Portrait Studio and Retro Camera Shop Coming Soon to Valencia

I have been walking past this storefront on Valencia and 23rd for the past few weeks curious as to what it was all about.  I was hoping that it would be a grade-school-esque photo studio with rapey space backdrops and and mullet wigs, but I figured that'd probably be too good to be true.  Lucky for us, Photobooth co-owner Vince wrote in to tell us about it:

Photobooth is the twisted dream of two local alternative photographers, myself (Vince Donovan) and Michael Shindler.    I've been wandering the Mission for years shooting portraits on the street and in bars with an old Polaroid camera.   Michael is a tintype artist.  He has been at the center of reviving the centuries-old tintype process and making it modern again.   One night over too many margaritas at the Latin American Club we decided we wanted our own shop where we could really introduce people to the fun of alternative photography.

So Photobooth is a portrait studio where anyone can walk in and get a portrait done instantly using one of these alt techniques.  We're going to have good music and good art on the walls, so it'll be a nice place to hang out.  Our gallery will be devoted exclusively to local photographers working in alternative techniques, so we'll be having lots of openings and events.

We'll also sell retro camera gear (refurbished Polaroid cameras) and film.  We'll be carrying the full Lomography line of alternative camera gear, as well as the new Polaroid film from The Impossible Project.

So, no promise of 80s backdrops, but their website indicates there will be some costumes and area homeless people for loan.

Comments (9)

I have to admit, I pretty happy that alt photography is a thing now. How many pictures of chicks with mustaches does the world need? Good luck guys, new business are always a good thing.

That’s an awfully large booth.

fuck. depending on the openings and the amount of free tecate that place could be pretty chill.

Can we ban chain thinking along with chain retail?

Hipsterism is becoming a cult of well, hipsterism.

You don’t need a mass presence anymore, if you have zeitgeist.

How many commercial photographers still do retro? Unless you’re on a special movie project or something, or maybe just for the love of it… Anyway, hope you’re having fun with your photobooth.

what’s “rapey” about a space backdrop?

Thanks for the shout-out Kevin. We’re looking forward to all of you folks dropping by. Will there be weirdo retro backdrops? Oh yeah. Tell us what you want and if it’s weird enough we’ll get it.

I like this idea. But I still keep thinking that their graphix were designed by apple.