A short history of the photo booth
June 13, 2023
The photo booth is almost a hundred years old. The first one, called the Photomaton, was invented in 1925 by Anatol Josepho. It worked pretty much like you’d picture it: step behind a curtain into an enclosed box, sit for a series of timed shots, and the prints developed on the spot.
Why open-air replaced the box
Enclosed booths work fine for one or two people, but they cap out fast. The open-air format did away with the walls and the curtain, so instead of squeezing in two at a time, a whole group can pile into one shot. That single change is most of why open-air became the standard: it fits how people actually gather at an event, in clusters, not queued up one at a time.
Where we stopped
A lot of booths kept adding on from there: GIFs, filters, AI-generated backgrounds, green screens. We skip that layer. The one real upgrade that matters is digital delivery: your photo lands on your phone in seconds instead of waiting on a print, which is what actually changed once photo booths went digital. Everything past that is a distraction from a booth that just takes a good photo.
What we run
Open-air, digital-only, a 24 megapixel camera with real external lighting, three hours of unlimited sessions, and a custom overlay with your event’s name. It’s $599 flat, with a $99 deposit to hold your date. Check your date and see if we’re free.