Photo booth

Image:Anatol Josepho.jpg inside his photo booth.]]

The patent for the first automated photography machine was filed in 1888 by William Pope and Edward Poole of Baltimore. The first known really working photographic machine was a product of the French inventor T. E. Enjalbert (March 1889). It was shown at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. The German-born photographer Mathew Steffens from Chicago filed a patent for such a machine in May 1889. These early machines were not reliable enough to be self-sufficient. The first commercially successful automatic photographic apparatus was the "Bosco" from inventor Conrad Bernitt of Hamburg (patented July 16, 1890). All of these early machines produced ferrotypes. The first automatic photographic apparatus with negative and positive process was invented by Carl Sasse (1896) of Germany.Massen, Ernst: Kleine Geschichte der Fotoautomaten (Short history of the automatic photo apparatus) - in Photo Antiquaria 103 (April 2011)

The modern concept of photo booth with (later) a curtain originated with Anatol Josepho (previously Josephewitz), who had arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 1923.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3671736/The-history-of-the-photobooth.html | newspaper=The Daily Telegraph | first=Näkki | last=Goranin | title=The history of the photobooth | date=March 7, 2008 }} In 1925, the first photo booth appeared on Broadway in New York City. For 25 cents, the booth took, developed, and printed 8 photos, a process taking roughly 10 minutes. In the first six months after the booth was erected, it was used by 280,000 people. The Photomaton Company was created to place booths nationwide. On March 27, 1927, Josepho was paid $1 million and guaranteed future royalties for his invention.{{cite news |url=https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00089090/00881/15x |via=University of Florida |title=Photo-in-slot Inventor Will Endow Genius |newspaper=Miami Daily News |date=March 28, 1927 |page=15 }} [https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/08/90/90/00881/00015.txt alt url]

In the United Kingdom, entrepreneur Clarence Hatry established the Photomaton Parent Corporation, Ltd., in 1928.

After money has been inserted in the machine, multiple customers can enter the booth and pose for a set number of exposures. Some common options include the ability to alter lighting and backdrops while the newest versions offer features such as cameras from a variety of angles, fans, seats, and blue screen effects. Some establishments even offer costumes and wigs for customers to borrow.

Once the pictures have been taken, the customers select the pictures that they wish to keep and customize them using a touch screen or pen-sensitive screen. The touch screen then displays a vast array of options such as virtual stamps, pictures, clip art, colorful backdrops, borders, and pens that can be superimposed on the photographs.

Features that can be found in some sticker machines are customizing the beauty of the customers such as brightening the pictures, making the eyes sparkle more, changing the hair, bringing a more reddish color to the lips, and fixing any blemishes by having them blurred. Other features include cutting out the original background and replacing it with a different background. Certain backgrounds may be chosen so when the machine prints out the picture, the final sticker will be shiny with sparkles.{{Citation needed|reason=How can this be verified, do all photo booth print the same way?|date=February 2020}}

File:Old-friend-photo-booth-by-bill-cramer.jpg

Finally, the number and size of the pictures to be printed are chosen, and the pictures print out on a glossy full-color 10 × 15 cm sheet to be cut up and divided among the group of customers. Some photo booths also allow the pictures to be sent to customers' mobile phones. Other photo places have a scanner and laptop at the cashier's desk for customers to scan and copy their original picture before they cut and divide the pictures amongst their group.{{Citation needed|reason=Which photo places? Provide evidence|date=February 2020}}

File:Shomeishashin passport photo s8jo WATANABE Hachijo.jpg

Most of the photo booths are used for passport photos. They are coin-operated automated machines that are designed to print a photo in a specific format that meets the passport photo requirements. Multiple copies can be printed so users can save some for future uses.

Traditionally, photo booths contain a seat or bench designed to seat the one or two patrons being photographed. The seat is typically surrounded by a curtain of some sort to allow for some privacy and help avoid outside interference during the photo session. Once the payment is made, the photo booth will take a series of photographs, although most modern booths may only take a single photograph and print out a series of identical pictures.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} Before each photograph, there will be an indication, such as a light or a buzzer, that will signal the patron to prepare their pose. Most booths will use artificial lighting, which may be flash or continuous lighting. After the last photograph in the series (typically between 3 and 8) has been taken, the photo booth begins developing the film — a process that used to take several minutes in the old "wet chemistry" booths, but is now typically accomplished in about 30 seconds with digital technology. The prints are then delivered to the customer. Typical dimensions of these prints vary. The classic and most familiar arrangement from the old style photo booths is four pictures on a strip about 40 mm wide by 205 mm long; digital prints tend to have a square arrangement of two images above two images.

