AUTOFOTO: Celebration of 100 Years of the Photo Booth

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AUTOFOTO: Celebration of 100 Years of the Photo Booth

February 22nd, 2025 by Cary Benbow

Cosmic currents must have converged in exactly the right way this month. Photobooths have been on my mind. I recently read about the new photo book Auto-Photo: A Life in Pictures which explores the life and vocation of Alan Adler. Adler owned and operated a number of photobooths in Melbourne, Australia for about 50 years. The book, and an exhibition this year, is a wonderful commentary on the dedication one man had for maintaining his booths and coincidentally creating a massive body of work with his self-portrait test shots. I’m also enjoying Kathy Shorr’s new book, Limousine. I consider Shorr’s portrait sessions in the back of her limousine to be insightful and frank portraits of people who are temporarily in this physical or metaphoric liminal space, pausing briefly between significant phases of their lives. The limo acts as a luxury, mobile photobooth, if you will.

So it was no surprise for me to also hear news about upcoming events and celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the photobooth. In 1925, Anatol Josepho invented the first fully automated, coin-operated photobooth, called the Photomaton. It was located on Broadway near Times Square in New York City, and over 250,000 people used it in its first year. The photobooth cost 25 cents and took eight minutes to develop the prints. It became a popular attraction in cities around the world, and was used by celebrities such as John Lennon, Yoko Ono, John and Jaqueline Kennedy, and Andy Warhol.

During 2025, AUTOFOTO will celebrate the photobooth’s 100th anniversary with a global series of events, profiles, and celebrations. These will include major exhibitions and installations in London, New York, and Arles, as well as projects with community groups, artists, and designers. Special events will also be held at their London and Barcelona locations, and in partnership with colleagues around the world. The team at AUTOFOTO has worked up a program of events to highlight the lasting impact, to share the invaluable knowledge of restoration, and to celebrate the modern day allure of the photobooth.

AUTOFOTO is an operation that has grown out of longstanding friendships and a shared obsession for analogue photobooths. Founder Rafael Hortala Vallve, Creative Director Corinne Quin, and their team have spent over ten years restoring vintage photo booths. These refurbished machines are available for public use in London and Barcelona. They also recently installed Scotland’s first analog photo booth at the Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh. By placing these booths in modern settings, they’ve contributed to the renewed popularity of photo booths in public spaces and art, establishing AUTOFOTO as a leader in the analog photo booth movement.

Events will take place during Photo London during the week of May 15th-18th; the Arles photography festival (July 7th-September 28th), and New York’s International Photobooth Convention from August 28th-31st. The series of events starts in May with a community project screening at Rio Cinema in Hackney, alongside the launch of a short film by Nick Francis. In June, they’ll launch “The Love Booth,” an LGBTQ engagement program by Ramsgate and Karen Vost, which explores love and social connection through photobooth images past and present. Finally, in the autumn, The Photographers’ Gallery in London will host an exhibition on the history of the photobooth, featuring a photobooth for visitors to create their own souvenir photo to mark the occasion.

For more information about AUTOFOTO and their love for analog photography please check out their website at https://autofoto.org/ ,or follow all their Photobooth Anniversary stories online via the hastag: #photobooth100 as well as their Instagram account.

About Cary Benbow

Photographer, Writer, Publisher of Wobneb Magazine

View all posts by Cary Benbow →

Location: Online Type: Event

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