The Best Vintage Photo Booths in Portland

As with most things in today's culture, vintage is in. Vintage film photo booths, which were first invented by Anatol Josepho in 1925 have had a massive resurgence. The warm, grainy, vintage film vibes that these photo booths produce have become highly sought after thanks to Hollywood celebrities, social media and photographer Bryant Eslava's vintage photo booth project, Booth By Bryant. The problem is, film photo booths are more rare than ever.

It's estimated there are only about 250 publicly usable vintage booths worldwide, which is why these booths can sell for up to $40,000 a piece. So if you're thinking you'll find one in Portland, I hate to break it to you but you're shit out of luck.  

Portland used to be home to a handful of vintage film photo booths. The Ace Hotel (now The Clyde Hotel) in downtown Portland was arguably the most popular vintage photo booth in town, housing a Photo-Me Model 17A from the 1960s. This was a true analog photo booth printing out film photo strips that every celebrity and their mom are posting about online these days. But alas, all good things come to an end.

The Ace Hotel, and every other former vintage photo booth in Portland, have all been converted to digital. From the outside, the shells of these photo booths are still vintage originating anywhere from the 1950s to 1980s, but the guts are digital, housing modern Canon cameras and high quality dye sublimation printers. Vintage style combined with modern technology is the new norm.

So what happened to Portland's vintage photo booths and where can you go to get the next best thing? We asked the queen of Portland's photo booth scene to get the answers.

The Photobooth Chick

Known as "The Photobooth Chick", Jocelyn Dean, has been in the Portland photo booth scene for nearly 20 years. Before stumbling into the world of vintage photo booths, Jocelyn studied film photography in Portland and began her career photographing punk bands around Portland. She always had a love for photo booths but it was only after a trip to Chicago where she got more exposure to the vintage photo booth world and decided to pursue a career in it. While her initial plan was to move to Chicago, as fate would have it a visit to the Ace Hotel in Portland and a run in with their vintage photo booth changed everything.

Over the next 8+ years Jocelyn worked for a local company and grew Portland's vintage photo booth scene to 23 booths across the city. She serviced all the booths to keep them running properly, including the one that started it all for her, the photo booth at the Ace Hotel. It was a labor of love and according to Jocelyn led to a few instances of chemical poisoning, minor electrocutions, and pure exhaustion.

Here's the thing with vintage film photo booths. The upkeep needed for a 40+ year old machine is daunting. Servicing these booths is an act of chemistry. Chemicals, bleach, the whole shebang. If you've ever seen a darkroom in photography imagine something similar but built into an 800lb photo booth and that's what Jocelyn was dealing with.

Not only that, but these photo booths are no longer manufactured. If you thought getting a new part from Ikea for your dresser was hard, imagine how difficult it is to get parts for a photo booth from the 1970s. It's nearly impossible. To add even more chaos to the picture, the only place that the entire vintage photo booth world was getting their paper from was a place in Russia. The Russian supply of paper became scarce and while a few other companies popped up trying to fill the gaps, paper became a major issue.

You can see where this is going. Difficult upkeep, supply issues, chemicals, it all became a pain in the ass to maintain these vintage photo booths. You had to really love photo booths to deal with the constant upkeep. Luckily for Portland, Jocelyn loved it. A turn of events however led to Jocelyn being forced out of the company and replaced by someone off of Craigslist. The 23 photo booths that had become her babies were now in someone else’s hands.

Devastated, Jocelyn was at a loss on what to do next. Would she go back to food service, bartending, bookkeeping? Quickly after she filed for unemployment Jocelyn began getting calls from her old photo booth locations saying "the booth is constantly broken, no one answers my calls!". Maintaining the vintage photo booths was proving difficult for Jocelyn's predecessor and eventually led to the demise of Portland's film-based photo booths.

No sane hotel or bar wanted to deal with a photo booth that was constantly out of order, smelled like chemicals, and was becoming more of a headache than what it was worth. All the analog photo booths that Jocelyn had managed and Portlanders loved were eventually gutted and converted to digital-based photo booths. For Jocelyn though, an opportunity opened up. Her past locations asked her to create her own photo booth company, a dream she always had but was held back from due to cost.

