Inside the Fotoautomat atelier in Chartres, October 2025. FLORIAN THÉVENARD FOR M LE MAGAZINE DU MONDE
Anatol Josepho invented the photobooth one hundred years ago this year in New York. The Siberian photographer's technical feat meant anyone could step into a booth and, for the equivalent price of "two loaves of bread" at the time, would walk out a few minutes later with four portraits of themselves on film, Taous Dahmani, an art historian and curator of an exhibition celebrating the photobooth's 100th anniversary at The Photographers' Gallery in London ("Strike a Pose! 100 Years of the Photobooth," until February 22, 2026), told Le Monde.
The invention was an immediate hit and soon crossed the Atlantic. Installed in shopping centers and train stations, analog photobooths welcomed both ordinary people and celebrities, such as the Kennedys or John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Artists embraced them – from surrealists to Andy Warhol, and American photographer Richard Avedon, who in 1957 created celebrity portraits using Photomaton machines, later published in Esquire magazine. Over the years, these vintage machines were gradually abandoned in favor of digital versions designed mainly for official documents. Today, only about 200 working analog booths are believed to remain around the world.
