Passport photo machine

From the end of the 19th century, various procedures of automatic photography came into existence. The invention of the passport photo booth was based on a system of automated exposures followed by the development of the negative and its immediate small format printing. Anatol Marco Josepho submitted a patent in 1924 in New York.

In 1889 in Paris, Enjalbert presented an automatic photography system during the Exposition Universelle (world fair), which turned out not to lead anywhere in particular. In 1893 in Hamburg, Conrad Bernitt showed off the Bosco Automatic, two cameras which were set off by a coin being introduced, and produced tintypes. It was only in 1910 that photographs start to be printed on strips of paper.

The first public automatic photo booth was installed in 1926 in New York, and the Photomaton Company founded in 1927 was active from its very beginnings both in Europe but also in China and Japan. At that time it produced six different poses which were delivered within eight minutes, with some models able to print out portraits in the postcard format. Round about 1925, Siemens & Halske develop a photographic booth. In Switzerland, the Prontophot Company, founded in 1833, produced its first cameras during the Second World War. Today it belongs to the English group Photo-Me.

Both fun and functional (for identity photographs), the photo booth soon became a big hit with artists too…

 

 

Illustration:
Automaton for passport photos Photo me Auto-photo, England, circa 1965.
The model can choose to pose with a white background, or a curtain. In three minutes he gets four different poses for two francs… an interesting detail to notice on the texts on the camera: when it was put into service, the same service only cost one franc! The left side of the camera contains, in addition to the preset camera, a small automatic laboratory for developing the prints. A specialized company takes care of its follow-up and maintenance, it is here Copyphot SA in Geneva which ensured this maintenance.