Inspired and running out of unemployment, Jocelyn leveraged her contacts in the photo booth industry, maxed out her credit cards and took out two loans to get 5 vintage style digital photo booths built. She wanted the vintage look but understandably wanted to avoid anymore chemical poisoning and the hassle of hunting down rare parts.

One week before her unemployment ran out, her 5 photo booths arrived and on August 13th 2014 her company, The Photobooth Chick LLC was born. 10 years later and The Photobooth Chick now has 32 photo booths around Portland and rumors of an actual analog film photo booth in the works. I repeat, an analog film photo booth in the works!

Jocelyn truly is the queen of Portland photo booths. This is why there's no one better suited to tell us the best photo booth locations around the city. So without further ado here are the best vintage inspired photo booth locations in Portland according to The Photobooth Chick.

Top 5 Vintage Photo Booths in Portland

1) KEX Hotel lobby, AKA the Pacific Standard Bar

100 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR 97232

Nestled in the Kex Hotel Lobby off MLK Boulevard, the Pacific Standard Bar is the quintessential hotel lobby bar. Voted the Best New Bar by liquor.com in 2023, you're set for quality drinks (you gotta try the All Day Bloody Mary) and quality photo booth photos at the same time. The photo booth at the Pacific Standard Bar is a 1950’s vintage Model 11 cabinet that used to reside at Dig A Pony (RIP) but was rolled down the road to her new home a few years ago.

For some history, the Model 11 photo booth is arguably the most iconic photo booth ever created. Launched in 1955, this was the booth that made photo booths a staple in pop culture. It was even featured in the opening sequence of The Beatles' movie, A Hard Day's Night, with John, Ringo, and George all hiding in the Model 11 from screaming fans. While the Model 11 at Pacific Standard has been retrofitted with a digital camera, you'll still be sitting in a piece of history and the photos continue to have that vintage vibe.

2) Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR 97214

Located in the core of SE Portland in what used to be the old Best Auto Parts warehouse, Holocene is a music + arts venue known for a range of music concerts, immersive art events, and some of the best dance parties you'll ever attend. Naturally, if you're attending an event at Holocene you have to hop in the photo booth that's nestled in the corner of the upper bar and lounge. This photo booth is modeled after the 1950's Model 11 and is all real wood.

3) Laurelhurst Theater

2735 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97214

If you've lived in Portland for any period of time you've likely been to the Laurelhurst Theater. A staple in the community since 1923 and located in the Kerns neighborhood of NE Portland, this is a historic building with a historic photo booth to match. The Laurelhurst Theater photo booth is located in the lobby and similar to Holocene's photo booth, is modeled after the 1950's Model 11.

4) Oaks Park

7805 SE Oaks Park Way, Portland, OR 97202

You can't have crackers without cheese and you certainly can't have an amusement park without a photo booth. Oaks Park has been around since 1905 and believe it or not is actually one of the oldest operating amusement parks in America. It's home to a number of amusement rides, mini golf, an arcade and a roller rink. The roller rink at Oaks Park is where you'll find the photo booth. Lace up some skates, try not to fall on your ass, and then take some photos.

5) Moxy Hotel

585 SW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97205

Centrally located in downtown Portland is the Moxy Hotel. A trendy, playful boutique hotel with a vibrant, modern design, a lively lobby bar and a food cart alley housing Let's Roll PDX, Marky D's and Sun Rice. The photo booth at the Moxy Hotel is wrapped in mirrored steel and is it’s own shiny monolith disco ball. This is a great spot for date night. Hit up the food trucks, get a drink at Bar Moxy and end the night with a smooch in the photo booth.

Final Thoughts

There you have it. A little history on the Portland photo booth scene and some places to visit for your next outing around the city.

While these are some of the best vintage photo booths around Portland's food and bar scene, if you're looking to rent a photo booth for an event, wedding, or party, we can help with that. At Puddles Photo Booth we have a variety of open-air photo booths available to rent year around from Portland to Hood River to Bend and beyond. If you're looking for a traditional black and white photo booth, somewhat similar to what these vintage photo booths produce, we'd highly recommend our Black and White Glam Booth. If you have any questions or photo booth needs, don't hesitate to reach out.

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XOXO,

Connor - Owner of Puddles Photo Booth

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