Auto-Photo: A Life in Portraits

Very little about the photobooth experience has changed since its inception in the early twentieth century. There is a particular charm to its inherent simplicity and repetition. The framing is fixed, as is the lighting, backdrop, and time between photographs. Only we, the subject, are the ones that change.

Co-published by Perimeter Editions and the Centre for Contemporary Photography, 'Auto-Photo: A Life in Portraits' tells the story of Alan Adler, a man who is likely the most photographed person in Australia, and is also perhaps the oldest and longest-serving photobooth technician in the world.

For more than fifty years, Adler maintained a suite of photobooths across Melbourne/Naarm – most notably, at a site near Flinders Street Station – and would undertake weekly testing and servicing on each photobooth across his network. To ensure the focus, flash, and print quality were all up to standard at the end of each service, Adler would take a seat in the booth and produce a test strip of photographs. Through these weekly tests, Adler produced an archive of thousands upon thousands of photographs. While his decades-long operation has contributed to the photography of over a million people, these self-portraits are the only surviving record of Adler’s life’s work – a tangible document of his role in maintaining the photobooth tradition. The images that appear in 'Auto-Photo', which span from the 1970s to the 2010s, give us clues about the person who inhabits them, along with the passing of time. Adler’s gappy grin, comedic expressions, and pet cats intermingle with shifting fashions, retro colour film tints, and an increasing crinkling around the eyes.

In 2018, with the booth at Flinders Street Station facing imminent closure, Christopher Sutherland and Jessie Norman – whose operation later became known as Metro-Auto-Photo – began working with Adler to generate interest in his work and to successfully save his photobooth. Now in his nineties, Adler has since sold his photobooths to Metro-Auto-Photo, who have compiled this publication with the CCP and Perimeter to illuminate Adler, his unique collection, and his impact on Australia’s photography history.

Published by Perimeter Editions x Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne) 
Softcover
256 pages
147 x 256 mm