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Smile, pose, repeat: New York is about to get a museum that turns the humble photostrip into a work of art. AUTOPHOTO, billed as the world’s first dedicated photobooth museum and gallery, opens its doors on Saturday, October 11, at 121 Orchard Street. The space is female-founded, proudly analog and very Lower East Side—equal parts nostalgia trip and camera-ready hangout.
Inside, you’ll find six fully restored vintage booths, a rare collection considering there are fewer than 200 still working worldwide. Each one is operational, so visitors can create their own strips for $8 a pop, complete with quirks like color chemistry prints, three-up wide paper photos and even an original Polaroid booth. “With fewer than 200 working photobooths left worldwide, we believe it takes a community of owners, technicians and fans to keep this tactile, timeless art form alive,” AUTOPHOTO notes.
The museum doubles as a gallery and archive, spotlighting photobooth culture from its beginnings in the 1920s with inventor Anatol Josepho. Opening exhibits include never-before-seen artifacts on loan from Josepho’s family, plus a display of celebrity photostrips featuring everyone from Michael Jackson to Serena Williams. There’s also a stop-motion film project by artist and technician Rachel Rowe and The Photobooth Technicians Project, a five-year oral history packed into accordion-fold chapters that nod to the endless paper strips (and occasional paper jams) every booth operator knows too well.
This isn’t just about the past, either. AUTOPHOTO has an in-house Vegas-style micro-wedding chapel, aptly called the Sure Thing Chapel, slated to launch later this fall. Couples will be able to tie the knot and capture their first kiss the old-fashioned way—in a strip of black-and-white frames.
Founded by Breanna Conely Saxon, who has been restoring and relocating booths to bars, clubs and cultural spaces since 2009, AUTOPHOTO is as much preservation project as it is playful hangout. “We don’t just restore booths; we reclaim a rare art form,” the team says.
Between the nostalgia, the artistry and the chance to walk away with a pocket-sized masterpiece, AUTOPHOTO is poised to be one of the most photogenic new openings of the season.