Both black and white and colour photo booths are common in the US, however in Europe the colour photo booth has almost entirely replaced black and white booths. However, newer digital booths now offer the customer the option of whether to print in colour or in black and white. Most modern photo booths use video or digital cameras instead of film cameras, and are under computer control. Some booths can also produce stickers, postcards, or other items with the photographs on them, rather or as well as simply a strip of pictures. These often include an option of novelty decorative borders around the photos.

File:Photo Sticker Shop in Seoul South Korea.JPG]]

Photo sticker booths or photo sticker machines originated from Japan (see Purikura below). They are a special type of photo booth that produce photo stickers. Still maintaining huge popularity in Japan, they have spread throughout Asia to Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Thailand. They have also been imported to Australia. Some have also begun appearing in the United States and Canada although they failed to make any impression in Europe when introduced in the mid-1990s.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

[[File:Purikura 8jo WATANABE Hachijo.jpg|thumb|

Photo sticker that various effects designed with Purikura]]

File: Purikura Pen-Sensitive Screen.JPG, Japan]]

In Japan, {{nihongo|purikura|プリクラ}} refers to a photo sticker booth or the product of such a photo booth. The name is a shortened form of the registered Atlus/Sega trademark {{nihongo|Print Club|プリント倶楽部|Purinto Kurabu}}, the first purikura machine, introduced to arcades in 1995.

Purikura produce what are today called selfies. Purikura is essentially a cross between a traditional license/passport photo booth and an arcade video game, with a computer which allows the manipulation of digital images.{{cite book |last1=Sandbye |first1=Mette |chapter=Selfies and Purikura as Affective, Aesthetic Labor |title=Exploring the Selfie: Historical, Theoretical, and Analytical Approaches to Digital Self-Photography |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319579498 |pages=305–326 (310) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SaVUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA310}} It involves users posing in front of a camera within the compact booth, having their images taken, and then printing the photos with various effects designed to look kawaii. It presents a series of choices, such as desired backdrops, borders, insertable decorations, icons, text writing options, hair extensions, twinkling diamond tiaras, tenderized light effects, and predesigned decorative margins.

Purikura has roots in Japanese kawaii culture, which involves an obsession with beautifying self-representation in photographic forms, particularly among females.{{cite book |last1=Pan |first1=Lu |title=Aestheticizing Public Space: Street Visual Politics in East Asian Cities |date=2015 |publisher=Intellect Books |isbn=9781783204533 |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rJbzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA107}} Purikura originate from the Japanese video game arcade industry. It was conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho, inspired by the popularity of girl photo culture and photo stickers in 1990s Japan. She worked for a Japanese game company, Atlus, where she suggested the idea, but was initially rejected.{{cite journal |title=Harvard Asia Quarterly |journal=Harvard Asia Quarterly |date=2003 |volume=7 |issue=1–3 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UckQAQAAMAAJ |publisher=Harvard University |quote=Purikura, clipped from purinto kurabu, was invented by Atlus, a Tokyo-based game software company. A female employee named Sasaki Miho had noticed the popularity of stickers among schoolgirls, a craze that also generated huge sales. In 1994, Sasaki came up with the idea of combining stickers with photos and proposed it to her Atlus employers, but her male bosses did not think it worth pursuing until 1995, when they finally gave her concept a chance.}} Atlus eventually decided to pursue Miho's idea, and developed it with the help of a leading Japanese video game company, Sega,{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Elizabeth F. |last2=Hart |first2=Janice |title=Photographs Objects Histories: On the Materiality of Images |date=2004 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415254410 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VRQ2StxiK0sC&pg=PA167}} which later became the owner of Atlus.{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Laura |chapter=10. Purikura: Expressive Energy in Female Self-Photography |title=Introducing Japanese Popular Culture |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317528937 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBFFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129}} Sega and Atlus introduced Print Club, the first purikura, in February 1995, initially at game arcades, before expanding to other popular locations such as fast food shops, train stations, karaoke establishments and bowling alleys. Game Machine magazine listed Printing Club as Japan's most successful arcade game in the non-video game category during early 1996,{{cite magazine|title=Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - Other Arcade Games|magazine=Game Machine|issue=511|publisher=Amusement Press, Inc.|date=1 February 1996|page=21|lang=ja|url=https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19960201p.pdf#page=11}} and it went on to become the overall highest-grossing arcade game of 1996 in Japan.{{cite magazine|editor-last=Akagi|editor-first=Masumi|title="Tekken 2", "Virtua Cop 2" Top Videos '96|magazine=Game Machine|issue=534|publisher=Amusement Press, Inc.|date=1 February 1997|page=26|url=https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19970201p.pdf#page=14}} By 1997, about 45,000 Purikura machines had been sold, earning Sega an estimated {{JPY|25 billion}} ({{£|173 million|long=no}}) or {{US$|{{To USD|173|GBR|year=1997|round=yes}},000,000|long=no|1997|round=-6}} annually from Purikura sales that year.{{cite news |last1=Hunt |first1=Joshua |title=How 'playing Puri' paved the way for Snapchat |url=https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20181119-why-playing-puri-was-the-precursor-for-snapchat |access-date=11 October 2021 |agency=BBC |date=23 November 2018}} Print Club went on to generate over {{US$|1 billion|long=no}} in sales for Atlus and Sega.{{Cite news |date=1997 |title=Atlus Print Club: Sales in a Flash |publisher=Atlus |url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbEKf8uX4AEdRYf.jpg |access-date=24 April 2022}}

