About
Since 2007 FotoAutomat has been restoring and bringing back to life analogue photobooths in France, mainly in spaces dedicated to arts and culture.
Each of our photobooths is a unique model, designed and constructed in our workshop or restored to its original design.
Just like 60 years ago, each photo strip is analog-developed, making every piece an original that stay lightfast for 100 years.
Just like 60 years ago, each photo strip is analog-developed, making every piece an original that stay lightfast for 100 years.
Today there are less than fifty functioning analogue photobooths in the world. We work to preserve this photographic heritage.
Fotoautomat Story
Someone had to think of bringing back the little silver nitrate portraits, four poses on a strip. Working in Berlin for the last 15 years and in Paris since 2007, FotoAutomat restore and revisit the black and white photobooths from another time, giving them a new life more astonishing, more singular and creative.
“This is how it started – Ole and Asger had been restoring photobooths for a while already when I met them in Berlin in 2006. They’d started PhotoAutomat 7 years earlier and they had a little workshop outside the city where they restored these old machines that were earmarked for destruction. For only 2 euros they offered authentic black and white analog photography.
Subject to the worst climactic conditions and the least sober of users after midnight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the booths continue to work well. Although the re-serviced mechanical and electronic systems can still chew up a photo from time to time …
It was at this time we initiated the project to install a photobooth in Paris. FotoAutomat opened a workshop in Chartres and in September 2007 the old fashioned, black and white, silver nitrate photobooth made its grand return to France! First in the Palais de Tokyo, then at Point FMR, Jeu de Paume, Maison Rouge, and at the Cinémathèque Française…”
Rediscovered, reinvented, reused by those who knew it well, and then by those who, in 2000 in the streets of Berlin and then in 2007 at the Palais de Tokyo, were able to appreciate the formidable potential of this machine.
Because nothing can replace the ritual of the booth, its Tergal curtain, the adjustable stool and the rattle of coins, FotoAutomat offers its photobooths for rental or permanent installation.
Interview
5 to 10 key dates ?
- August 2005: Meeting with Ole and Asger in Berlin. “PhotoAutomat” Berlin had already existed for 5 years.
- September 2007 : installlation of the first FotoAutomat photobooth in the Palais de Tokyo – the good old analogue photobooth was back in France!
- June 2008 : installation of our second booth at Point FMR on the banks of the canal St Martin, open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, reputed to be the cheapest hotel room in Paris – a nightmare for technicians!
- July 2011 : creation of the first booth to be entirely designed and constructed in our workshop by the FotoAutomat team for the “Rencontres d’Arles” photography festival.
- June 2016 : Yeah ! Our own place at 53 rue des Trois Frères in Montmartre.
- February 2020 : Ahoj ! FotoAutomat moves to the National Theater in Prague.
- December 2021 : Opening of the FotoAutomat Studio, with a view camera, wet collodion process photography, Cibachrome colour printing and vinyl record cutting at 53 rue des Trois Frères, Paris 75018.
1. Describe your profession or activity, starting with “I” or “We”.
Eddy :
I never get bored in my profession. I drive trucks, I do vintage mechanics, I learn about electricity in an alternative way, I do experimental maintenance of automatic systems, I do retro-futurist reverse engineering, interplanetary commerce and sometimes art by accident.
Virginie :
I visit our machine-babies every morning. Whereas the modern booths are more or less autonomous, ours are over 60 years old. You have to care for them, water them, adjust them, show them that we’re there for them. After that I take photos, I design, I document, I communicate on the internet, compile documents for museums, for construction permits, … to put it simply I take care of all the projects that we could possibly come up with at FotoAutomat.
2. How did you get to this point?
Eddy :
By chance … I met Ole and Asger in Berlin during a trip my girl friend gifted me back then to console me for being out of work as a crane operator. It was winter in Berlin and a bit chilly. Ole cooked a beef goulash for us and we got on really well straight away. I started working with them and then they helped me install the first booths in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo, Point FMR, Jeu de Paume … it was on!
Virginie :
By accident … I was supposed to do a design for a booth, it was in 2012 … I’m still doing them.
3. Which other profession would you like to try?
Eddy :
None for the moment, I’d rather extend my knowledge in the fields I already know a bit, like old photography techniques, vinyl cutting …
4. What is unique about your job?
Eddy & Virginie :
It’s having to do a bit of everything without really knowing anything, and getting it all to work in the end. It’s a chaotic road, with moments of doubt and sometimes great victories over the material. It’s stimulating.
Stimulating.
5. What is a typical day for you?
Eddy :
I avoid typical days.
Virginie :
Feeding robots.
6. Describe your workshop or office.
Eddy :
My workshop in Chartres is big, cold in winter, filled with photobooths, a cement mixer, an anvil, a few old motor scooters and a wood heater with a lamb curry slowly cooking on it.
7. Why do you work?
Eddy :
For the fun of it, and for the money of course. The truth is I really enjoy what I do. If I could do whatever I liked I’d be doing exactly the same thing.
8. What’s your favourite tool?
Eddy :
the grinder, it’s both tender and furious.
Virginie :
chewing gum and a match stick, that’s how you know I’m a good technician.
9. What inspires you?
Eddy :
Most of the time it’s things that have nothing to do with my job. I have passions, whims, which come and go. I try to link them to my job, but it’s not always possible.
Virginie :
Things from daily life that are often beautiful by accident.
10. Who is your hero?
Eddy :
Fonzie.
“ Come on Yolanda, what’s Fonzie like? He’s cool.” (Pulp Fiction).
Virginie :
Jean-Michel from Jean-Michel’s toys, “toys for young children, for everything to do with 220 volts.” (Public service announcement).
11. What’s your catchphrase?
Eddy :
“stop moving like that you’re making me tired … you need to take your time to take your time.” (Alexandre the Blissful).
Virginie :
“the world is perfect, appreciate the detail.” (The Deads Don’t Die).
12. An indispensable or signature product or service?
Eddy :
The Renault Express. My grandmother’s rabbit paté. The Concorde.
Virginie :
a Facom 19mm pipe wrench, a must-have!
13. What do you consider to be your greatest success?
Eddy :
Touching my toes without bending my knees.
Virginie :
Always winning against the machine in the end.
14. What is luxury?
Eddy :
Not having to take public transportation.
15. Why Paris?
Eddy :
I love Paris, there’s something for everyone, whether you love music or aesthetics, if you’re a fan of sneakers, a record collector, into SM, art history or cinema, you’ll find what you’re looking for.
16. Which is your favourite neighbourhood and why?
Eddy & Virginie :
Montmartre. The little streets, its bucolic and village atmosphere in the heart of a metropolis like Paris. It’s a privilege to be here.
17. What is it that makes Paris unique and why?
Eddy & Virginie :
Well … Paris is the lighthouse of the civilised world, the center of the world, isn’t it?
18. Are you more tradition or revolution?
Eddy :
Folkloric revolution.
Virginie :
Transgender tradition.
19. Your most memorable professional encounter?
Eddy :
Virginie
Virginie :
Eddy
20. A good client?
Eddy & Virginie :
Preferably sober.
21. Is there a secret to your job?
Eddy :
Yes.
Virginie :
Of course.
22. What do you do on Sunday?
Eddy & Virginie :
The same as every other day, except for trying to conquer the world!
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