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Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
L.A.'s new Photo Booth Museum captures a different era of selfies
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.
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
'Prices have risen outrageously': Spaniards avoid holiday hotspots overrun by foreign tourists
International holidaymakers are keeping Spaniards off their own sun-kissed beaches due to ever-rising hotel and rental prices during an unprecedented tourism boom. Spain's top 25 Mediterranean and Atlantic coast destinations saw local tourism drop by 800,000 people last year, whereas foreign visitors rose 1.94 million, according to previously unreported official data reviewed by analysis firm inAtlas. The trend looks sure to continue as the world's second-most visited country — after France — anticipates a record 100 million foreign visitors this year. "Prices have risen outrageously. The whole Spanish coast is very expensive," said Wendy Davila, 26. She cancelled an "exorbitant" trip with her boyfriend in Cadiz on the south coast for a cheaper visit to the inland city of Burgos, famed for its Gothic cathedral and the tomb of 11th-century commander El Cid. "Now you don't go on holiday wherever you want, but wherever you can," added Davila, who is nostalgic for childhood beach holidays in Alicante on the Mediterranean. With a population of 48 million — half the number of foreign visitors each year — Spain relies heavily on tourism, which contributes more than 13% of GDP. But protests are growing over housing shortages exacerbated by mass tourism — and could be exacerbated by the indignity for Spaniards being priced out of their favourite holidays. Hotel prices have risen 23% in the past three years to an average of €136 a night, according to data company Mabrian. Beachfront rentals have also climbed 20.3% since mid-2023, according to price monitoring firm Tecnitasa, with most of them booked out for the summer by the first quarter. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for Spanish holidaymakers to afford beachfront tourism rentals," said Tecnitasa group president Jose Maria Basanez. Foreign tourists stayed an average of eight nights at top Spanish beaches last year, with locals only affording half that time and spending a quarter of the money, inAtlas said. In fact, resort hotels are modifying down their forecasts for this summer, even despite the foreign boom, partly because places where residents tend to take their holidays expect slower sales. Spaniards also made near 400,000 fewer trips to the country's major cities in 2024 compared to the previous year, while foreign tourist visits there increased by almost three million. Aware of the brewing discontent and disparities, Spain's socialist government is encouraging international tourists to explore inland attractions to address overcrowding and diversify. "If we want to continue to be leaders in international tourism, we have to decentralise our destinations," tourism minister Jordi Hereu said at the launch of a first campaign to highlight Spain's lesser-known charms in June. We want Europeans and those from other continents to rethink their idea of the Spain they love and visit so much. Spaniards have a strong tradition of escaping for family holidays in the hot summer months, but they are turning more to Airbnb rentals than hotels, and swapping Catalonia or the Balearic Islands for lesser-known destinations in Andalucia or Castille and Leon, where prices are lower and mass tourism is yet to hit. Last year, 1.7 million more Spaniards holidayed in generally more affordable inland areas, according to inAtlas. In the mountain town of El Bosque for example, 100km from the beaches of Cadiz on the Atlantic, the number of Spanish tourists increased by 22% last year. "There may be a certain displacement effect," said Juan Pedro Aznar, professor and researcher at the Madrid-based Esade business school, noting Spaniards' lower purchasing power compared to British and German tourists. For some Spaniards, it is best to avoid the summer crowds altogether. Nurse Maria de la Jara will stay in Madrid this summer, only going south to visit family in Cadiz once the busy season is over. "I used to go to my family's house, but there are more and more foreign tourists in Cadiz and when a cruise ship arrives, the population doubles," said the 51-year-old. "It's overwhelming."
