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A Commissioned Work By Damian Michaels

May 14, 2014
Photobooth Art
24 Comments

In February last year I did a post about Damian Michaels whose altered, photobooth self-portrait I had purchased on Ebay a few weeks earlier. As a result of that purchase and an admiration of his work, I decided to commission him to alter one of my photobooth strips. The finished work can be seen below along with the original strip. photobooth11:08:2009No.3 I was very pleased with the results. My favourite image being the last of the three. Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment, below. You can find out more about Damian and his work by following the links below.

  • At Raw Vision, Colin Rhodes writes about Damian's underlying creative processes.
  • Damian's Flickr Photostream where you can see more of his altered photos and other works.
  • His facebook page
  • and Damian's website where you can buy copies of his publication Art Visionary magazine

Ted’s Photobooth Story

May 12, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
18 Comments

Cheryl and Ted

One of the more exciting, and for me, unexpected aspects of being a blogger is the amount of enthusiasm and generosity that comes to my inbox out of the blue and from all around the world. I have recently started following a blog by Ted Strutz of Friday Harbor, Washington State in the San Juan Islands, USA. The blog is called TedBook and has some very amusing conversational short stories that I encourage you to check out. Ted emailed me the above photos and the following history a couple of days ago –

When I lived in Chicago in the 80’s and early 90’s, there was a bar called the Rainbow Club.  It was quite large with a big horseshoe shaped bar, booths, tables and a stage, maybe a dance floor.  They played 33 LPs on a phonograph.  Kind of an artsy place.  There was a photo booth as well.  It was very popular, and I would imagine they made almost as much money off that thing as the booze.  I think it was a buck.  I’m sure they have quite a few strips that were left behind.  It was a lot of fun.  Of course that was one of the first places we took out of town visitors.

Anyway… I guess it was 1988 or so when an old girlfriend came from Sacramento to Chicago to visit me.  I had been there for two years, and although she was ‘the one who got away’ we had stayed friends.  I took her to the Rainbow Club, as it was close to the Wicker Park neighborhood where I lived and a fun place to go.  My daughter and her friends hung out there a lot, and that’s how I was introduced to the place.  I didn’t go there that often, except when people came to visit so we could do the photo booth. It is interesting to look at people in these strips and how they react to what the other person in the booth does.  It’s kind of a mini play sometimes.

We had a good time on her visit, and I eventually introduced her to a friend in Sacramento who she would later marry.  They had two kids and are still married.  I was a good matchmaker.  Interesting to note there are two backgrounds… one with photo strips, it looks like, maybe to show people how to use it, and a curtain. My other strips all have the curtain. I would say that the first one we did is the one without the curtain.  For that reason, and in the first photo Cheryl is posing with her reflection as it was the first thing she saw.  She always did ‘duck lips’ when looking in a mirror and my two tiny daughters would copy her when looking in a mirror.  They still laugh and talk about her when they do it now. The bottom of one of the strips has the corner torn off.  Those were fun times.

When I saw your blog, it reminded me of that time and I went and found them.  I have 7 of them and a strip of my daughters when they were little kids… they are in their 40’s now.  The last time I was in a photo booth, was with my mother about 5 years ago shortly before she died at 90.  We had gone to the movies and she wanted to do it so she would have a picture of us two together.

Thanks so much, Ted, for sharing your photobooth memories and your photos. Thanks to Cheryl, too.

Tattoo Man – Part Three

May 8, 2014
Tattoo Man Series, Vintage Photobooth
6 Comments

photoboothTattooManSeries03

Here is USA Tattoo Man and his friend once more . I think he is eating a hamburger but it could just be a bagel or filled bread roll, judging by his friend’s wee morsel. As with the previous posts in the series, that you can see here and here, I only own the above photo. You can see it in its original context below.

I have played with the tags in today’s edition. When I posted an image of myself eating a peanut butter dream bar,  I added “woman eating a banana” to see how may extra hits it got. (You can read the story behind why I did that, here.)  It turns out it is a rather successful ploy. My stats were very impressive for that day. So if you are here looking for a man/woman eating a sausage, or a man/woman eating a banana, sorry. You have been the victim of an extremely infantile prank – but hey, why were you searching under those tags anyway, hmm??

photoboothTattooManPart3Edit

A Cleaning Experiment. A Shocking Inscription.

