January 1996, Luna Park, Melbourne
After an early morning swim at St Kilda beach.
This strip is part of the series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
22 April 1995, Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
Apart from the fact this photo was taken at Melbourne’s historical railway station, Flinders Street, on the above date at 5.15 pm there is no information written on the back. The occasion on which the photo was taken will thus remain a mystery.
This strip is part of the series Photobooth 41 Year Project. You can see all the posts that document the series by clicking here.
1961
April 1962
December 1962
30/12/1966
Some years ago I bought a group of booth strips of the same woman. The photos were from France. I thought they were a brilliant find, showing the same lady through two relationships and many different fashionable hairstyles of the 1960s. In the images of her alone, I imagine her popping into a booth on the way home from her hairdresser to record the newest “do”. Above are four of the 14 strips. Only seven of the group are dated. There is no indication as to the place they were taken on any of them. As with most of my collection, I feel a certain proprietary relationship with each sitter, especially if I have more than one photo covering a period of time. Thus I was delighted when my lovely lady came into my life again earlier this year, in a most surprising way, of which I will tell you more in a later post.
March 1968
Chronologically, this is the next of the dated booth photos of the series of 14 of my lovely French lady. This strip was cut, as you can see. I especially love this photo as my sister was born in the same month and year. Why does that make any difference? I suppose I enjoy seeing what else was going on in another private world at a significant time in the life of my family, similarities and differences, another incarnation of the period. I am amused by the fact that at around the same era, my mum had a furry hat very similar to the one worn above and she was also fond of the same type of fashionable silk scarf.
Two hundred and twenty five dollars! This is a standard sized photobooth picture, 40 x 50 mm. It has “some residual glue or sticky substance” on the right side, with wear to the edges. Even as an avid collector I can’t figure out why someone was prepared to pay so much for one little, “distressed” photo. Will I be posting another record price soon? Who knows? The market is certainly hot at the moment.
29/05/1968
15/08/1968
These are the last two strips of dated photos from my mysterious, beautiful French lady. Looking glamourous in her pearls and just as chic in her more casual stripes, she is the image of a 1960s conservative yet fashionable young thing. There are eight strips of undated images to come soon.
These two strips of undated photos from my mysterious French lady show her with the second and last of her lovers in the series of photos in my collection. Is this the man she stayed with? She certainly looks very happy with him.
Here is my lovely French lady once again. I gave up trying to guess what order the photos were taken, so have just selected them randomly. I don’t think it really matters what order we see them in. She is photogenic and interesting in any of her snaps, no matter when they were shot. There are two more strips to show you before the big reveal about how she came back into my life. Stay tuned!
These are the last two strips of my beguiling femme fatale. Tomorrow I will conclude this series with how ma belle dame mystérieuse re-entered my life earlier this year.
I was thrilled to be the only bidder on this rare photobooth lenticular photo. It is made up of three exposures taken in succession on the same frame. The frame is placed under a lined sheet of acetate and when tilted appears to show movement.
In this example the lady’s eyes shift from the centre, then to the side and her mouth opens and closes. It is unfortunate that in the position needed to make a scan of the image, the sitter looks slightly cross-eyed. What you can see above is actually parts of two of the three individual exposures. For more information about these fabulous booth photos see Näkki Goranin’s book American Photobooth.
Photobooth Journal 