[Photo Booth Self-Portrait]

From the Getty Museum record

Demonstrating his belief that the apparatuses of popular culture are a legitimate means to produce art, Andy Warhol embarked on a series of photo booth photographs in the 1960s. Inherently a device for producing self-portraiture, the format allows for instantaneousness and spontaneity within the fixed setting of the booth and a controlled time frame. In this strip of four images, Warhol played with the notion of disguise through gestures and props while the camera automatically exposed each frame. Although automatic photography machines were introduced as early as 1889, it was not until 1925 that Anatol Josepho patented the Photomaton, which produced a strip of eight photographs in eight minutes. Immediately successful, the photo booth inspired one writer in 1927 to enthuse: *As to the pictures? I have been frequently and expensively photographed, with mellow lights, and shaded lights, soft-focus cameras and the rest of it. . . . For me, the little bird in the camera has always been cuckoo. The photomaton restored my tottering self-respect.* Gift of Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr.