The Most Famous Photo Booth Shots

Throughout the years, the core aspect of photo booths that has made them stand out and endure to this very day is their unique mix of individuality and intimacy.

From purikura culture in Japan to the networking opportunities found with a unique corporate photo booth hire, they are an opportunity to capture a moment without the need for huge amounts of preparation or considerable expense, in a similar way to selfies.

Historically the photo booth setting has been the great equaliser, with everyone up to and including A-list celebrities and politicians showcasing a personal, private side, often taken before they would become famous.

Here are some of the most unique famous pictures taken in a photo booth.

John Lennon

Part of one of the most legendary songwriting duos in history, a rather unique picture of the then-unknown singer for a band recently renamed from The Quarry Men to The Beatles was taken in a photo booth in 1960.

What makes this picture so notable is that it was a one-of-a-kind picture taken either as part of a passport photo session in Liverpool or as soon as he arrived in Hamburg for one of the band’s earliest and most memorable tours, which ended when almost the entire band was deported.

It was taken during a time when The Beatles were slowly becoming the legendary band that it is today, and looking at the 19-year-old in the picture leads one to wonder if he knew at that point how famous he would become.

Buddy Holly

Taken in a booth in Grand Central station alongside bassist Waylon Jennings in 1959, the pioneer of rock and roll Buddy Holly looked at ease with the world as he made a bunch of silly faces in picture after picture, but it is impossible to look at this strip of photographs outside of a truly tragic context.

They were taken in January 1959, and just two weeks later Mr Holly, Ritchie Valens and ‘The Big Bopper’ JP Richardson would die after the Beechcraft Bonanza plane that was carrying them crashed soon after takeoff in an event known simply as ‘The Day The Music Died’.

Salvador And Gala Dalí

When many people think of Salvador Dalí, they inherently think of the enigmatic artist with the thin moustache that would make him one of the most recognised artists in the world and in some cases more famous than his artistic works.

However, behind the eccentricity and before the fame there was this picture of him with his wife Gala taken in the early 1930s, before his fame, unique personal demeanour and signature moustache.

It shows the personal face a photo booth shows as opposed to the one seen through nearly every other lens.

James Dean

The voice of a generation of teenagers in the mid-1950s, most pictures of James Dean depict him as the Rebel Without A Cause, replete with his signature leather jacket, cigarette in one hand and a smouldering expression.

Behind the archetype of cool, however, was a bright student who needed glasses to see properly and initially studied pre-law at Santa Monica College before becoming an actor full-time, and it is this side of James Dean that we see in a pair of pictures taken in a photo booth in 1949.

It shows two completely different sides to him; one the serious but still smiling student complete with his large glasses, and the other showing a look of open joy quite at odds with the actor and his legacy.