'Dying breed' photo booth art project brings 'a lot of joy'

Ramsgate artist Karen Vost dedicated her community art project The Love Booth to her ex-partner Michael Dowling, who died earlier this year. 

“One of the last conversations I had with Michael was about a photo of him and myself and [their children] Esme and Jack taken in a photo booth,” she tells me. 

“He sent me a number of really lovely photos of us all, but not that one. And that was our last moment.” 

It wasn’t until Karen showed the pictures to her daughter, now 21, did she learn that Esme had the family photo booth snap that had been taken long ago. 

This family exchange echoes a number of conversations that have taken place during The Love Booth, where the experience of taking a pic in a photo booth has sparked a memory of an old photo of friends, family or lovers. 

“People pull out old photos or ask ‘where’s that photo of me and dad’ [for example]. A lot of [the project] is about looking back as well as looking forward.”

There was a couple - the timeline suggests they were an older couple - who dated while young but broke up only to get married after rekindling their relationship 35 years after first parting ways. The pair turned up to the photo booth to recreate a strip of photos they had taken together the first time round, and which they brought with them in a frame. 

A simple and accessible project, and one that encapsulates community and personal histories, The Love Booth is based around an analogue photo booth, supplied by Autofoto, which has been temporarily homed inside The Queen’s Head pub on Ramsgate’s seafront. One of just around 150 analogue photo booths still in operation in the UK, it will be there until June 30. 

Since the photo booth arrived in May, Karen and her current partner Paul Collins, who oversees the project’s technical aspects, have been hosting events and taking workshops based around having your photo taken in the photo booth, while documenting the stories that have emerged as people interact with it. 

“We chat while they are waiting and ask what their thoughts are,” says Karen, who is also a teacher and arts psychotherapist. “There’s nothing formal about any of it. It’s more spontaneous - telling a story or asking what people thought of it.”

People then have the option to contribute their photos and stories to become part of an exhibition at Ramsgate Train Station in July and August, and as part of an audio-visual installation at The Crane Shed during Ramsgate Festival of Sound in September. Karen however, who hates having her photo taken, stresses that people don’t have to contribute their photo, they can just “enjoy the experience”.

It’s a happy coincidence that The Love Booth coincides with the 100th anniversary of the analogue photo booth and 200 years of British Rail passenger trains, as Karen says “none of this was planned”. Instead, it was her photo booth-reminiscent light box installation at Margate Arts Club as part of Margate Pride 2024, and the research that went into that project, which first sparked the idea. 

"Watching people's reactions and their response to the work, I thought there was something quite magical about it,” Karen explains. “It just seemed it had legs on it.” 

Aside from providing a space for the LGBTQ+ community and people whose relationships were considered a social taboo at the time, photo booths became a “really well used machine” by families and folk who couldn’t afford to hire a professional when the contraption came into operation in Britain during the 60s. The absence of a photographer “freed people up” says Karen. 

“It was a lot about families and marriages and friendships. People used photo booths on dates, at that awkward bit where they wanted to get closer to someone. It was a kind of a bridge.” 

Has this understanding shaped the project? “I’m a really inclusive person,” Karen says, adding she is aware that history is made up of paintings of aristocrats, the upper middle class and those who could afford having their portrait taken. 

“I wanted to be able to represent everyone, and do something people could connect to,” she goes on. “I wanted The Love Booth to be an inclusive project and to be attractive to the young, old and to different racial groups. I wanted people to experience art with the understanding that the picture they give us becomes part of a collaborative piece of art and archive and that they are the artist.”

To this extent, placing the booth in a pub rather than a gallery or community centre, or say the Tate Modern or Selfridges where two are located, makes the project more accessible and removes any barriers to art people might have. “[Those places] are where a certain type of person goes, and I really didn’t want that,” Karen says. 

Practically however, the booth “had to be in a public place” for their mechanics. “The machine had to be in regular use,” Karen explains. “It had to be around a lot of people. We’re lucky to have one in Thanet. This kind of booth is a dying breed.”

Since its launch, The Love Booth has “brought a lot of joy” says Karen, who adds: “and that’s what I wanted.

“We can easily find our differences but not our commonalities, particularly politically. And [the photo booth’s playfulness] irons that out.” 

For Karen, she gets a kick from seeing people’s legs under the curtains, rammed in and sitting on each other; the flicking of the photo as it develops and dries; and watching younger generations interact with pre-digital processing and a physical photograph rather than an Instagram post. “They’ve not had that experience of waiting for the four minutes for the photo to come out,” she says. 

Karen estimates around 550 people have had their photos taken as part of The Love Booth, with 200 strips contributed to the wider project. People have come dressed up or in an outfit, while “lots” have had their photo taken with their dogs. Perhaps surprisingly, only one person gave the camera a cheeky boob flash.

“Someone said I can’t come because I don’t have a partner,” says Karen, “but the project is about loving yourself. 

“People have taken photos of themselves and that’s fine. You don’t have to snog someone in the booth, or be in a family or have loads of friends.”

The photo booth will remain in The Queen’s Head until Monday, June 30. There are no remaining public-facing workshops scheduled. However, you can use the photo booth during pub opening hours for £5 and submit the image to the project by tagging The Love Booth on Instagram. Follow on social media for details of a potential closing event.