am still adding to this project using mostly digital booths to create the images and have many year’s worth of photos to post before I get up to date.

 

 

Wedding Shopping- 1 November 2002

July 25, 2016
Photobooth 45 Year Project (Archive)
9 Comments

photoboothTriniWeddingPrep
1 November 2002, Melbourne Central Shopping Centre

Whilst living in the UK, I briefly returned to Australia to be bridesmaid for my bestie Petrina. We snapped this strip of photos whilst out buying bits and pieces for her special day.

This group 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. Could it be the world’s longest photobooth project?

Moose-Tache

July 6, 2016
Vintage Photobooth
8 Comments

photoboothCarteD'identite

I purchased this French identity card solely due to the wonderful moustache of the sitter. It almost wouldn’t have mattered if it had not even been a photobooth photo, such is my love of his facial, follicular folly.*

So, let me introduce to you Cesar Joseph Henri. I am unable to work out his surname, unfortunately. He was described as being 1.70 metres tall, having an oval face, strong nose and brown eyes. Strangely, his hair is described as grissonant (greying), which seems very polite given that he looks to be well and truly into silver fox territory, and especially strange when they then go on, quite impolitely, to say he has a bad complexion.

Cesar was born in Marseille on 25 September 1873, making him 66 years old when he applied for the card. Marked with the seal of the 4th Arrondisement of Marseille on the 18 December, 1939, one assumes that this city was his lifelong residence.

When it comes to his facial-hair, fashion choices, Cesar looks to have his feet firmly planted in the century in which he was born. His taste for a style of the Victorian era must have been very passé by 1939.

As the title of this post suggests, the size of his moustache makes me think of the elaborate antlers of a mature bull moose. It is known that the size of antlers signals to the female moose, the male’s social standing and breeding abilities. Perhaps, amusingly, this is what our sitter was wanting to project to the female populace of Marseille.

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* I just had to throw in the word folly, as fellow blogger Melinda Harvey and I have decided it is a marvellous word that deserves greater quotidian usage. I felt I needed to throw in another of my favourite words, quotidian, just ’cause I could. Please take a look at Melinda’s blog, One Day/One Image, if you love contemporary black and white photography. You will not be disappointed.

 

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.