The success of the original Sega-Atlus machine led to other Japanese arcade game companies producing their own purikura, including SNK's Neo Print in 1996 and Konami's Puri Puri Campus (Print Print Campus) in 1997, with Sega controlling about half of the market that year. Purikura became a popular form of entertainment among youths in Japan, then East Asia, in the 1990s. To capitalize on the purikura phenomenon, Japanese mobile phones began including a front-facing camera, which facilitated the creation of selfies, during the late 1990s to early 2000s.{{cite news |title=Taking pictures with your phone |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1550622.stm |access-date=15 September 2019 |work=BBC News |agency=BBC |date=18 September 2001}} Photographic features in purikura were later adopted by smartphone apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, including scribbling graffiti or typing text over selfies, adding features that beautify the image, and photo editing options such as cat whiskers or bunny ears.{{cite news |title=How 'playing Puri' paved the way for Snapchat |url=https://www.bbc.com/worklife/gallery/20181119-why-playing-puri-was-the-precursor-for-snapchat |access-date=16 September 2019 |agency=BBC |date=23 November 2018}}{{cite news |title=Video: Japan's 'Purikura' Photo Booths Offer Snapchat-Like Filters |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/07/03/526005241/video-japans-purikura-photo-booths-offer-snapchat-like-filters |access-date=19 September 2019 |agency=NPR |date=July 3, 2017}}

A 3D selfie photo booth such as the Fantasitron located at Madurodam, the miniature park, generates 3D selfie models from 2D pictures of customers. These selfies are often printed by dedicated 3D printing companies such as Shapeways. These models are also known as 3D portraits, 3D figurines or mini-me figurines.

File:Photoautomat 12.jpg|A photo booth in a public building in Germany

File:OZ4TWOBOOTH- Mirror Me Booth- Bunnings Box Hill Victoria Australia- Energizer Event on 29082017-2.jpg|Mirror Me Photobooth in Victoria, Australia

File:Crowd in Lot 10 Photo Booth Event MagicMirror.jpg|An open-plan photo booth in Lot 10 Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

File:Purikura Booth 2.JPG|A purikura photo booth in Fukushima, Japan

File:3D selfie in 1-20 scale as received from Shapeways, the printer company for Madurodam's Fantasitron IMG 4557 FRD.jpg|A 3D selfie in 1:20 scale printed by Shapeways using gypsum-based printing

File:Fantasitron photo booth at Madurodam can scan up to two people at a time IMG 3797 FRD.jpg|Fantasitron 3D selfie photo booth at Madurodam

