Celebrating "Photobooth Dogs"

We are honored to be a part of the promotion of this gorgeous book, Photobooth Dogs, by Cameron Woo, co-founder, publisher and creative director of The Bark magazine. See details at the end of the post on how you can win an amazing package: This book and a year's subscription to The Bark!

So, how many you have ever been to a photobooth and allowed this really cool machine to capture you in a moment in time, say with your best friend, latest beau, or even your four-legged buddy? Raise your paws and hands!

Mr. Woo, who was kind enough to talk with Parental Unit last week, has long been fascinated with this sub-genre of photography, and in fact, personally collected the 100-plus photographs that appear in the book, from antique dealers, flea markets and online vendors. The magazine also invited its readers and collectors to contribute their photobooth pictures, which turned up a real gem: a 3-frame strip of the photobooth inventor, Anatol Josepho, with his terrier (c.1928), from the International Centre of Photography.

Woo noted that before the appearance of the "Photomaton machine" in 1925, "portraiture in general was something that was thought of for the upper classes", but for the first time in history, mechanical photobooths offered the masses an inexpensive and high-quality method for portraiture. And the result was anything but a stuffy, formal photograph of royalty-think of those photos with your best friend where you're convulsed with laughter!

The collection of photos in Photobooth Dogs are "the recordings of a friendship between a person and a dog...the people look like they're from another time, but the dogs are timeless," Woo says.

Here are just two of the mesmerizing photos that appear in the book.

Bringing the photobooth into the 21st century, there's now an I Phone App that simulates a photobooth, believe it or not. So now you can take a picture with your camera phone of you and your pooch, and it puts you in a photobooth scene-how retro-hip is that?


By the way, for those of you not familiar with The Bark, it's been providing literate, contemplative observations of the modern dog culture and lifestyle since 1997.  Their slogan, Dog Is My Co-Pilot, is memorably embraced in each issue, and its articles are written by some of today's best fiction and creative nonfiction writers. In short, it's one fabulous magazine!
                          Here's the latest cover.

So how do you win this fabulous gift package: A beautiful, hard-bound copy of Photobooth Dogs and a year's subscription to The Bark? Just leave a comment on this post. (You must be an official "Follower" to win!). Parental Unit will pick a number between one and 25 and circle it on her calendar-the lucky person or dog who's comment matches that number is the winner! You have until Wednesday, November 17th at 5:00pm to leave a comment-the winner will be announced that evening.

So good luck to you all, and as always, thanks for your support!

Note: In the spirit of full disclosure, Parental Unit did receive a copy of the book and a year's subscription to The Bark as a thank-you for writing this post-lucky gal!

Let me leave you with one more incredible photo from the book, Photobooth Dogs, available for purchase in Barnes and Noble, Borders, Petsmart, and Anthropologie online. For a limited time, you also can purchase this special combo of the book and a one year subscription to The Bark for just $19.95 right here: www.thebark.com/book.

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