May 6, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
15 Comments
photoboothSisterToGrandmaD***BEFOREcleaning

Before cleaning.

After cleaning.

After cleaning.

This is a large format photobooth photo, before and after cleaning. The process was very unsophisticated (a cotton bud lightly moistened with cold water, used to gently wipe away any residue). It is usually a very safe option, though I knew it was risky on older photos. The image is improved in some ways, worse in others. I wasn’t expecting the emulsion to come away. Whenever I have tried this on other photos, the emulsion remained stable. I didn’t notice it had happened until it was dried and flaking off.

This photo of a charming, smiling elderly woman, has quite a poignant and shocking inscription on the back. ” T***, Sister to Grandma D***. Married an abusive husband, F****.” With such a tranquil, kindly face it is hard to read those words without a profound sense of shock and sadness. I hope she weathered her personal storm as well as her face suggests she might have.

All three names are inscribed in full (including a surname) but as the ladies have names that are very unusual, I thought it best not to publish any of them in case any members of her family are still with us. The photo is undated and came in a large mixed lot of photos from a seller in the USA.

Tattoo Man – Part Two

May 4, 2014
Tattoo Man Series, Vintage Photobooth
Leave a comment

photoboothTattooManSeries02

Following up from Part One, here is Tattoo Man on the phone in a photobooth with his partner. Once again I only own four individually cut photos from this series, this being the second of them.

Below are some of the complete strips from the original sale on Ebay. You can see the above image in its original context and two other strips of the same man and another partner who only appears in this one, heavily altered, series. It is also the only strip to be dated out of the dozen or so scanned from the seller’s website. It is hard to work out a scenario that explains why such a wonderful collection should have ended up in the public domain so quickly after its creation. (It is dated the 19th of May 2003.)

 

photoboothTattooBlogpostEdit02

Broken Heart Gallery – A Photobooth Photo Seller’s Perspective

April 26, 2014
Photobooth News, Vintage Photobooth
7 Comments

photoboothclownGroup$399 Starting bid copy

Following a high level of interest in my last post about the above item, particularly with reference to the asking price, I thought I would share with you some thoughts from the seller himself, Mr Albert Tanquero of Broken Heart Gallery, Chicago. Not only is Albert the seller of many of the most highly desirable photobooth photos you can find online, but his customer service is second to none, with every photo arriving with a hand printed card and hand written personalised note.

Hi guys. I’m the seller of this photobooth photo. I bought it for a considerable price at a NYC photo show. If it sells for the starting price of US $399.99, I will be able to make a reasonable profit from that one photo. To give you perspective on how expensive it is to try to sell amazing images, I will share some of the travel costs incurred to find my photos and expenses related to fees on Ebay and Paypal.

Some time ago, I flew from Chicago to New York City and paid for two nights in a hotel to be able to attend one of the best vernacular photography shows in the USA. My flight cost me US $450.00, a  room for two nights was US $500 and the entrance to the show was US $30. Additionally there was the cost of the cabs to and from the airport, US $160. Of course there is also the cost of meals, buses and trains, etc. Add all that up and that’s a high outlay just to get to the show.

When photos on eBay are listed for what might appear to be outrageous sums, it is frequently because the cost of obtaining the  item was very, very high. If I had bought this photo at a flea market for a dollar it would have been listed for US$ 5.99. (See examples of other current listings, below, which have that starting price).

So what does it cost to sell the photo? Between eBay and paypal (which eBay owns) 15-18% of a sale is taken in commission. So say the clown photo sells for US $399.99. I have to spend to up to US $72.00 just to sell it. I will also accept checks as payment (cutting out the Paypal part of the fee) but that creates more work as I have to go to the bank and then wait for it to clear. I don’t want to make it seem like there aren’t times I sell $1.00 photos for $30.00. It happens, but good photos have gotten much harder to find. That’s the problem I guess. So for me the photo shows have become one of the few places I can still buy quality images but at a much higher cost.

