The Metropolitan Museum of Art Stirs A Flashback at The Booth.

August 28, 2015

Starting on Monday, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will exhibit 100 Years Of Portrait Photography In West Africa. Works of Seydou Keïta of Mali, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere of Nigeria, and Malian photographer Malick Sidibé will be displayed. Flashback Friday! Last Fall, The Booth had the honor of joining The Africa Center to recreate historical photographs from West Africa. We can't wait for the next inspired Photo Booth project! See a few of our recreations (right) along with the originals (left) below.

Richard Avedon in Photo Booth History.

August 21, 2015

The modern concept of the Photo Booth originated 90 years ago by Anatol Josepho. After his arrival from Russia in 1923, Josepho successfully showcased the first Photo Booth in 1925 on Broadway, New York City. Within the first 6 months more than 280,000 people used the popular photo booth.

As a team favorite, we were happy to learn about Richard Avedon's use of the photo booth. In 1957, Esquire magazine delivered one of Mutascope’s art deco booths to Avedon’s New York studio.

“According to the article, Avedon ‘has long asserted that true photographic talent cannot be restrained by a camera’s technical limitations.’ The Esquire editors picked celebrities and challenged Avedon to produce photographs. The resulting photomatic essay is stunning, including images of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote and Ethel Merman.” – From ‘A History of the Photobooth’, PanModern.com

An Impressive Camera For A 9 Year Mission.

July 15, 2015

NASA’s New Horizons probe finally reached Pluto and its dwarf moon, Charon. After traveling 9 years and 3.6 billion miles, New Horizons took hundreds of images on Tuesday morning. With three cameras on board, the most impressive is "Ralph." A camera equipped with a 75mm lens at f/8.7, capable of capturing visible light and some infrared light. As New Horizons traveled away from the sun, temperatures drop causing materials to shrink. Lisa Hardaway, an engineer at Ball Aerospace in Colorado knew "Ralph" would have to be built almost entirely of one type of material.

“We actually built the mirrors and the chassis out of aluminum so that as they shrink, they would shrink together, to maintain the same focal length. We could do a reasonable test on Earth and still expect the same quality image,” Hardaway says.

Even the camera’s mirrors were made out of aluminum. To turn dull aluminum into mirrors, Ball sharpened it with diamonds. The lens was one of the few pieces of the camera that could be safely made out of glass.

A huge mission. An impressive camera. One set of historic photographs.

The Earliest Color Photographs Were Taken Over 100 Years Ago.

June 25, 2015

Mervyn O'Gorman was an accomplished English electrical and aircraft engineer. His interest in photography led him to become a pioneer of color photography. In 1913, O'Gorman composed the photographs below, today they are featured in many exhibitions around the world. Using the Autochrome Lumière process, he skillfully captured his daughter, Christina in a series of color photographs. The shallow depth of field was created by long exposures and a large aperture, a style many photographers appreciate. Our team enjoys taking on photographer inspired projects, O'Gorman may be our next one!