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The Photoaton was invented in 1925 in New York by the Siberian immigrant Anatol Josepho, as a ploy to make photography more accessible to the public: located near Times Square, he attracted 280,000 visitors in the six months and produced eight photographs for 25 hundred. At the end of the Second World War, there were more than 30,000 commercial stands across the United States, coinciding with the rise of mass tourism and a new request for passport photos. Liked by Breton artists in Buñuel in Warhol, who renounced their self-reflective nature, they have retained their popularity to sharp cameras and instant polaroid photography took over.
Today, they make a return. Autofoto, a company dedicated to the rescue and restoration of old machines from around the world, operates 19 brand stands between London and Barcelona, where it is based. Director and founder Rafael Hortala Vallve bought his first stand in 2009 for a friend's wedding. He came from Montreal, from origin to a time when many operators were digital. “I had passed my adolescence to run off-road motorcycles in Catalonia and I knew a basic mechanical maintenance,” he says. (This first machine is its favorite: now in a Hackney Bridge studio, it has been used for accessories on these pages.)
The number of photos taken on Autofoto A machines, explains Hortala Vallve, has increased by 50% each year since 2022, despite a continuous number of paper shortages caused by the invasion of Ukraine Russia (until 2020, Slave Russia was the only producer of photographic paper used for stands, and still boasts of sensitivity and image). The company thrives on residences, placing stands in halls, bars, restaurants and cultural places such as Tate Modern and Rio Cinema de Dalston. Each stand offers a careful strip of gelatin in negative silver to positive for £ 7 pop.
To celebrate the centenary of the stand, the company has planned several activations, from a pop-up to the Arles Photography Festival to an installation of a love stand in Ramsgate, exploring its vehicle history for social connection. In the fall, London Photographers gallery will organize an exhibition dedicated to the stand. “The photobooth has changed the situation for the world of photography,” explains Clare Grafik, responsible for exhibitions. “He represented the mass democratization of portrait photography. Its real and durable impact was like a personal space so that people are in charge of their own images. The imperfections and the oddities in the analog process were all part of the pleasure. ”
“The beauty of the stand has been that technology has remained the same for almost a century,” explains Hortala Vallve; Its machines always use the original xenon gas flashes and expose the frame directly to photographic paper, which each makes unique. “Photo strips have the same quality as the photos as Andy Warhol or Cindy Sherman took in the 1970s, or the surrealists made in the 1920s. They operated better when they are constant.”
Shot using the Autofotot Photobooth in 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. Makeup, Dan Delgado using Chanel. Manicure, Jasmine Samavati in one represents the use of YSL. The stylist's assistant, Susie Lethbridge. A special thank you to Taha Izzi in Autofoto
