Photo Booths Are Not A Thing of the Past

Movies have always had an influence on my life, particularly in my creativity and career path. It was my love for films that I chose to study Visual Media and Film. Then my passion for magazine editorials as a teenager growing up in the era of the Super Model in the 90’s and an obsession with The Face Magazine that helped me get my first job in production at Italian Vogue in New York City after graduation. Growing up I always had this ‘thing’ for Photo Booths and ever since the French film Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain came out in 2001, I’ve been told by close friends and family that the main character of the film, is very similar to me. It was not a surprise to anyone when I announced my recent venture in the photo booth industry. My random adventures, curious personality and mischievous ways, as well as old fashioned romantic perspective on love, and my nostalgia of photo booths has led me to becoming partner of a Photo Booth business in Spain. I write about it on my blog, the train rides across Europe as a teenager, waiting in train station cafes feeling excited about the unknown and watching people sitting inside the booth closing the curtain giggling, the sound of the flash four times, and the finale waiting for the print to come out and creating little funny stories in my head about these people I watched. Lovers, children, friends, it didn’t matter who, people were always happy around a photo booth. No one knew what they were going to get, a blurry image, a cropped face, high contrast photos, etc but it didn’t matter, no matter what printed, the result was a memory recorded and for you to keep forever or share with a loved one. The role the booth has in the plot of the film Amélie, really made an impression and I was looking for something fun to share and do as an entrepreneur.

Maybe it’s the romance of taking a secret photo in Paris; maybe it’s the new ease of sending off proof that you’re here. Either way, it’s not hard to become as obsessed as Michel Folco, the author who found himself addicted to searching for photo booth rejects: “It became a total mania that lasted one year, during which I filled a whole blank album. Towards the end, I met [Amélie director] Jean-Pierre Jeunet and I showed him my book.” Jeunet took some notes and told Folco to guard his story. “He said he was eventually going to use it. Later, when he was making Amélie…