It had never occurred to me, but “There’s a whole generation of younger people who don’t have any physical photos,” They've swapped the physical for the virtual and life experienced in three dimensions in real time for a simulacrum of life experienced in two dimensions and mediated by a screen.
Photo Booth Museum by Photomatica: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Free to enter, $6.50-$7.50 per photo strip. 2275 Market St., S.F. photomatica.com
By Zara Irshad, Staff writer Jan 3, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
Social media fiends from across the Bay Area have been flocking to Market Street to get their hands on analog photos at San Francisco’s first-ever photo booth museum.
Run by Treasure Island-based photo booth company Photomatica, the space showcases four functioning vintage photo booths that date to the 1950s, one of which prints three photos on the world’s only wide format analog photo strip.
“We do have some of the oldest and most interesting, rarest photo booths in the world,” Photomatica co-founder Matt Dewalt told the Chronicle. “Each one is like a fingerprint, it’s 100% unique and there will never be anything else like that one photostrip you have in your hand. There’s no digital copies of it.”
The museum opened in the Castro on Dec. 12 and allows visitors to try out each of the self-service booths, which range in price from $6.50 to $7.50. Entry to the museum is free. According to Dewalt, the exhibition has been welcoming more than 500 visitors per day in its 500-square-foot space, with a line usually forming out the door. He attributes the popularity largely to social media, where users have been posting photos of their visit.
“We’ve received way more people than we were expecting, (so) we’re going to be building out the back half of the shop with more photo booths,” Dewalt said. “The museum will basically double in size.”
‘Like traveling back in time’: S.F.’s first photo booth museum opens in the Castro
Greg