So close... and yet still not here.

It was going to be such an exciting day. We were finally going to see our booth, our baby! And have it in our studio to start playing with...

But no. That would be just too easy.

The booth had arrived from Germany last Friday, and was waiting to be picked up from the warehouse in Erith. We hired a luton van with a tail-lift, and drove out there first thing after morning rush hour. The plan was simple - load the booth into the van, take it to the studio, then meet our gang of burly young men who were going to help us get it onto a dolly truck and wheel it through to the studio. The champagne was on ice ready to be cracked open.

So we arrived at the warehouse. First hurdle: I hadn't been given a reference number by the German contigent, and for a brief minute we were worried we wouldn't even be able to go in. But not everyone gets a photobooth delivered, so that was soon sorted. We were directed to follow the yellow path around a building, go up some steps, through a couple of glass doors, under the stairs... and, what was that again? Please can you help us?! It was like walking through a maze, but we finally found the right office, and were given the official picking up note. More directions: follow the yellow path around this other building, park our van in this bay... and then talk to someone called Dave Skinner.

We finally found him; everyone en route was so helpful and nice - it can't be often they see 2 young women around that warehouse! And we saw the booth:


It looked so shiney and new; hardly as if it had been in storage in Estonia for a few years. We were getting very excited.

But then the time came to try and get it into the van we had hired. Turned out the booth was larger and heavier than we had suspected; and it was just a few centimetres too high to get in the truck! About 4 guys with forklift trucks were surrounding us at this point, trying to discuss ways we could get it in. Understandably, they were reluctant to tip it, and weren't in the position to handle it. It is in such good nick that it seemed a shame to do anything which may damage it.

So, in the end, we were directed back through the maze to the office we had started off in, and waited there while the wonderful Tony and Stuart wracked their brains to try and find a way. All to no avail. Back we went with an empty truck and a heavy heart... to drown our sorrows at a pub in Camberwell.

And we are still trying to work this out. If any of you booth-ists out there have any secrets about how to move these beasts, please contact us.

We're going to Chicago!

Still no booth...

But some exciting news:

Kind of on a whim, and because we thought what the hell, we have just booked plane tickets to Chicago for the first weekend in April. It is the 2009 International Photobooth Convention, and we are looking forward to getting the word out on what we are doing and meeting other like minded photobooth enthusiasts.

And excited about using all 24 photobooths in Chicago!

The Waiting Game

The booth is still not here.

And we are getting impatient.

But there are problems which we have to solve. Mainly, getting the booth to the studio. So quite a major one really.



It took us ages to find an affordable studio on the ground floor. However, we didn't think of the fact that the driveway to Utrophia is down a cobbled lane. So the shipping company cannot take it to the front door. They will leave it at the entrance to the driveway, on the street.

So we have the following options:

a) Hire a pallet truck. Probably not suitable due to the slope and the uneven ground.
b) Hire some humans who know how to shift a 400kg weight. Very expensive.
c) Hire a van, transfer the booth from the truck to the van and drive it the very short distance to the front door. At the moment this is the most feasible.
d) Get a dolly truck. Unsafe on the even ground but ideal for moving it around once it is in the studio.

Not to mention once we get it in, we have to be able to get it out again!

Apart from that, preparations are going nicely. Our studio is like a fridge at present, as it is on the ground floor of a warehouse type building with a concrete floor. We have carpetted it and fitted insulation into the walls (the carpetting documented by Joe Plommer here). Just a lick of paint and all set for the new addition!

The manual, the DVD, and the good old 80's hair-do

So, it is January and the booth has not yet arrived. But the manual has. And boy is it scary:








No doubt these diagrams will become the wallpaper in the studio as we try to work out what an earth they mean..

On a lighter (and more reassuring) note, we have obtained a DVD of an old Photo Me training video. This guy is hilarious; proper 80’s hair do and such an earnest face. I found this clip on Youtube; it is sort of a trailor for it and is amusing in its own right. The thing is, although it is dead boring to watch, it is really informative and will be a lot more useful than the above manual.

The Beginning

It was following a trip to Berlin in the Summer the obsession with photobooths began. Not the Photo-Me booths which are ubiquitous at railway stations, Boots and Woolworths, but the original, chemical, negative-less photobooths which flash four times and give you a strip of 4 different poses. In Berlin, a group called Photoautomat have collected and lovingly restored these old booths, converting them to accept the Euro and dotting them all over the city for the general public to use. It is a joy to see the slightly damp strip of photographs fall into the slot, with the familiar smell of darkroom chemicals and knowing that this is ultimately unique – it can never be reproduced in its original form.

On return to the UK, the search began to find such booths in this country. Pleas for information were posted on discussion sites, photobooth aficionados and companies were contacted; all to no avail. This country had truly gone digital, and, on entering a digital photobooth, I found out why. It seems that, to apply for a passport in Britain, one needs 2 identical passport photos. To this end, the digital booth is absolutely necessary and useful. But where is the fun?

In the USA, the story of photobooths is a totally different one. Chemical booths, both colour and black and white, are still in abundance (although sadly disappearing suddenly too). The concept behind the photobooth there is more in tune with the reason it was invented – it is a form of entertainment. The stools of many of the booths are also storage trunks for costumes, hats, and other props. The idea of dressing up and performing in front of an automated camera is fun and less intimidating than doing so in front of a human photographer. The photobooth is a place for friends to gather and each have an image to go home with to remind them of the event.

This idea has been translated into the digital age with purikura (or Print Club) in Japan. These oversized booths are large enough to stand up in, and large enough for up to six people. 12 flashes are fired; 6 from waist height (frontal), and 6 from above, so you are to look up to the screen which flatters the face. Once the pictures are taken the subjects choose four which they can manipulate by adding stars, drawing frames, writing messages and other bits and pieces. Although digital, each frame is unique and has the creative input of the user.

It is no coincidence that I am writing this a few months after Polaroid have discontinued their range. Polaroids were in a sense the precursor to digital cameras because you could see the image straight away; again, there was the joy of seeing the image appear before your eyes and knowing it was unique. No negative was available, and they had a shelf life – colours would fade and age over time, flaws would appear in the surface. But this, as with the photobooth, was their charm.

So it is time to bring back this sense of entertainment and nostalgia to the UK. After many hours on the internet and posts on discussion sites, we received an offer to buy one from Berlin. A photobooth enthusiast there was buying four or five from Estonia and getting them shipped over – he has a booth in Moscow and needed spare parts, and was looking for buyers for the other booths. Finding out the logistics made us think twice; the booth weighs 400kg, and hasn’t been used for many years. But, we figured that some things just need trying, so we jumped in feet first. Where to put it and how to work it were questions which would come later…

This was back in October; the booth is, at present, happily ensconced in very cheap storage in Berlin awaiting a new lease of life in London. The first major hurdle has only just been solved; the booth will be housed in an artist’s studio in Deptford, called Utrophia. We are excited about being there – the other occupants are the first people to whom we told our ambitious project who haven’t looked at us as if we are crazy!

As for how to work it, this will be a long, steep learning curve. The booth will be shipped over to London in January, and we intend to post our progress on this blog, along with the odd pic of our adventures. So watch this space!