1st strips! (finally)

It has taken a very long time, but we have finally got our first booth strips. After having tried once in the darkroom, and getting something that looked like what you see to the left here, we thought we would go the whole hog and try it in the booth. After seeking advice from our booth expert friends in the US, of course!

And, compared to our darkroom venture, we were fairly successful. It was so exciting waiting for that first strip to fall into the slot. But, as you can see, there are still problems to iron out. We suspect the dark smudges are due to the chemicals not being right, although funnily enough the shape of them is the same as that of the spider arm which holds the strip.



With these discoveries comes a whole new set of things to add to our To Do list. It kind of seems like it will never end...

Fotomost: Photobooth Space Bridge Moscow-Chicago

This is rather belated, I'm afraid... but better late than never!

I think I mentioned this project in one of our earlier posts, on our return from Chicago. Not wanting to be left out of the Convention because they couldn't come, Martin and Ira from Schnellfoto in Russia devised a project which was to bridge the gap between Moscow and Chicago. They had their friends and other photobooth users ask questions in photobooth strips. These varied from the surreal to the practical to the philosophical; one I can remember (cos I answered it!) was something like: What's at the end of your legs? Others were: Does telepathy exist? Is Andy Warhol really dead?


More images can be seen on Martin and Ira's blog

The idea was that the participants of the Convention were to choose a strip to answer using the photobooth. These were then sent back to Moscow, where Martin and Ira have exhibited the question and answer couples in a gallery space. A more eloquent description of the project can be seen here.

There was some talk of these strips being scanned and a booklet made... I will see if I can find out what happened about that. It was a great project; a real talking point of the Convention which made us all feel as though Martin and Ira were in fact there. Thanks guys!

Bad day turned good...

The other day, I had my bike stolen, and I was told that work was cutting some of my hours...all in all not a great day. But I was meeing Siobhan and some friends in the evening, and we popped in to visit the booth at Cargo. Strange Firetrap "graffitti" has come off, I was pleased to see, and also the quality of the image seems to have improved. The flare has diminished, and the chemistry is nice and contrasty... Hats off to them! (and to note; screaming in a booth really is cathartic...)

Mr. Mixup was in town recently, and when we met him he had just visited the booth at Cargo. He showed us loads of strips he'd done in their booth, both using their props (which they bring out on a Sunday occasionally) and his own. They looked great - he also showed us some of the stuff he had done during the '80's and early '90's. It really is worth checking out his website for some inspiration.