Donna in 1969
Donna in 1972 or 1973
Ch-ch-ch-changes! This is why I love a series of photobooth photos of the same person. No other type of informal photography gives as much consistent detail of a changing face, but why oh why did this childhood collection end up on public sale?
My love to Donna and her friends. I hope they are all still with us.
To see the complete series of Donna’s growth from child to adult, please click here.
My one and only photobooth photo from Belgium is a corker! This young lady has a quirky sense of humour. I love her for that. I don’t think I have any other booth photos of anyone in bandages, let alone bandages that are so badly done. I suspect they are just a prop for the photo, but could be wrong. This pic looks even more fabulous enlarged, so please click the image to see it in all its glory.
I really wonder what the rest of the strip looked like and whether there are more mad strips of this girl floating around.
This is a standard sized booth pic that is undated.
I bought this 1930s photobooth photo thinking it was of a very unusual looking man with an even more unusual fashion sense – a bohemian, arty type. No one to whom I have shown the photo agrees. The argument is that a man of that era wouldn’t have hair styled in that way nor wear a hat, shirt or velvet coat such as these. What do you think?
The photo came from Germany and has this information on the back. I’d say the signature was Ludwig something, definitely a male name, but it may not be a signature at all. I’m sure there will be more clues to the identity of the sitter if I could read more of the inscription.
This sort of kid has the type of cheeky personality that I love, but having said that, I am secretly glad I don’t have to teach or be a mother to him!
These pics are from the USA and are undated but look to be from around the mid 1970s. They are standard size photobooth photos.
9 December 1999, Oxford Circus Tube Station, London
This poorly developed colour strip of photos shows me wind swept and cold on a typical London December day. I am holding a Tube travel pass I still had from 1988. (See below). I was visiting friends in London on my way to seeing my sister in Dublin to celebrate my eight month old nephew’s first Christmas.
Travel Card 1988
This strip of photos is from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
Early December 1999, Wellington, New Zealand
The only photobooth I was able to find on this trip to visit my travelling buddy Moana in Wellington, was a sticker booth in a game arcade.
I stopped in New Zealand on my way to visit friends in London before going to Dublin to spend Christmas with my sister and her Irish relatives. She and her husband Tim had decided not to make their home in Australia and had returned to live in Ireland where they had first met. They live there to this day.
Moana was working most of my visit and I only managed to get her husband Mark, into the booth. While not my preferred type of photobooth, in the event of nothing better, it is a least a cute souvenir of a trip. To see some previous posts and booth photos of Moana and I together, click here, here and here.
This strip of photos is from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
Found, Luna Park 08/09/1996
Another found photo from the 90’s. I find these pics extremely amusing. There is something of Frankenstein’s monster in the lobotomised head I have had to “stitch” back on and in the stunned-mullet, slow-brained look on the face of this sitter. One must say that he and his friend were not the brightest of individuals, having missed most of the flashes before sitting down to pose.
I never found the final photo that looks like it may have actually worked, but that was okay, for I had plenty of fun with the other remnants.
My Fotobooth Frankenstein
9 October 1999, Melbourne
This is seven month old guide-dog puppy, Charlie. He was my pride and joy for twelve months when I was his puppy-raiser. He was a very diligent worker. He became a professional dog after graduating with flying colours from his full training at Guide Dogs Victoria.
Charlie became a lifeline for a lovely woman whose eyesight had deteriorated rapidly in the years leading up to her application for a guide-dog. I imagine he would be well and truly retired by now, if not already in doggy heaven.
Although not recorded on the back of the strip, this was most likely taken in one of the Flinders Street photobooths, as I made every effort to get Charlie into town regularly for his socialisation and traffic training.
This strip of photos is from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
Please scroll down for more photos after the article.
Cyril Astor ran a photography business that was exclusively dedicated to photobooths. In partnership with a Mr Leach, Cyril hired out booths to tourist venues and special events,as well as having a number of booths in permanent locations. The business no longer exists but was located on Cefndy Road Industrial Estate in Rhyl in the county of Denbighshire in North Wales. Rhyl is a seaside resort town and an ideal place for booths that supported the local tourist industry.
Inscribed on the back “To Mother From Edwin”
I was unable to find a record of when the business started but his booths were used at the Cardiff venue for the Festival of Britain in 1951, so the business was in operation at that time. In 1972 the business still existed when Irish lass, 20 year old Patsy Furber worked there. I am very grateful to Patsy for her help in my research for this post.
Patsy has shared some of her personal memories of Cyril’s business with me –
“The managing director was a Mr. Leach, the manager was Gwyn. Mr. Leach’s secretary was Cathy and the telephonist and office worker was Nerys. I was a shorthand typist and part of my job was to type order forms for the chemicals they needed for the booths.
I liked working for Cyril Astor’s business in the beginning but left with extremely bad feelings. I come from Belfast, Ireland and I am afraid I fell foul of political bullying caused by misinformation given by the Special Branch Police in Wales.
I really did enjoy myself at Astors but felt it very unfortunate that things turned out the way they did. Unfortunately, it was the political atmosphere at the time. It was a thing a good many Irish in Britain had to endure….”
Mr Astor had booths in Margate (UK), Ramsgate (UK) and Rhyl in Wales. One of the prime spots for his booths was on the ‘Great Orme’ in Llandudno in Wales. Without Patsy’s help, it was difficult to find information about Cyril’s business but I did find that he was an exhibitor at a trade fair at Alexandra Palace which was advertised in Billboard magazine on the 26 November, 1966. Presumably this event promoted his booths for hire.
In addition to being a photographer, Cyril was an inventor. He made a patent application in 1966. The Patent Index says that he applied for patents to make improvements to the Photomaton machine in the early 1960s.
“Abstract of GB962798 962,798. Rollerways. CYRIL ASTOR PHOTOMATON (LONDON) Ltd. March 2, 1962 [Dec. 16, 1960], No. 43458/60. Heading B8A. [Also in Division G2] Film is conveyed through a processing tank by a plurality of vertically-spaced sets of rollers, each set being individual…”
On the back of each of the cardboard photo frames it says, “Photographer: Cyril Astor. You can obtain three beautiful postcard sized enlargements by sending this photograph with name and address to Cyril Astor, 28, North Drive, Rhyl, North Wales. Together with postal order valued 5/-. It is never too late to send and you get this photo back.” Of course it is too late now, despite the claim, but it does make me think there could be some fabulous photobooth postcard gems out there to be discovered!
Printed on the backs of the father and daughter pair (above) is Cyril’s standard advertisement.
6 June 1999, Chadstone, Melbourne
This is me with my six week old nephew, Calvin and my sister, Sue. It is a coincidence that this photo was taken exactly 15 years ago today. Well almost. I was actually going to publish it on the 7th of June (tomorrow) until I noticed that I was writing the post so close its anniversary. Needless to say, Calvin is now a strapping lad of fifteen who is getting up to all the kinds of mischief a 15 year old should.
This was taken at Chadstone Shopping Centre where there was once a black and white chemical photobooth, which is sorely missed. You can see an earlier photo of Sue and her son in a photobooth here.
This strip of photos is from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project which documents my life from the age of 11, through photobooth photos. You can see all the posts in the series by clicking here.
Photobooth Journal 