The Love Booth: A joyous and intimate glimpse into private moments
See pictures from The Love Booth exhibition and hear our live Q&A with artist Karen Vost
Walking to the Crane Shed on Ramsgate Harbour on a fairly drab Sunday afternoon, wind howled through boat sails and rattled the various corrugated iron structures like it was lonely and bored.
Inside the shed, however, the final instalment of The Love Booth was a tonic to the grey day. All heart and full of warmth, the exhibition was made up of photos taken on an analogue photo booth that had been stationed at The Queen’s Head several months ago.
Hundreds of self-portraits of varying sizes lined the wall and hung off scaffolding, with strips of familiar and not-so-familiar faces smiling back, pulling faces, or cheerfully contorted, having been snapped between moments. A soundscape played made up of music, and snippets of conversations had by Love Booth participants.
Historically, photobooths provided a degree of privacy, as Love Booth creator Karen Vost explained. Thanks to the absence of a photographer and the ability to pull the curtain closed, photobooths empowered people to be more free in front of the camera than perhaps they usually would - and it appeared photobooths still have this effect on people.
Looking around at the many photographs, it struck me that the whole exhibition was a peek behind that curtain and a glimpse into another person’s private moment, whether that be with their child, dog, partner, themselves or even a piece of pizza - sweet, joyous and intimate.
Andy and I climbed up the scaffolding for a Q&A with Karen. Despite the wind slapping the Crane Shed about, the audio of that conversation has scrubbed up pretty good - have a listen to this edited version of our longer conversation to find out more about this delightful community arts project, anchored in various forms of love.
