March 10, 2005
PICTURE THIS
I've always thought it would be cool to have a photo booth in my house. Not that I'd use it all that much, but it would be quite the topic of conversation. One of my favorite photos of me and my son is a four-pic strip I have from when he was about 1 and I had taken him to the mall.
Then I saw this New York Times article on how they're becoming de rigeur among the hoi polloi: [Link]
Formerly relegated to passport and visa offices (where they have now been replaced by digitized versions or an actual person with an actual camera), the old-fashioned photo booth is making a comeback. Bars and restaurants in San Francisco and New York are using them to attract customers, and individuals are buying them for their homes. But perhaps not surprisingly it is in Hollywood where they have become the toy du jour, with celebrities installing them as permanent party gimmicks for guests who never tire of seeing themselves in close-up. "There's no better foreplay than to have someone dive deeper into their own vanity on their own turf," said Dave Navarro, the guitarist with Jane's Addiction whose recent memoir, "Don't Try This at Home," features his photo-booth portrait on the book jacket and many photo strips inside.For more than a year Mr. Navarro kept an old photo booth in his house to document visitors for the memoir, and though he has relegated it to the garage, his wife, Carmen Electra, won't let him get rid of it altogether.
"She thinks it's art," he said on the phone one recent morning from their home. "Is that what you said, honey?" Ms. Electra, an actress and a guest performer with the Pussycat Dolls, said yes, it was.
When Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra co-opt your electronic fetishes, it's time to get a new electronic fetish.
Posted by Jeff at March 10, 2005 07:49 AM
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