Another consideration is that, when I sell on eBay I’m providing a curated experience. My time sorting through hundreds of inferior photos, my skill, and my eye are valuable parts of the equation. No one selling snapshots on eBay is getting rich. We do it because it’s a great way to connect lost photos with artists, collectors, enthusiasts.

And one last point…images like this one are used in blogs and other sites online for free, and generally without permission. Not everyone who blogs about my photos actually buys them, like Katherine (mostly) does. Everyone that comes into visual contact with images, that I worked very hard to find, get to enjoy them for free. Why wouldn’t I ask a lot of money for things that are expensive to obtain?

I really appreciate you thinking about the seller’s side of the story.

Albert Tanquero

European Beauty Was A Diva

European Beauty Was A Diva – Starting bid $5.99 Sold for $32.00

She Had Wit and Sass Like No Other

She Had Wit and Sass Like No Other  – Starting bid $5.99 Sold for $8.50

Teen boys, one with crazy glasses - a Nutty duo - Starting bid $5.99

Teen boys, one with crazy glasses – a Nutty duo – Starting bid $5.99 Sale price unknown

More Photobooth Clowns

April 23, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
14 Comments

It never rains but it pours. Clowns are rare in the realm of photobooth photography. A few days ago I wrote a post about a clown photo, which I have in my collection. (Click here to see). I wasn’t expecting to be writing about clowns again, let alone so soon.

After a flurry of recent clown booth photo listings on Ebay, all from the same seller, today I noticed another trader has the photo, below, up for grabs. This rather extraordinary booth pic shows not only two clowns, which is extremely unusual, but two clowns posing with a scary inanimate friend. I’d like to say that this dummy is of the ventrioquist variety but cannot see any evidence that it is. Wonderful image nevertheless!

Starting bid is $399.99 US dollars. Anyone interested to buy? Not me, I’m afraid, but good luck to the trader. I like a bit of boldness!

photoboothclownGroup$399 Starting bid copy

Clowning About in a Photobooth

April 14, 2014
Vintage Photobooth
27 Comments

 

photboothYoyo06

From my collection.

Here is a wonder of my world. A clown that loves a photobooth! I actually don’t like clowns very much. They are a bit scary, too noisy and not terribly funny. However, for some reason that I cannot quite fathom, I like photos of clowns and people in clown party costumes. I have many party souvenir photos of clowns in formats other than photobooth strips. None of the sitters could be mistaken for real clowns.

Happily for me, I believe this is a real clown. He takes his job very seriously indeed. The photo above (the only one which I actually own) shows our man in a harlequin style outfit with a big ruffle. In the photos below, taken from the Ebay seller’s archive, he has two other costumes to show off. None of the images are of an extraordinary quality in terms of contrast, sharpness  and tone but they are rare in the world of photobooth photos and thus much adored by me.

All these images are undated and originated in the USA, where else?

Another from the series.

Another from the series. (I do not own this image)

photoboothclown02edited

And another. (I do not own this image)

Becky Time Machine

February 19, 2013
Becky and Friends, Photobooth Time Machines
6 Comments

This is a summary of the changes we saw in Becky in the larger series of strips of Becky and Friends. Becky must have been born in 1955, as from information on one of the strips, she was 22 in 1977.  As many of the photos are undated, the sequence is a guess based on the few confirmed dates from the backs of the strips. I think I have it pretty well correct.

One of my favourite parts of collecting booth photos is seeing the changes in people over time. It is unusual to find so many over such a long period.

Please click on the first photo to see the gallery in a larger format .

“Jacquline”, Melissa and Wesley

February 8, 2013
Polaroid Photobooth, Vintage Photobooth
2 Comments

photoboothJacqMelWesley

Here is another of the rarer polaroid photobooth photos. Although the quality of the image isn’t great, I like the effect of the faces emerging through the darkened space.

I am betting that this photo belonged to Wesley and that he wrote the names on the front of the photo, misspelling Jaqueline’s. Yeah, typical boy. Yeah, sexist comment. Oh me, oh my.