My friend Ted, also known as one of the larrikin lads in an earlier post, Two Drunks In A Photobooth, is now looking more composed and formal for the camera. I haven’t asked Ted about this, but was it really fashionable in the early 1970s, to wear a window-pane, checked suit with a floral shirt? My guess is that Ted was a fashion leader in this combo, and just so far ahead of the game no one else has ever caught on to this eclectic mix!
Love the face fuzz, Ted.
1 May 2002, Leicester, UK
This is the second of two photo strips taken for the purposes of teaching agency identity cards. I cannot find the card, which is unusual for someone as obsessive about photobooth photos as I am.
This strip was also used for a travel identity card (below).
While working in the UK I applied to and worked for two different teaching agencies. The first one, Protocol, was sending me to some ghastly institutions. I hoped for better with Select. As it turned out, it was mostly ghastly schools that needed emergency teachers, so nothing much changed.
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.
23 April 2002, Leicester, UK
While working in the UK I applied to and worked for two different teaching agencies. These duller than dull photos were taken for an identity card (see below) for one of the agencies, Protocol Teachers.
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?
19 April 2002, Leicester, UK
Back living and working in the UK, I spent as much time with old friends as I could, despite the fact I was in Leicestershire and they were mostly in London. Rosie and her then boyfriend (now husband and father of their one year old baby) came to visit and we snapped this strip of photos at Leicester Station just before a day out together. To see more photos of Rosie when she was younger, please click here.
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.
1 April 2001, Chadstone, Melbourne
A second April Fool’s Day strip but now with the addition of my sister Sue.
This strip of photos comes from my series Photobooth 41 Year Project. The project is now getting close to entering its 44th year. I’d like to change the name to reflect this but if I do, none of my links or categories will work. It is a nightmare to go through every post, looking for broken links and to fix them!
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.
1 April 2001, Chadstone, Melbourne
With my gorgeous nephew, Cal. This was taken at Chadstone Shopping Centre, a favourite place for my sister to shop, (and shop and shop . . .), when she is in Melbourne. I never go there unless she is visiting from Dublin. Cal is now 16 and is subjected to a photobooth sitting every time he visits. His mum often sends me booth photos for my birthday and Xmas presents, too.
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.
January 2001, Luna Park, Melbourne
Me with my travelling companion and friend, Helen. This was taken in my favourite photobooth at Luna Park in Melbourne. Helen was visiting from the UK.
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.
My previous post about Jeff Nachtigall came about through his image and mine appearing on the same page of Meags Fitzgerald’s photobooth book. Another photobooth aficionado, Violeta Tayeh also appeared on the same page.
Here is some of Violeta’s story in her own words –
I only came across photobooths in 2010 through a relationship I had developed with Dirklancer (Jeff Nachtigall) through the Lomography Society website. There he posted a link to his personal blog, The Art of Waiting where he held a photobooth competition.
The lomography community always has online photo competitions with different themes in mind and between 2007 and 2010, I always entered. I’d tell my husband we needed to go to the beach because I wanted to take some shots to enter a comp. That was not unusual. So entering Jeff’s was not a stretch at all. It was just a different type of camera.
Violeta’s competition entry
Jeff sent me a link to photobooth.net and I used their locator to find some photobooths in my area. Turned out that all the booths in Maryland and Washington DC were either out of service, or removed. I looked up Philadelphia, located 3 booths to visit and made a day trip out of it.
I painted my own backgrounds (see above). I fell in love with this form of photography that day. The problem is that a few months after these strips were taken, we went back to visit Philly and the store which had the booth was closed down. The photobooth was auctioned off. Since there weren’t many booths near me, I tried to visit booths when we’d go on vacation somewhere, like this one:
The last day we went snowboarding for the season
So up until the Photobooth Convention in 2014, I had taken less than 25 strips, so not too much art making was going on. But at the convention, my husband and I took over 50 strips together in two days! Definitely wished I could have stayed for the last day. I probably would have been able to make larger pieces with multiple strips. It’s difficult trying to make artwork with more than two strips when someone else is waiting in line to use the booth so I didn’t try to do that but I did pick up a few techniques from talking to others there.
This type of photobooth vignette was more often reserved for big events such as the Chicago or New York World’s Fairs. Here we have a humble holiday snap turned into an epic day out, courtesy of this screen printed addition to the booth.
I love the sailor, bathing beauty, both in a very 1930s cartoon style, the yacht and beach umbrella, but is that a fuming, smelly oil rig at left? Not quite what I would hope to see at a summer holiday resort. Our sitter, who is identified as Alan, isn’t exactly dressed for a holiday souvenir pic, either.
Can you see the fingerprint on the bottom right of the photo? It excites me to think that after all this time, we may be able to find the full name and details of Alan’s life through this partial print. Except that that would make him a criminal, I guess. Or a spy? Yes, a gentleman spy, most definitely.
The picture is date August 11, 1932 and is of course from the great state of California, USA
25 November 2000, Luna Park, Melbourne
Me and an old school friend, Lisa in a favourite photobooth at Luna Park.
I still love the old black and white booth photos more than any other type. Unfortunately I am afraid that, like this booth and friendship, they will be gone soon.
Below and from the same year, I kept a travelcard celebrating the facade of Luna Park.
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. I am growing more and more fond of these newer booths, despite their lower quality output.
Photobooth Journal 