L.A.'s new Photo Booth Museum captures a different era of selfies

Time Out

15 hours ago

In Los Angeles, analog photo booths have been growing in popularity, and these film photo booths can be increasingly found scattered throughout the city. It's official: Vintage photo booths are having a moment. Over their digital counterparts, the cool crowd is opting for old-school photo booth portraits developed on the spot and printed on black-and-white film. I get the appeal—after a recent visit to Paris, a film strip of four shots of my fiancé and me from a 1960s Montmartre photo booth is one of my favorite souvenirs. The tactile strip captures a specific moment in time—and feels more significant than dozens of attempts for the perfect selfie.
Leading the resurgence is Bay Area-based photo booth supplier Photomatica, which has seen its business boom in recent years—especially when Chrissy Teigen ordered one of its restored vintage booths for herself. Photomatica also custom-makes retro-looking digital photo booths, which can be found in venues like Desert 5 Spot, El Cid and the Fonda and El Rey theaters (it also just unveiled an analog booth at the Beverly Hilton last month). But after opening a Photo Booth Museum in San Francisco's Castro District earlier this year, the company has brought the concept here, to the heart of Silver Lake. Starting Thursday, July 17, for the first time, you'll have four analog photo booths in one place—plus one vintage-style (and adorable) digital photo booth from the 2020s—to choose from for your own personal photo shoot.
Styled as a 1970s living room, the 'museum' is not a museum, as such. True, there are little print-outs detailing the history of each machine, but beyond that, don't expect to learn a ton about the inner workings of photo booths. But be honest, that's probably not why you're here, anyway.
The vintage machines—made by L.A.-based photo booth manufacturer Auto-Photo—date back to the 1950s, '60s and '70s, and have been lovingly restored by Photomatica so they're in pristine working condition. This is even more impressive when you learn that there are only some 250 functional analog photo booths still in existence.
Inside the vintage booths, be ready to strike a pose as soon as you push the button—you get very little warning. And afterward, expect to wait three to five minutes for your film strip to print (still pretty remarkable, when you think about it). When the strip does come out, be careful—it'll be wet with the chemicals used in the rapid, darkroom-style development process. There are blow-dryers plugged in throughout the space for this very purpose.
My favorites were the Model 14—the first to your left as you walk in—with a groovy, heart-shaped pattern as the background, and the earlier Model 11 from the 1950s, which sports a starry backdrop. Many of the machines have handy mirrors on the outside so you can check your appearance before you head in for your close-up. All of the analog booths print in black-and-white, which I was fine with (I think I actually prefer the way I look in grayscale). And as someone who admittedly doesn't love having my picture taken, by the time I got to the third booth, I was definitely having fun with it. Some machines produce more washed-out results, while some prints come out darker, but I found the lighting in each booth to be surprisingly flattering—and besides, perfect uniformity isn't the point here.
But—not to be basic—the contemporary, millennial-pink take on a vintage booth did call out to me. And as far as digital photo booths go, it offered a superior experience to most you'll find in a bar. You could choose from color or black-and-white photos, and the color option still had a 1970s vibe, with its orange-curtain background. Plus, it admittedly is nice to be able to preview your shot on a screen and know when the flash is about to go off. The digital is also the best option for if you're in a hurry—the digital photos print instantly—and it's the only one in the museum that supplies you with two prints of your photo session, perfect for you and a friend or date.
There's no admission fee, but you can expect to pay $7.50 for each turn in a film photo booth (which gets a little confusing when you see the '25 cents' and '50 cents' signs on the outside of these booths from back in the day) or $6.50 in the digital booth. That adds up to $36.50 if you want to sample each once—plus an extra $10 if you want to hit up the key chain booth, where you can choose one of your shots to frame and decorate with charms. That fee also includes a scan of your photos—you'll give an employee at the desk your email address and will receive a digital backup of your pics.
The preview was incredibly popular (read: crowded), so if that's any indication, expect to wait in line for a bit outside, then to wait in an additional line for each individual photo booth. That being said, with my folder full of mementos that I'll likely hold onto forever, the wait ultimately felt worth it.
The museum is on the corner of West Sunset Boulevard and Hyperion Avenue—a very central Silver Lake location—so there are lots of walkable spots in the surrounding blocks. Typically, a photo booth moment is a fun addendum to a night out, not the whole attraction. But I can see the Photo Booth Museum being a popular stop on girls' nights out—two people can fit into each booth comfortably, but more are welcome to squeeze in for a group shot. Or you could always pair a photo shoot with a few scoops at Salt & Straw or the adjacent Pazzo Gelato, followed by a pint at 33 Taps —sounds like the perfect summer date night.
The Photo Booth Museum is located at 3827 West Sunset Boulevard. It's open daily from 1pm to 9pm. Admission is free, but analog booths cost $7.50, and the digital booth costs $6.50.