The Historic Rise of the Photobooth
1826 – Photography is Invented
1925 – First fully operational photobooth was invented by Anatol Joseph
- Timeless, always wanted to capture experience
- Our stuff, experiences are timeless
1889 – First photobooth prototype at Paris World Fair only printed ferrotypes, had functionality issues so it didn’t popularize
- “Photomaton” – costed 25 cents to operate and take 8 photos
- Followed his life long dream and made him one million dollars (14 million today) before selling it to investors & rights to Henry Morgenthau Sr.
1927 – Photobooth phenomenon reaches Canada & Europe
1957 – Photomation starts to gain popularity in TV and film. In 1957, it was featured in the movie “Bandwagon” starring Fred Astaire.
1958 – Auto-photo model II is released and used for police IDs and mugshots. This led to Model 14 which was bought by “photo-me” a British company in 1964.
1960s – Gains attenti0n of Andy Warhol since its popularity in Hollywood. He ended up purchasing his own and remanufactured the design so that a person wasn’t required to hold the camera and could operate on its own. The Photomaton now becomes Photobooth and the Photobooth is born.
- Polaroid is born after inspiration from photobooths called the “four strip”
1968 - Becomes more user friendly, people could operate the photobooth themselves without the help of an attendant.
1970s – First colour photos introduced in photobooth
1990s – Introduction of lightweight digital colour photobooths. Cheaper, faster, less maintenance, advanced. Used a computer to print out photos.
1995 – Photobooth makes its way to Japan.
- New feature where you could customize design of photos before printing them. Change backgrounds, templates & stickers. It was called “Purikura” or “Printclub” in English.
2000s – Photobooths used for passports and licences.
2000s to Now – Rise of popularity in usage of portable photobooths in weddings and events and increase of demand in rental photobooth industry.
The photobooth industry continues to grow as it has become a must-have for weddings, birthdays, item vendors, and many other events. The ability to have unique styles of photobooths such as our 360 Photobooth gravitates the attention of people. We also have several customization aspects today from GIFs, boomerangs, designs and templates. Our Classic and Digital+ photobooths are a fan favourite for their customization aspects.
