Today, we all enjoy squeezing into a photo booth with our friends and taking rows of cute instant photos. But where did these little closets of fun originate? Although it seems like a fairly recent craze, photo booths have been entertaining people for generations.

Perhaps the earliest recorded public use of a photo booth was in 1889 at the Paris World’s Fair. This prototype was much larger and slower than the ones we know today. It took up almost an entire room and required a team to produce the photo, which took several seconds to record. Minutes later, a vague ferrotype photo was spat out of the machine. Picture quality was horrible, yet the concept was a hit.

These first machines produced photos on metal strips. It wasn’t until several years later, in 1896, that Carl Sasse developed the first coin-operated, automatic photo machine that created pictures on paper. With this "high-tech" modification, the machine’s popularity grew, and new “booths” were installed across Europe, Canada and the US.

However, these versions still had many flaws. First, none of them was truly self-sufficient. They regularly malfunctioned, both in the photography and in the coin operation. Furthermore, the picture development required a lot of maintenance and produced results with minimal quality.

It wasn’t until 1925 that photo booths came into their own. Russian-born, US immigrant Anatol Josepho created a booth that was enclosed by a curtain and worked automatically. For 25 cents, people could enter and obtain eight photos in eight minutes. The invention was so successful that Josepho found himself wealthy almost overnight. Suddenly, photo booths spread like wildfire across the US.

From there, the photo booth continued to develop. In the 1950s a new version was developed to make basic identity photos. In the 1970s, the photo strips added colour. Throughout the 1980s, young and old alike continued to enjoy the occasional strip of nostalgic photos.

It wasn’t until the mid-1990s, however, that the modern photo booth exploded. As Japan became a powerhouse in innovative technologies, they also began to enhance the photo booth experience. Moving into digital processing and computer-based systems, Japan created the puri Kura craze. These popular booths print photo stickers that can be enhanced in a variety of ways, from backdrops to facial editing.

These days, everyone wants a personal strip of photo booth pictures or stickers. You can find them just about everywhere. You caTypesn even hire a booth for your party or event. What are you waiting for? Say “Cheese”! Types of Events