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Kathy Stone's avatar

In the learn something new everyday, a Photo Manager Colleague just shared a link to a type of old photo I had never heard of. Photomatic prints from the Photomatic Photo Booths. Photomatic booths came out in 1934, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1960. The prints were framed with metal, cardboard or plastic depending on the era. Here is the link to the article https://phsc.ca/.../2021/10/Photomatic-dating-guide-v1.1.pdf My birthday is coming up if anyone would like to send me one of these for my collection :)

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Barbara at Projectkin's avatar

Hey, Kathy, that dreaded "link collapse syndrome" ate your link. Try this one. https://phsc.ca/camera/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Photomatic-dating-guide-v1.1.pdf While exploring that I realized...Oh, wait... I even know someone who has some. Victoria Olson wrote a piece about them here: https://vcolsen.substack.com/p/photomatic-portraits-1937-b9e714e38af2

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Kathy Stone's avatar

Thanks for fixing the link. And the other reference!

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Derrick Townsend's avatar

Thank you for inspiring me to look back at the "unknown" photos in my family collection. You both have provided some great tips for sleuthing out who is in them. I have my work cut out for me!

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Kathy Stone's avatar

Thanks - will be watching for some stories!

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Ann Larkham's avatar

Hey Kathy & Barbara

Great episode of Kathy's Corner - sorry I had to miss it.

Thanks for the recording and the links.

Loved seeing Hazel and hearing her story directly after reading about the photo in her book.

Fascinated to see the "yard-long" photo strip because I have something similar (except not as long!). It is a print but the same format and size as a negative. And what intrigues me is that it has the perforations in the print that you get in a negative. I couldn't tell from the recording if your one had the perforations.

Love to share a photo of it with you but can't see how to share a photo in a comment...sorry!

Ann

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Kathy Stone's avatar

Thanks so much Ann. We missed you.. I will search for the actual photo of that long strip and let you know if it has perforations. Maybe we can research together and figure it out. I am fascinated that you also have one.

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Barbara at Projectkin's avatar

Oh, Ann, you're going to like this Substack thing. No, you can't add images to comments. But when you use a browser to comment, you'll notice a little checkbox at the bottom 👇 that says, "Also share to Notes." That takes your comment (however long it is, by the way) and also shares it to Notes so that all of your followers and subscribers see it. It's then popped into Notes. Voilá.

(Small point, but lately, I've noticed that the "also share... " button is reluctant to accept a check ☑️. That could be a bug on Substack's part or a consequence of the other functions I have on my browser like Grammarly.)

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