Purikura offer rare insight into Japanese popular culture, specifically girl culture. Purikura is a social activity, rarely done alone. It is also now an established form of entertainment, with most Japanese having tried it at least once. The wide lexicon associated with purikura also reveals that it has grown outside kawaii culture; erotic purikura, creepy purikura, and couples purikura are all genres of this popular form of self-photography.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBFFDwAAQBAJ&q=purikura+expressive+energy+in+female+self+photography&pg=PT129|title=Introducing Japanese Popular Culture|last1=Miller|first1=Laura|last2=Freedman|first2=Alisa|last3=Slade|first3=Toby|publisher=Routledge|year=2018|isbn=9781317528937|location=New York|chapter=Purikura: Expressive energy in female self photography}} Graffiti purikura, an alternative genre of purikura, represents young females' desire to rebel from traditional gender roles.Miller, Laura. 2003. "Graffiti photos: Expressive art in Japanese girls' culture." Harvard Asia Quarterly, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 31-42. In order to contradict stereotypical images of Japanese women as docile and meek, graffiti purikura photographers may photograph themselves in unflattering fashion or add stickers which defy cuteness, such as the poop emoji.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/355950|title=Bad Girls of Japan|last1=Miller|first1=Laura|last2=Bardsley|first2=Jan|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2005|isbn=978-1-4039-7712-0|pages=127–141|chapter=Bad girl photography}} Rather than simple conceited frivolity, purikura photography demonstrates ingenuity and creativity on the part of young Japanese women seeking forms of self-expression.

Located at the Elizabeth Street exit of Melbourne's busiest railway station, Flinders Street Station, lies a culturally significant photo booth. The photo booth has been continuously operating at the station since 1961, with many feeling it has become an iconic and irreplaceable part of the station.{{cite web |last1=Buckley |first1=Nick |title=Iconic Flinders Street Station Photo Booth May Soon Develop Its Last Print |url=https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/city-file/article/flinders-street-train-stations-photo-booth-being-removed |access-date=24 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021024021/https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/city-file/article/flinders-street-train-stations-photo-booth-being-removed |archive-date=2020-10-21 |url-status=live |website=Broadsheet }} It has been maintained for the entirety of its life by owner Alan Adler. During May 2018, Mr Adler (then 86) was given 10 days notice to remove the photo booth by Metro Trains Victoria to make way for station upgrades. Alan informed passerby with a hand written note explaining the news prompting widespread backlash from the public and support for Alan and his photo booth. After a letter writing campaign to Metro Trains, Public Transport Victoria CEO Jeroen Weimar phoned Alan to apologise and assured him a new home would be found.{{cite news |last1=Eddie |first1=Rachel |title=Iconic Flinders St Station photo booth given last-minute reprieve |url=https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/vic/2018/05/22/flinders-st-station-photo-booth/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112150154/https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/vic/2018/05/22/flinders-st-station-photo-booth/ |archive-date=2019-01-12 |url-status=live |newspaper=The New Daily}} Days later they successfully relocated the photo booth to another location within Flinders Street Station. The photo booth shoots analogue images in black and white and joins 3 images together vertically.

Photo booth rental companies allow a person to rent a photo booth for a short period of time (usually in hours) for a fee. Photo booth rentals have become popular in the United States primarily for wedding receptions, sweet sixteen parties, Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties, along with a growing number of other public and private events. In addition to the photo booth and the printing of unlimited photo strips, rental companies usually include a photo booth attendant to service the photo booth and to help guests construct the guest book of photo strips. Online image hosting, compact discs containing the images and related merchandise are readily available. Celebrities are frequent users of photo booths in parties.{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/kardashians-pose-up-stunning-photobooth-6767575|title=The Kardashian beauties posed for the camera at Kendall's 20th birthday party|first=Rachael|last=Moon|website=Daily Mirror |date=4 November 2015|access-date=2 August 2018}}

File:Photo printed from Chanel event in Singapore, Dec 2013.jpg

Apart from traditional photo printing, modern photo booths may also include the following new functions:{{cite web|url=http://tech.co/evolution-photo-booth-2015-10 |title=How Photo Booth Technology Has Improved Over the Years |publisher=Tech.co |date=2015-10-30 |access-date=2015-11-25}}

• Animated GIF
• Flip book printing
• Virtual props, placed intelligently on the person's eyes or shoulders etc.
• Slow-motion video
• Green-screen background removal
• Fun costume virtual dressing
• Games - mostly Kinect body gesture controlled games, and print a photo of the person and his/her scores
• Facial gesture recognition

