A Visit to Auto Photo

The second part to my Photobooth Expedition was a visit to Auto Photo in Montreal, they’re one of the few companies left in the world that are working with chemical photobooths. Everyone there was amazingly helpful and put up with me for hours while I asked question after question. I conducted a few interviews as research for my book but some of the questions were just about things I had been wondering a long time…. like the real names of the people in the sample strips on booths, and the difference between a Model 17C and a 17P. It was also neat to have years’ worth of assumptions confirmed for me, Jeff  (the Vice President and grandson of the founder) knows the other half to stories about booths that I had speculated about. Generally, during my trips in Los Angeles and Montreal it felt great to talk to people who understand the photobooth world. For almost a decade I had no one (in person) to have a dialogue with about this passion that consumes a good chunk of my life. I don’t think I knew how starved I was for conversation.

This is a treasure chest of photos from many different booth models that date back to the 1960s.This box was one of several filled to the brim with old photos.

Jeff was kind and generous enough to let me take photos for my next animation in one of their booths at the warehouse. My sister, Eryn and her friend Perryn were my loyal assistants for one of the days of shooting. I’m a real lucky duck to have had their help. Here are some photos of us working on the animation.  I also seized the opportunity to take some more experimental photos and I have added new work to my flickr.
 
I have lots of material for my book and many hours of editing photobooth frames together ahead of me. I also have THREE pieces of exciting photobooth related news, none of which are confirmed yet, so I will keep them under wraps until they’re ready to share. Stay posted!