The History of the Photobooth Convention
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A Brief history
From the late 1970's through to the late 1980's I used photobooth machines to make my wacky pictures using masks and backdrops. I visited a booth at least once a month (often more than that) becoming known as a "boother". Some highlights during that time was winning a photobooth competition on "Riverside" a BBC2 TV programme in 1982 and articles in "The Face" and "Time Out" in the mid 1980's. This was also the first time that I introduced myself to Photo-Me International. From that exposure I came to learn of others who shared my love of photobooth machines most notably Liz Rideal and Dick Jewel and I knew I wasn't alone. During 1989 I heard of another photobooth artist Sasa Markovic from Yugoslavia who not only did his pictures in a booth but used masks as well. I made plans and visited him in Belgrade twice (1990 & 1991) doing our first projects together and exhibiting work. We had both exhibited more work and by the time Sasa came to the UK in 1994 I arranged a week long photobooth workshop in Glasgow, part of the Strathclyde University "Winterschool" for us to expand our work and involve others. This set the seed for the idea. By the time of his next visit to the UK in 1999 I invited 11 people to take part in a days "boothing" at the Nottingham Trent University. This became the first International Photobooth Convention. In the 2 following years it was held in a public location in Putney, London with great success attracting many photobooth artists and enthusiasts alike from places as far of as Germany, France and Yugoslavia and closer to home from Brighton, Birmingham, London and Nottingham. The year 2002 convention was split into 2 parts - 2 days in Bookham and 1 day in Brighton. While always wanting to hold the convention in the UK I planned to take these events to other countries and thus find an even greater audience to make and appreciate the wonderful pieces of artwork made with photobooth machines. This started in 2003 with the New York convention followed by Belgrade in 2004 & 2006 and St Louis in 2005.
Mister Mixup, 2006.