AsiaOne
6 days ago
- Business
- AsiaOne
Spaniards struggle to enjoy their own beaches in tourist deluge, World News
MADRID — International holidaymakers are keeping Spaniards off their own sun-kissed beaches due to ever-rising hotel and rental prices during an unprecedented tourism boom. Spain's top 25 Mediterranean and Atlantic coast destinations saw local tourism drop by 800,000 people last year whereas foreign visitors rose 1.94 million, according to previously unreported official data reviewed by analysis firm inAtlas. The trend looks sure to continue as the world's second-most visited country — after France — anticipates a record 100 million foreign visitors this year. "Prices have risen outrageously. The whole Spanish coast is very expensive," said Wendy Davila, 26. She cancelled an "exorbitant" trip with her boyfriend in Cadiz on the south coast for a cheaper visit to the inland city of Burgos, famed for its Gothic cathedral and the tomb of 11th century commander El Cid. "Now you don't go on holiday wherever you want, but wherever you can," added Davila, who is nostalgic for childhood beach holidays in Alicante on the Mediterranean. With a population of 48 million — half the number of foreign visitors each year — Spain relies heavily on tourism, which contributes more than 13 per cent of GDP. But protests are growing over housing shortages exacerbated by mass tourism — and could be exacerbated by the indignity for Spaniards being priced out of their favourite holidays. Hotel prices have risen 23 per cent in the past three years to an average of 136 euros (S$203) a night, according to data company Mabrian. Beachfront rentals have also climbed 20.3 per cent since mid-2023, according to price monitoring firm Tecnitasa, with most of them booked out for the summer by the first quarter. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for Spanish holidaymakers to afford beachfront tourism rentals," said Tecnitasa Group President Jose Maria Basanez. Foreign tourists stayed an average of eight nights at top Spanish beaches last year, with locals only affording half that time and spending a quarter of the money, inAtlas said. In fact resort hotels are modifying down their forecasts for this summer, even despite the foreign boom, partly because places where residents tend to take their holidays expect slower sales. Spaniards also made near 400,000 fewer trips to the country's major cities in 2024 compared to the previous year, while foreign tourist visits there increased by almost three million. Going inland Aware of the brewing discontent and disparities, Spain's socialist government is encouraging international tourists to explore inland attractions to address overcrowding and diversify. "If we want to continue to be leaders in international tourism, we have to decentralise our destinations," Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said at the launch of a first campaign to highlight Spain's lesser-known charms in June. "We want Europeans and those from other continents to rethink their idea of the Spain they love and visit so much." Spaniards have a strong tradition of escaping for family holidays in the hot summer months, but they are turning more to Airbnb rentals than hotels, and swapping Catalonia or the Balearic Islands for lesser-known destinations in Andalucia or Castille and Leon where prices are lower and mass tourism is yet to hit. Last year, 1.7 million more Spaniards holidayed in generally more affordable inland areas, according to inAtlas. In the mountain town of El Bosque for example, 100km from the beaches of Cadiz on the Atlantic, the number of Spanish tourists increased by 22 per cent last year. "There may be a certain displacement effect," said Juan Pedro Aznar, professor and researcher at the Madrid-based Esade business school, noting Spaniards' lower purchasing power compared to British and German tourists. For some Spaniards, it is best to avoid the summer crowds altogether. Nurse Maria de la Jara will stay in Madrid this summer, only going south to visit family in Cadiz once the busy season is over. "I used to go to my family's house, but there are more and more foreign tourists in Cadiz and when a cruise ship arrives, the population doubles," said the 51-year-old. "It's overwhelming." [[nid:719983]]
New Straits Times
6 days ago
- Business
- New Straits Times
Spaniards struggle to enjoy their own beaches in tourist deluge
INTERNATIONAL holidaymakers are keeping Spaniards off their own sun-kissed beaches due to ever-rising hotel and rental prices during an unprecedented tourism boom. Spain's top 25 Mediterranean and Atlantic coast destinations saw local tourism drop by 800,000 people last year whereas foreign visitors rose 1.94 million, according to previously unreported official data reviewed by analysis firm inAtlas. The trend looks sure to continue as the world's second-most visited country - after France - anticipates a record 100 million foreign visitors this year. "Prices have risen outrageously. The whole Spanish coast is very expensive," said Wendy Davila, 26. She cancelled an "exorbitant" trip with her boyfriend in Cadiz on the south coast for a cheaper visit to the inland city of Burgos, famed for its Gothic cathedral and the tomb of 11th century commander El Cid. "Now you don't go on holiday wherever you want, but wherever you can," added Davila, who is nostalgic for childhood beach holidays in Alicante on the Mediterranean. With a population of 48 million - half the number of foreign visitors each year - Spain relies heavily on tourism, which contributes more than 13 per cent of GDP. But protests are growing over housing shortages exacerbated by mass tourism - and could be exacerbated by the indignity for Spaniards being priced out of their favourite holidays. Hotel prices have risen 23 per cent in the past three years to an average of 136 euros (US$159) a night, according to data company Mabrian. Beachfront rentals have also climbed 20.3 per cent since mid-2023, according to price monitoring firm Tecnitasa, with most of them booked out for the summer by the first quarter. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for Spanish holidaymakers to afford beachfront tourism rentals," said Tecnitasa Group President Jose Maria Basanez. Foreign tourists stayed an average of eight nights at top Spanish beaches last year, with locals only affording half that time and spending a quarter of the money, inAtlas said. In fact, resort hotels are modifying down their forecasts for this summer, even despite the foreign boom, partly because places where residents tend to take their holidays expect slower sales. Spaniards also made near 400,000 fewer trips to the country's major cities in 2024 compared to the previous year, while foreign tourist visits there increased by almost three million. Aware of the brewing discontent and disparities, Spain's socialist government is encouraging international tourists to explore inland attractions to address overcrowding and diversify. "If we want to continue to be leaders in international tourism, we have to decentralise our destinations," Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said at the launch of a first campaign to highlight Spain's lesser-known charms in June. "We want Europeans and those from other continents to rethink their idea of the Spain they love and visit so much." Spaniards have a strong tradition of escaping for family holidays in the hot summer months, but they are turning more to Airbnb rentals than hotels, and swapping Catalonia or the Balearic Islands for lesser-known destinations in Andalucia or Castille and Leon where prices are lower and mass tourism is yet to hit. Last year, 1.7 million more Spaniards holidayed in generally more affordable inland areas, according to inAtlas. In the mountain town of El Bosque for example, 100 km from the beaches of Cadiz on the Atlantic, the number of Spanish tourists increased by 22 per cent last year. "There may be a certain displacement effect," said Juan Pedro Aznar, professor and researcher at the Madrid-based Esade business school, noting Spaniards' lower purchasing power compared to British and German tourists. For some Spaniards, it is best to avoid the summer crowds altogether. Nurse Maria de la Jara will stay in Madrid this summer, only going south to visit family in Cadiz once the busy season is over. "I used to go to my family's house, but there are more and more foreign tourists in Cadiz and when a cruise ship arrives, the population doubles," said the 51-year-old. "It's overwhelming."
Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Who was El Cid? Historian's biography starts debate in Spain
Lionised by Cervantes and Franco as well as by figures on the political left, the medieval Spanish knight El Cid was immortalised in epic poetry and a film featuring Charlton Heston. But now the 11th-century warrior Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar is engulfed in battle once more. A new biography by a Cambridge academic has ruffled Spanish feathers for calling him a 'mercenary' and a 'turncoat'. El Cid: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary, written by Nora Berend, a professor of European history, starts with an account of de Vivar massacring fellow Christians in 1092 near the northern city of Logrono. The book emphasises El Cid's changes of allegiance. Having fought first for his king, then in exile for a Muslim ruler and finally as an independent warlord, de Vivar was dubbed El Cid — from the Andalusian Arabic for 'chief' — after the conquest of Valencia in 1091. 'From a modern perspective,' Berend writes, 'one could easily characterise Rodrigo as a turncoat.' The work has incensed a host of Spanish academics who have branded it an inaccurate hatchet job on a national hero. 'The term 'mercenary' traditionally has clearly negative connotations, so Berend chose it with the clear intention of presenting a negative image of El Cid to the contemporary reader,' said Alberto Montaner, a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Zaragoza. 'This represents a completely useless value judgment and, above all, an anachronistic distortion.' Montaner stated that the relationship that united El Cid with the Muslim kings of the Taifa of Zaragoza 'only lasted from 1081 to 1086, that is, five years, when El Cid lived for about 50'. He added: 'The choice of mercenary is, therefore, not really biographical, but ideological.' José Luis Corral, a history professor at the same university, said: 'Judging El Cid through the eyes of the 21st century is a monumental mistake.' He pointed to the importance of contextualising El Cid in his era. 'War was a profession,' he added. 'Working for a Muslim king was not being a mercenary in the modern sense, but simply earning a living as a knight.' Speaking to The Times, Berend said that she was 'thrilled' by how much attention her work had received in Spain, where El Pais, for example, has published a favourable review of her attempt to explain the 'chasm between the history and myth' of El Cid. Seeking to 'recover him from the myths of left and right, the whitewashing by both', she said, her book describes how the myth-making began even during his lifetime. 'Monks, who benefited from his donations, started to transform their benefactor into a hero sent by divine providence,' she writes. Addressing her Spanish critics, she said they had 'misrepresented her work and did not want to properly engage with it'. She added: 'I have contextualised him as a man of his time but this does not mean we should take him as a model'. Her work describes how the dictator Francisco Franco took him as the perfect example of the Catholic knight, seeing him as 'the 'spirit of Spain' and himself as a modern-day Cid'. 'Franco turned the Cid into an exemplar, part of compulsory education in schools and at the military academy,' she writes. Her work has also drawn criticism for its 'woke' concern about the lack of agency accorded by the old poets and playwrights to Jimena, El Cid's wife, and her partisan description of the civil war which brought Franco to power in 1939. Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a British history professor, does not believe that Berend explains why the El Cid myth survives. 'Despite his dodgy loyalties he became the 'good vassal' of the Cantar de Mio Cid, the great 12th-century poem in which a monkish admirer elevated him to imperishable heroism,' he said. 'Reputations for piety, largesse, gallantry and courtliness were part of the harvest. Clearly, in spreading the renown of medieval mercenaries, the spin is mightier than the sword.'
