{"id":487912,"date":"2025-10-10T08:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/487912\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T08:54:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:54:26","slug":"as-the-photo-booth-turns-100-london-rediscovers-its-analogue-thrills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/487912\/","title":{"rendered":"As the photo booth turns 100, London rediscovers its analogue thrills"},"content":{"rendered":"

More private than a Catholic confessional and more intimate than a peep show, the analogue photo booth turns 100 this year. And to celebrate, The Photographers\u2019 Gallery in London is hosting a four-month survey with a small, special archival display that turns the camera on the mini-studios where billions have sat, whether for fun or function.<\/p>\n

Running until 22 February, Strike a Pose! 100 Years of the Photo Booth begins with an origin story. In 1925, when Anatol Josepho debuted the world\u2019s first automated analog photo booth on Broadway and 51st Street, 7,500 New Yorkers had a go in the first five days and 280,000 within the first six months. By the 1990s, with the rise of digital photography, they had virtually disappeared and today there remain fewer than 200 photo booths globally.<\/p>\n

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La relique, Prague. \u00a9 2025 Fotoautomat. <\/p>\n

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Le Mutoscope, Galeries Lafayette Champs \u00c9lys\u00e9es. \u00a9 2025 Fotoautomat. <\/p>\n

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Le Lieu Unique, Nantes. \u00a9 2025 Fotoautomat. <\/p>\n

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The Palais de Tokyo, Paris. \u00a9 2025 Fotoautomat. <\/p>\n

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Autofoto. \u00a9 Courtesy Autofoto. <\/p>\n

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French Couple, Six Strips, 1960s, France. \u00a9 Courtesy Raynal Pellicer. <\/p>\n

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Couple, Photomaton, 1950s. Blackpool. \u00a9 Courtesy Raynal Pellicer. <\/p>\n

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Couples, circa 1930s-1950s. \u00a9 Courtesy Raynal Pellicer. <\/p>\n

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Photomaton Envelope, 1940s. \u00a9 Courtesy Raynal Pellicer. <\/p>\n

The London- and Barcelona<\/a>-based company Autofoto<\/a> came to the rescue in the 2000s, buying up, restoring and souping up old booths to preserve the vanishing culture. \u2018Our aim is to have them in publicly accessible places \u2014 hotels, shopping centres, arts venues and hopefully train stations,\u2019 says creative director Corinne Quin, \u2018so they reflect and respond to the rhythms of the communities around them.\u2019 Ultimately, Autofoto sponsored the Photographers\u2019 Gallery exhibition. And recently the company collaborated with photographer Tara Darby to snap an entire primary school in the London Fields neighbourhood for posterity. \u2018The technology<\/a> has hardly changed since the 1940s, so images people take today are comparable with those from more than 60 years ago,\u2019 says Quin. Yet the \u2018digital generation brings their own creativity and perspective\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Battersea Power Station, London. Image Auto Foto.<\/p>\n

The photo booth\u2019s architecture \u2014 a boxy two-square-metre footprint, controlled lighting, a thin curtain to pull shut \u2014 is a threshold space, somewhere between the private and public realms. As urban life becomes increasingly surveilled, the slow tactility and spontaneity of these booths feel increasingly precious. \u2018Just yesterday we had a marriage proposal,\u2019 says Eddy Bourgeois of Fotoautomat France<\/a>, an Autofoto contemporary. \u2018These same people tend to come back years later with their strollers and continue the joke with their children.\u2019<\/p>\n

Behind the curtain people, alone or not, can experiment with portraiture without the need of a photographer. Some seek to commemorate important events or faces, others pursue a thrill only public secrecy affords. \u2018Some have even tried to copulate in there,\u2019 says Bourgeois, \u2018probably because it\u2019s cheaper than a hotel room in Paris \u2014 maybe more fun, too.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Portrait of Anatol Josepho in his Photomaton, 1927, USA. \u00a9 Courtesy Raynal Pellicer.<\/p>\n

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Photography: Memphis, LE CITADIUM. \u00a9 2025 Fotoautomat.<\/p>\n

Read next: We explore the second edition of We Design Beirut with its founder<\/a>
\nHow to use art as a design tool, according to the experts<\/a>
\nA new event throws a spotlight on collage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More private than a Catholic confessional and more intimate than a peep show, the analogue photo booth turns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,54152,161231,161232,2249,161233,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-487912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-london-exhibition","13":"tag-london-photography","14":"tag-photo-booth","15":"tag-photography","16":"tag-the-photographers-gallery","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115349033758470914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}