Anatol Josepho seated in his Photomaton, New York, 1927. Press photo, Agence Rol, Bibliothèque nationale de France; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Photo booth strips
What it took directly
- documentedThe photo booth strip took from Anatol Josepho's Photomaton studio on Broadway: a strip of eight sepia photos for a quarter"“Almost since the studio was opened last September crowds have stood in line to put the quarter in the machine and take a strip of eight sepia photos of themselves,” The New York Times reported." The New York Times, quoted by Edmon J. Rodman, Jewish Journal (March 31, 2017)
- statedThe photo booth took from a coin-controlled camera joined to a developing machine, patented by Anatol M. Josepho"coin controlled camera and developing mechanism" Anatol M. Josepho, US patent 1,631,593 (filed March 27, 1925; assigned to Photomaton Inc.), via Google Patents
- documentedPurikura took from Print Club, the sticker-photo booth that reached Japanese arcades in 1995"The first Purikura booth machine, called Print Club, debuted in arcades across Japan in 1995, and allowed users to pile into a booth, take a few photographs, and print them out as stickers that could be placed anywhere." Joshua Hunt, BBC Worklife (23 November 2018)
- documentedLife Four Cuts took from the four-shot vertical strip of the traditional passport photo"The name is a reference to its "four-cut" photo service — similar to traditional passport photos, with four snapshots framed in a vertical strip" The Korea Herald (7 June 2025)
What it learned to do
- documentedAnatol Josepho learned from the owner of a Berlin photo studio, who trained him at fifteen"In 1909, at age 15, with financial support from his father, he went to Berlin and talked his way into a job at a photo studio, where the owner trained him as a photographer." Edmon J. Rodman, Jewish Journal (March 31, 2017), drawing on Näkki Goranin's "American Photobooth"
- statedAnatol Josepho learned from Hollywood's motion-picture industry"“I decided to come to America and hunt for backers,” Josepho told The New York Times in 1927. “I landed at Seattle. It struck me that I ought to go to Hollywood and get motion picture experience.”" Anatol Josepho, to The New York Times (1927), quoted by the Jewish Journal (March 31, 2017)
- statedThe Photomaton learned from the portrait studio"In the present embodiment the apparatus is designed for portrait photography." Anatol M. Josepho, US patent 1,631,593, via Google Patents
The tradition it sits in
- documentedKorea's photo-booth boom comes from the sticker-printing booths Junho Jeong used about fifteen years before"Now in his early forties, he says he used to go to photo booths with his friends about 15 years ago. He remembers that back then, the machines used to print small stickers to exchange with friends." Isabel Rubio, El País (21 June 2023), reporting Junho Jeong's memory
- inferredKorea's four-cut strip comes from Josepho's 1925 strip, by way of the passport photo"similar to traditional passport photos, with four snapshots framed in a vertical strip" inferred — The Korea Herald likens the four-cut strip to traditional passport photos; the Jewish Journal records Josepho's 1925 strip of eight. No source here draws the line between them; that is our reading
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedThe photo booth comes from plans Josepho drew up at his photo studio in Shanghai"he traveled to Shanghai, where he opened a successful photo studio around 1921. There, he drew up plans for his invention, but he knew he would need to go to the United States to realize his dream." Edmon J. Rodman, Jewish Journal (March 31, 2017)
- documentedThe photo booth comes from the idea of inexpensive photography for everyone"who could have predicted that the rough plans he brought with him for an automated photo booth would bring inexpensive photography to the masses" Edmon J. Rodman, Jewish Journal (March 31, 2017)
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