Photobooth

The Art of Waiting’s summer contest hearkens back to a simpler time. A time when waiting for your betty crocker leftovers to reheat in the sears roebuck oven didn’t seem like an eternity. A time when waiting for the television commercial to end was more of a fascination than an annoyance. A time when waiting 3 minutes for a strip of 4 pictures to drop into the slot was the only option. You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout Willis. Old style, wet chemistry, dip ‘n’ dunk photobooths have a special niche in the analogue photo world, and as a staple of summer carnivals, festivals, and fairs for many decades, they seemed to be an appropriate subject for the summer contest. So, instead of keeping you waiting around and enduring my self-indulgent storytelling, I’ll get to the details.

I’ve collaborated with Meags Fitzgerald, (not pronounced Meegs, but Megs) an interdisciplinary artist who has been infatuated with photobooths for the better part of the last decade. Meags has created the Art of Waiting photobooth contest title image on this page, and will be one of the contest judges, and our guest blogger periodically while the contest is running.

Entry to this contest is a little more involved than the spring contest; you’ll need to do a little more waiting and get a little more creative. The first thing you’ll need to do is locate the nearest old fashioned photobooth. If you don’t know where the nearest booth is, the guys at photobooth.net might be able to give you a hand. Once you’ve located a photobooth and you have the appropriate spare change, do your thing.

Need inspiration? You might want to check out a couple of posts from Meags: here or here or look at some of the books listed on photobooth.net [Fotofix is the most mindblowing] or just sit back and smile! You can even practice your poses here, but no cheating; all submissions must be purely analogue!

Next, since you have no other choice, you’ll wait 3 minutes for the one-of-a-kind photo strip to develop. Meags tells me it’s more like 2-1/2 minutes, but when I was at the mall with the kids, it felt like forever. This three minute wait is the core of this contest; you’ll need to creatively document your wait and submit that as well. Contemplate, philosophize, create, observe, write, make, capture… something. In case you’re wondering, here’s what’s going on inside the machine while you’re waiting:

Now, after you’ve admired your photos, send everything to the Art of Waiting, 11306 70 Street, Edmonton, AB, T5B 1T2, so that I receive them before September 1st, 2010

The entries will be posted periodically throughout the summer on the blog, and will be judged on three qualities: best narrative, most “out of the box” idea, and best “wait”. At the end of the contest, all entries will be added to Meags’ ever growing photostrip archive to be eventually and quite possibly fashioned into something wonderful of unknown purpose and dimension.

Category #1: Best Narrative – Tell us a story!

Judges: Brian Meacham / Tim Garrett, co-creators and co-maintainers of photobooth.net
Prize: a limited edition photobooth book “Emotions” (made through the collaborative efforts of attendees of the 2005 International Photobooth Convention, courtesy of photobooth.net) & a photobooth.net t-shirt (in your size and colour! courtesy of filmfridge.com)

Category #2: Most “Out of the Box” Idea – Put on your thinking cap and knock our socks off!

Judge: Meags Fitzgerald, interdisciplinary Canadian artist and Canada’s leading (self proclaimed) photobooth expert
Prize: a paperback copy of Nakki Goranin’s American Photobooth & a quad cam and film (courtesy of our friend Nic Nichols at fourcornerstore.com)

Category #3: Best “Wait” – Give us a glimpse of your own 3 minutes!

Judge: Matt Charnock, a misplaced Englishman in the Danish countryside and intensely creative (if only sometimes slightly inappropriate) photographer/lomographer
Prize: a split cam and film (courtesy of fourcornerstore.com) and a COVETED INVITATION to JOIN the Art of Waiting as a contributor for the remainder of 2010)

To summarize:

1. Find an old school, wet-chemistry photobooth
2. Do your thing
3. Creatively document your 3 minute Wait.
4. Mail everything (snail mail!) to:
   the Art of Waiting
   11306 70 St.
   Edmonton, AB
   Canada, T5B 1T2
   so that I get it before September 1st, 2010
   (be sure to include the location of the photobooth!)
5. Wait.

[edit: June 29, 2010]

Here are some posters you can print off and post on or near a photobooth to encourage others to give it a try!
Links to their creators can be found here.