Behind the Curtain - The Aesthetics of the Photobooth

Everyone makes their own personal pilgrimage at some point in their life. Whether it's Lumbini or Rome, Mecca or Graceland, certain places will always attract thousands of travellers determined to reach that magical final destination. For me, upon hearing of Musee de L'Elysee's current exhibition, I knew my pilgrimage had to be to Switzerland, to see their Behind the Curtain exhibition. An entire museum dedicated to the best photobooth artists in the world? Heaven is a town called Lausanne!

I flew into Geneva on Friday morning, and after some token sight-seeing took the train around Lake Geneva to Lausanne. I was travelling light but had in my bag several large sheets of paper, a curtain, a roll of black gaffer tape, blu tack, numerous markerpens & inks and my trusty camera. I'd tried to bring scissors as well but the airport officials had deemed me a threat and confiscated them. They'd looked suspiciously at the gaffer tape too but couldn't think of a good reason to remove it. Phew.

After a stroll around the pretty lakeside town of Lausanne and a good night's sleep, I headed to Musee de L'Elysee on Saturday morning. The exhibition itself was fascinating. Such an impressive range of styles, techniques and ideas. For a photobooth fanatic like myself it was genuinely inspiring; especially seeing original works by people like Jan Wenzel & Anita Cruz-Eberhard. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

But I couldn't visit such a fab exhibition without having some of my own fun in the booth at the gallery. The museum staff could not have been more helpful, giving me an exhibition poster to play with, scissors and much support. The booth was proving popular with everyone visiting so there was a lot of waiting between visits inside, but with the help of my tape, curtain and various other props I managed to produce three different pieces inspired by the Behind the Curtain show:

It took a few attempts to get the different quarters of the poster properly aligned, and the flash fades the poster somewhat, but it only seemed appropriate to have a photobooth version of a photobooth exhibition poster!


I also wanted to make something to send to Brian and Tim @ photobooth.net for the International Photobooth Convention happening in California later this month. I'm not able to make it to the convention but I so wish I could, it sounds just great. I don't know Brian and Tim but their site is my most used online photobooth resource and I'm eternally grateful for their dedication to all things photobooth. An inspiration indeed. Continuing the behind the curtain theme, the piece below is for them:

I'd rather be at I.P.C. 2012

I actually made two versions of this, with two different curtains, but one will suffice here! I spent most of the day at the museum, only eventually leaving once I'd exhausted the booth, wandered round the artworks twice, watched Brian Meacham's brilliant montage of clips from films containing photobooths, bought a couple of books and chatted to other visitors. Pilgrimage complete.

The Tyler Hanbury Emporium Strikes Again

These winter months may be holding me back from being outdoors with a camera, but they're certainly not holding me back from being indoors with some junk, and the end of January saw myself and Gini Hanbury uniting once more to create another series of installments for The Tyler Hanbury Emporium. 

Armed with three fifties medicine cabinets, four dummy arms, a flamingo, some bad 80s vinyl and our usual games paraphernalia, we wanted to put together a submission for Bath's Annual Fringe Visual Arts Festival. 

Our work aims to use as much ‘lost property’ as possible to capture and protect remnants of the past. To us, genuine treasure exists in those chucked-in-a-skip, found-in-a-loft, charity-shopped objects that are so often abandoned. The decision to revamp or move on from our fads and crazes is part of a global phenomenon; if someone else has thrown it away, there's a good chance we'll take it back. And that's what The Tyler Hanbury Emporium is all about ~ making us look again at the things we consume and the things we discard.

For Bath's Lost Properties exhibition, we wanted to submit three wooden boxes. Salvaged from an old chemist they originally contained eye-wash, and from the outside they still look innocuous. Once opened, however, they reveal a collection of found objects; all discarded, all once loved. Some seem to mock the notion of vintage, some evoke our own 80s’ childhoods, some just make us grimace or smile sentimentally. Ultimately, though, they all demand we take a second look at the fragile emporiums we build around us, every single day.