As digital cameras, compact photo printers, and flat screen computer monitors became widely available in the early 2000s, people connected these together using a personal computer and software and created their own photo booths. Entrepreneurs began renting machines built along these lines at weddings and parties and the idea spread.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bestphotobooths.ca/photo-booth-vs-photographer.html|title=Photo Booth vs Photographer|website=BestPhotoBooths|language=en-US|access-date=2016-05-06}} From 2005 to 2012, interest in the United States for photo booth rentals grew significantly. By 2016, more people were searching for photo booth rentals than DJ rentals in 15 of North America's largest cities.{{Cite web|url=http://www.forevercaptured.ca/infographic|title=Infographic - Demand for Photo Booths, DJ Services & Wedding Photographers in US & Canada Top Cities|website=www.forevercaptured.ca|access-date=2016-05-06}} In Greater Los Angeles alone, there are now more than 600 photo booth rental companies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.prostarra.com/photo-booth-rentals-usa/california/los-angeles/|title=Leading Photo Booth Rental Companies in Los Angeles, California|website=ProStarra Photo Booth Template Designs|access-date=December 8, 2018}} Photo booth rentals have also become popular in other countries such as Canada, Australia, and the UK. So far in 2016, there is an average of 226,000 monthly searches for a photo booth globally. This has risen by 48.9% since 2015 (in the UK alone this is nearly 20,000 searches a month).{{Cite web|url=https://www.photobooths.co.uk/blog/photo-booth-statistics-2016/|title=Infographic - Photo Booth Numbers for 2016|website=Photobooths|date=13 June 2016|access-date=2016-09-21}}

{{refbegin}}

• Massen, Ernst: Kleine Geschichte der Fotoautomaten (Short history of the automatic photo apparatus) – in: Photo Antiquaria 103 (April 2011)

{{refend}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book | last1 = Warhol| first1 = Andy| author-link = Andy Warhol|

title = Andy Warhol photobooth pictures| date = 1989 | publisher = Robert Miller Gallery| location = New York | oclc = 21828769}}

• {{Cite book | last1 = Hines | first1 = Babbette | title = Photobooth | date = 2002 | publisher = Princeton Architectural Press | location = New York | isbn = 1-56898-381-6}}
• {{Cite book | last1 = Ratner | first1 = Brett | author-link = Brett Ratner | title = Hilhaven Lodge: the photo booth pictures | date = 2003 | publisher = PowerHouse Books | location = New York | isbn = 1-57687-195-9}}
• {{cite journal |last1= Miller |first1= Laura |year=2003 |title= Graffiti photos: Expressive art in Japanese girls' culture |journal= Harvard Asia Quarterly |volume= 7 |issue= 3 |pages=31–42|url= https://umsl.academia.edu/LauraMiller/Papers/83256/Graffiti_Photos_Expressive_Art_In_Japanese_Girls_Culture |access-date=2012-01-07 }}
• {{Cite book | last1 =Chalfen | first1 = Richard | last2 =Murui | first2 =Mai |editor1-last=Edwards | editor1-first= Elizabeth |editor2-last= Hart | editor2-first = Janice | title = Photographs objects histories: on the materiality of images | url =https://archive.org/details/photographsobjec00edwa | url-access =limited | date = 2004 | publisher = Routledge | location = London and New York | isbn = 0-415-25441-8 | chapter = Chapter 11: Print club photography in Japan: framing social relationships| pages = [https://archive.org/details/photographsobjec00edwa/page/n177 166]–185 }}
• {{Cite book | last1 = Goranin | first1 = Näkki | title = American photobooth | date = 2008 | publisher = W. W. Norton Co. | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-393-33076-2}}
• {{Cite book | last1 = Woo | first1 = Cameron | title = Photobooth dog | date = 2010 | publisher = Chronicle Books | location = San Francisco | isbn = 978-0-8118-7251-5}}
• {{Cite book | last1 = Pellicer | first1 = Raynal | title = Photobooth: the art of the automatic portrait | date = 2010 | publisher = Abrams | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-8109-9611-3}}

{{Commons category|Photo booths}}

• [http://www.photobooth.net Photobooth.net], a resource covering the history of photobooths in art and culture, and listings for present locations of photochemical photobooths
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=wd8DAAAAMBAJ&dq=Popular+Science+1935+plane+%22Popular+Mechanics%22&pg=PA724 "Photo Made In Half Minute" Popular Mechanics, May 1935 right hand of page]

Category:Photography equipment

Category:Vending machines

Category:Japanese popular culture

Category:South Korean popular culture

Category:Photography