{"id":40927,"date":"2016-01-05T19:27:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/?p=40927"},"modified":"2016-01-05T19:42:40","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:42:40","slug":"strip-it-down-photo-booths-as-journaling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/fr\/journal\/strip-it-down-photo-booths-as-journaling\/","title":{"rendered":"Strip It Down: Photo Booths as Journaling"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece is part of a month-long Wanderlust and YOGANONYMOUS series about the power of journaling.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Journaling<\/a> has always provided a medium for me to reflect on my life, travels, relationships, and hopes for the future. Reading old entries, I bring myself back to those moments\u2014the journals\u00a0help me\u00a0recall memories that I could’ve otherwise forgotten. About the time I started college, however, the frequency of my journal entries started to dwindle. The desire\u00a0to fill pages came more from pressure than pleasure. I instead started focusing on photography, to capture moments in real time, but rarely printed the photos or took time to look back on them.<\/p>\n

My interest in photography didn’t start when I stopped journaling. From a young age, anytime my family would see a photo booth we would stop to take\u00a0a photo. These were usually a\u00a0four-picture strip of goofy poses<\/a>, crammed into awkward positions, but bursting with\u00a0big smiles. When I moved to San Francisco, I found that\u00a0several\u00a0bars had photo booths, which when fueled by late night fun greatly contributed to my collection of these strips. These photo booth photographs became a physical representation of would-be\u00a0journal entries.<\/p>\n

Photo booth photos have a distinct quality. For $5 you get 15\u00a0seconds to take four frames in a small space, usually with unforgiving lighting. In the age of ubiquitous photo editing tools (even on our cell phones!), these strips catch you off guard, offering a more uninhibited expression than a regular posed photo. Conversely, when planned beforehand, these strips can\u00a0tell a story<\/a>. I have left thank you notes through photo strips holding signs up through each photos, and wished people happy birthday. People have proposed to their lovers, asked friends to be in their wedding party, and created invitations through photo strips.<\/p>\n

When I moved into a new apartment, I created a wall for all of these photo booth strips. To this day I vow to take a photo at every booth I see, and get excited to see what each new booth has to offer. Some booths have more frames, duplicate prints, random backgrounds, or\u2014as was the case in Japan\u2014a custom soundtrack<\/a> for the photo session.<\/p>\n

If photo booths fell off our radar with the advent of digital photography, they’re definitely having a resurgence. You’ll see photo booths\u00a0popping up more often these days at bars, weddings, holiday parties\u2014even in people\u2019s homes. Here are some ideas to get started making your own photo booth journal:<\/p>\n