Our only sadness? That we couldn't use the dummy arms this time. But wait, dolly, and dummy arms and doll heads are coming. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon....

International Postcard Show 2012

It's that time of year again ... new year resolutions are being squandered and postcards are being made as the Surface Gallery gets ready to host its annual International Postcard Show. I put in a very last minute entry in the form of three postcards. Still using some of the vintage games that form the basis of The Tyler Hanbury Emporium, I wanted to create a series of connected yet random statements:

The exhibition runs from Jan 25th to Feb 11th. See you there!

Sweden v Alphabets

After months and months of trying - and failing - to find large 3D letters, and finally scraping together enough objects and assorted clutter to vaguely assemble an alphabet in the booth, I created my piece and then went away to Sweden. I was expecting many things: blonde beauties, fab architecture, great design, the occasional meatball. I was not expecting to find a country as in love with large scale lettering as I am. Trying to find massive letters in the UK is a mission and a half. Sweden gives them to you on a plate, with a choice of styles, colours and fonts thrown in for good measure. One more reason why Scandinavia rocks.

Alphabetak Strikes Again

Another trip to London, another trip to the Photoautomat in Shoreditch, another set of Alphabetak compositions completed. I even had two helpful assistants! As always they feature the alphabet running A-F along the top row, then G-M, N-T, and finally U-Z along the bottom row. As always they're created entirely in the booth too...

A-Z

From a set of 1950s alphabet flash cards

Oh, Deco

2D hand cut out letters in an art deco font

Object D'Arte

assorted 3D letters & objects

The Font of Knowledge

2D hand cut out letters in a classic serif font

The Alphabetak Series continues...

I am becoming slowly obsessed with all things type. No longer do I see the usual stream of streets and shops as I walk around Nottingham. Instead everything is made up of letters, big and small, bold and bland, booth-worthy and not. I've collected almost an alphabet's worth of 3D objects and letters to hold up inside the booth - no mean feat when you consider assembling twenty-six object d'arte. I've considered theft. My friends are bored of alphabet speak. I actually got excited about the fact that it was Caps Lock Day yesterday. And I'm still eluded by a decent F and a worthy Y.

Half an alphabet - of sorts

I have also been creating several other new alphabets to take to the photoautomat @ Cargo in the next month. Busy saving all my pound coins too! I'm hoping my next post here will actually be the alphabets themselves, although these things have a tendancy to go wrong somehow. My last visit to the booth yielded little. This time I'm armed.

Letter Jumble

The Tyler Hanbury Emporium

Now, this is not a photobooth.

And it doesn't create photostrips.

But it was once a phonebooth. 

And it's still a lot of fun:

It's also just one part of The Tyler Hanbury Emporium - currently on show in Norwich as part of the Shop Art! project in the city centre.

Myself and good friend, Gini Hanbury, love junk. The thrown-in-a-skip, found-in-a-loft, charity-shop-tat kinda junk. If someone else has thrown it away, there's a good chance we'll take it back. And that's what The Tyler Hanbury Emporium is all about ~ a celebration of all things junky-tat, of recycling, of retro games and vintage wares. 

Sometimes, even the old and the discarded looks fresh once again. Or atleast midly amusing for a while....

Gini and I regularly collect, collaborate and create together, inspired by the idea of emporiums of old, the lottery of life and whatever random objects we've actually found. Gini lives in Norwich. I live in Nottingham. The Tyler Hanbury Emporium exists somewhere in between.

  

A 'we are not worthy' nod of credit here must go to Anthony Burrill, whose 'Work Hard & Be Nice To People' poster sneaked into this piece. My favourite life-motto on a postcard!

These pieces and others are currently on show in a window in Westlegate, Norwich, as part of the Shop Art! project. Norwich Arts Centre have organised various otherwise unused shop windows in the centre of the city to be used as exhibition space for a range of artists. Mine & Gini's collaborative work is on display until atleast mid-April.