When the photobooth debuted 100 years ago, it didn’t have a curtain

When the photobooth debuted 100 years ago, it didn’t have a curtain

100 years ago this week the first photobooth debuted on Broadway. An RMIT expert explains the cultural significance behind these machines and how the ways we use them have changed over the years.

PhD candidate Catlin Langford:

“The way we use the photobooths in our cities has varied over the past 100 years. They’re spots to memorialise special people and places, to produce bureaucratic documents, and even as sites for creative, poignant works of art.  

“The curtain is an expected part of the photobooth experience now, giving us a slight sense of privacy in a very public space, but this wasn’t always the case. When it first debuted on Broadway 100 years ago, you were completely on show. 

“Passers-by were encouraged to watch you, poke you, make you laugh, distract you and there was also sometimes an attendant who would shout poses at you. This probably marks the most fundamental change to how we use these spaces today.   

“While digital photobooths are on the rise, there are less than 300 working analogue photobooths left in the world. In Australia we have 11 of them (eight in Melbourne, one in Sydney, one in Adelaide and one in regional Victoria). 

“Using these analogue machines is like stepping back in time. It’s a special experience to use a piece of technology that has been documenting the world and creating memories between people in basically the same way for a hundred years.” 

PhD candidate Catlin Langford is a recent recipient of an ABC TOP 5 media residency. Her PhD, entitled ‘Automatic for the People: Photobooths and Urban Culture’, examines the locations and uses of photobooths within cities across the last 100 years. 

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General media enquiries: RMIT External Affairs and Media, 0439 704 077 or news@rmit.edu.au

22 September 2026

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22 September 2026

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