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Since I began this photobooth project a few months ago, I’ve been asked several questions about it here, on Twitter, and by friends and family who just shake their heads at me. A few of the same questions have come up, so I thought I’d answer some of them here.

Are these really taken in photobooths, or do you create the scenes in Photoshop?
Every one of these is taken in a real photobooth, in a public venue (typically a bar), during business hours. Also, I exclusively use film photobooths – the old school “dip and dunk” kind. There’s just something about the quality of film that cannot be recreated digitally, in my opinion. I love the subtle differences you find in the film strips that add character to the photos – some booths have crisp white borders, others have thin black borders, some have ragged edges.

I’m extremely lucky in that Chicago is home to a whole lot of vintage photobooths. There are about 25 or so that I’m aware of, although I’ve only visited about half of those so far. Sadly, though, I’m sure it won’t be long before more and more venues get rid of their booths altogether, or replace them with digital ones since they require a lot less maintenance.

I occasionally do minor editing in Photoshop, but only to bump up the exposure on some of the strips that come out a bit too dark.

Why photobooths?
Simple: I absolutely love photobooth photography – the vintage quality of the photos, the spontaneity of cramming into a booth with friends, the excitement of waiting for the strip to develop. As I thought about what I wanted to do with this project, I kept coming back to the idea of capturing mundane scenes in a non-traditional setting – doing dishes, eating breakfast, listening to music – as though a photobooth were following me around, documenting my everyday activities.

As the project has progressed, I’ve become equally interested in exploring more complex or abstract narratives, and am enjoying the challenge of trying to tell a story in four frames.

Are they all done in one take?
In the vast majority of cases, yes. Occasionally I have to do reshoots because the booth isn’t working properly, or I wasn’t quick enough, or it just didn’t quite capture what I was going for. But I’d say that at least 90% of these are done in a single take.

One scene that I reshot a few times was the juggling one. I was not prepared for how difficult it would be to keep juggling when a bright flash of light pops in your eyes. Ironically, after trying it two more times at different venues, the one I went with was the original – shown below – because I felt it told the most interesting story.

I shot this one at the Village Tap in Roscoe Village one afternoon. The photobooth is positioned at the back of the bar, right by the kitchen and about two feet away from tables where customers sit. This day, however, a couple of the cooks were taking their break at the table right outside the booth, watching Spanish soap operas on the TV that sits directly on top of the photobooth.

I waited about 15 minutes or so, thinking that eventually they would have to get back to work. After a while, it became clear that they weren’t going anywhere, so I just took a swig of my beer, grabbed my bag of tricks and headed in.

Once I started juggling and the flash popped, I was temporarily blinded and dropped two of the apples. They rolled onto the ground and out of the booth. I quickly reached out to grab them (frame 3), only to glance up and see the two cooks staring at me, and the apples, with the most disturbed look. So my reaction in the fourth frame is entirely genuine, which I think is why this is my favorite take.

Did you really bring the rabbit head into a photobooth?
Yes. In a giant garbage bag. No one asked questions, which should probably concern us all.

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