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The Photomaton was invented in 1925 in New York by Siberian immigrant Anatol Josepho, as a ploy to make photography more accessible to the public: located near Times Square, it attracted 280,000 visitors within six months and produced eight photographs for 25 cents. By the end of the second world war, there were more than 30,000 commercial booths across the US, coinciding with the rise of mass tourism and a new demand for passport photos. Beloved by artists from Breton to Buñuel to Warhol, who revelled in their self-reflective nature, they retained their popularity until point-and-shoot cameras and instant Polaroid photography took over.
Today they are making a comeback. Autofoto, a company dedicated to the rescue and restoration of old machines around the world, operates 19 branded booths between London and Barcelona, where it is based. Director and founder Rafael Hortala Vallve bought his first booth in 2009 for a friend’s wedding. It came from Montreal, sourced during a time when many operators were switching to digital. “I’d spent my teenage years racing off-road motorbikes in Catalonia and knew some basic mechanical maintenance,” he says. (That first machine is his favourite: now in a studio in Hackney Bridge, it was used for the accessories shoot on these pages.)
The number of pictures taken across Autofoto’s machines has, says Hortala Vallve, increased 50 per cent each year since 2022, despite an ongoing issue of paper shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (until 2020, Russia’s Slavich was the only producer of photographic paper used for the booths, and still boasts the highest sensitivity – ISO 150 – compared to the current alternatives from Ilford, Forma and Imago). The company thrives on residencies, placing the booths in hotel lobbies, bars, restaurants and cultural venues such as Tate Modern and Dalston’s Rio Cinema. Each booth delivers a neat strip of negative-to-positive silver gelatin paper for £7 a pop.
To celebrate the booth’s centenary, the company has planned several activations, from a pop-up at Arles photography festival to a Love Booth installation in Ramsgate, exploring its history as a vehicle for social connection. In the autumn, London’s Photographers’ Gallery will stage an exhibition dedicated to the booth. “The photobooth was a game changer for the world of photography,” says Clare Grafik, head of exhibitions. “It represented the mass democratisation of the portrait photograph. Its real, lasting impact was as a personal space for people to be in charge of their own images. The imperfections and quirks of the analogue process were all part of the fun.”
“The beauty of the booth is that the technology has remained the same for almost a century,” explains Hortala Vallve; his machines still use the original xenon gas flashes and expose the frame directly to the photographic paper, making each one unique. “The photo strips have the very same quality as the pictures Andy Warhol or Cindy Sherman took in the 1970s, or the surrealists made in the 1920s. They work best when in constant use.”
Shot using the Autofoto photobooth at Hackney Bridge. Model, Londone Myers at Next London. Casting, Piergiorgio Del Moro and Helena Balladino at DM Casting. Hair, Maarit Niemela at Agency 41 using Amika. Make-up, Dan Delgado using Chanel. Manicure, Jasmin Samavati at One Represents using YSL. Stylist’s assistant, Susie Lethbridge. Special thanks to Taha Izzi at Autofoto
autofoto.org
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