Monday 5 August 2019

photo booth

Nearly spanning the whole history of photography with the first coin-op unit being installed in Hamburg in 1890, photo booths carry ethnographic and sociological currency as much as technical achievement with the popular Japanese activity known as purikura (ใƒ—ใƒชใ‚ฏใƒฉ) being no exception.
Even before there was a chance for the ceremony to evoke a sense of nostalgia, the allure was there. The social photos (not group pictures but rather always as a avatar to be shared on social networks) offer insight on the way forms of self-expression are manifested and perpetuated—with the creation of sub-genre and sub-culture, purikura not staying within the polite and sacarrine bounds of kawaii, the cute aesthetic, with filters and post-production effects that are opposite of flattering and some assumptions and architecture of choice to be aware of.  The term comes from the English words print club.