When I came to Japan in 2015 and was dating here, I was taken to purikuras in multiple occasions and let me tell you it's totally different experience from the Western photo booths. Both the machines, abilities and creativity of pros managing them made me very surprised in many ways.
Purikura is not just taking photos of yourself in a photo booth. There is a strong cultural aspect to it, especially for school-aged girls, and I’m honestly surprised hasn’t really made it over to the US in any big way because it’s pretty fun.
The booths are large and fit 4-5 people. Even back in the early 2000s, they had fancy ring lights, touch screens, keyed-in green screen backgrounds, and automatic face retouching. They all had different themes as well. Arcades had/have whole floors of them, and sometimes would have costumes you could put on. Booths would often change seasonally, putting out different themes or gimmicks so you could come back and see different ones.
Once you take your photos, you get to decorate them on screens on the outside of the booth. You add digital stickers, write/draw on them, tweak the editing, and choose the layout you want. Then you print! They have scissors to cut up the pictures and divvy them out. The printed photos also have sticker backing so you can stick them to your cell phone, your journal, whatever.
Lots of girls collect them, swap with friends, and/or take them to commemorate particular events in their lives. It’s also a popular date activity, much like photo booths outside of Japan. But it’s a pretty far cry from the photo booths you’re describing. Honestly it’s a lot more similar to Snapchat, but like 30 years ago.
Silly observation but the avatar 'Jack Frost', the snowman looking character on the attract screen was also used as a character in the early 'Persona' video game series also produced by Atlus.
This is a bit false. After phones started adding cameras in 2002, only 3G phones started adding front facing cameras, because it looked like we would use videotelephony over the 3G-324M standard. The first 3G phones available in the UK in 2003 were also the first phones with front facing cameras, NEC e606 and Siemens U10.
Gen Z takes selfies with the higher quality back-facing camera using 0.5x zoom. You can't see yourself while taking the photo, but that's part of the appeal.
A lot of older cameras (and early phones too) would have a small mirror next to the lens, specifically for taking photos like that. The word selfie is kind of recent. The concept of taking a photo of yourself is probably as old as the invention of the camera.
I remember watching a podcast at the time where they were making fun of the word selfie for being an absurd unnecessary word. I remember vehemently agreeing.
I'm from the generation where that was the only option (and I still wasn't a kid then). I kind of liked the mystery, but overall I still prefer the front camera for selfies nowadays.
They still have modern versions of these machines at arcades in tokyo today, I just used some recently. The photo booth is gamified in the sense that you are timed throughout the process and are given some poses to try and replicate, and you only get two photos (which you choose) digitally, plus a selection of a few for the printed stickers. You can still get digital copies of the rest of the photos online for a fee.
It's pretty fun! The small amount of gamification adds an additional layer of excitement to the photo booth.
Indeed. In the hip parts of Taipei entire storefronts have sprung up that are dedicated to photo booths. Inside, they have extravagant props like laundromat, elevator, etc. It’s weird but also fun I guess?
I think this boom started here in Korea, I remember they were already growing quickly here back in 2018 (7 years ago, scary how time flies). They're now exporting them all over the world, I talked to someone who helps run one of the chains and there's a lot of demand from South-East Asia.
It seems after making it several times to the front page in HN the author has decided to give this (apart from the ads) really interesting blog a new try... I hope they find a less intrusive way to monetize it.
Yes, annoying. The article feels like it's building to a point and then they end with effectively: lots of people tried them, they're not so popular now. The End.
Oh such a setting obviously exists, but it's annoying having dozens of HN related tabs clutter Firefox, there are convenient gestures that allow to quickly switch between article and comments, etc.
We had photo booths back when I was a kid, 50 years ago. There's plenty of evidence in my mom's family photos that selfies/group selfies aren't new.
There's a photo booth as part of the plot in one of my favorite movies, Amélie.
When I came to Japan in 2015 and was dating here, I was taken to purikuras in multiple occasions and let me tell you it's totally different experience from the Western photo booths. Both the machines, abilities and creativity of pros managing them made me very surprised in many ways.
Purikura is not just taking photos of yourself in a photo booth. There is a strong cultural aspect to it, especially for school-aged girls, and I’m honestly surprised hasn’t really made it over to the US in any big way because it’s pretty fun.
The booths are large and fit 4-5 people. Even back in the early 2000s, they had fancy ring lights, touch screens, keyed-in green screen backgrounds, and automatic face retouching. They all had different themes as well. Arcades had/have whole floors of them, and sometimes would have costumes you could put on. Booths would often change seasonally, putting out different themes or gimmicks so you could come back and see different ones.
Once you take your photos, you get to decorate them on screens on the outside of the booth. You add digital stickers, write/draw on them, tweak the editing, and choose the layout you want. Then you print! They have scissors to cut up the pictures and divvy them out. The printed photos also have sticker backing so you can stick them to your cell phone, your journal, whatever.
Lots of girls collect them, swap with friends, and/or take them to commemorate particular events in their lives. It’s also a popular date activity, much like photo booths outside of Japan. But it’s a pretty far cry from the photo booths you’re describing. Honestly it’s a lot more similar to Snapchat, but like 30 years ago.
I used to love the basic photo booths in the malls in Canada as a kid.
East Asian selfie culture and photo booths are notorious for extremely heavy filters, which reminds me of the early Myspace/Photoshop days:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AxUbEkfatG4
Silly observation but the avatar 'Jack Frost', the snowman looking character on the attract screen was also used as a character in the early 'Persona' video game series also produced by Atlus.
This is a bit false. After phones started adding cameras in 2002, only 3G phones started adding front facing cameras, because it looked like we would use videotelephony over the 3G-324M standard. The first 3G phones available in the UK in 2003 were also the first phones with front facing cameras, NEC e606 and Siemens U10.
As far as I'm aware the first phone with a front-facing camera was the Kyocera VP-210, released in Japan in 1999.
Gen Z takes selfies with the higher quality back-facing camera using 0.5x zoom. You can't see yourself while taking the photo, but that's part of the appeal.
A lot of older cameras (and early phones too) would have a small mirror next to the lens, specifically for taking photos like that. The word selfie is kind of recent. The concept of taking a photo of yourself is probably as old as the invention of the camera.
I remember taking such pictures in the '90s and and calling them "autofoto" and I thought I was very clever.
I remember watching a podcast at the time where they were making fun of the word selfie for being an absurd unnecessary word. I remember vehemently agreeing.
In hindsight I don't know wth I was thinking.
I'm from the generation where that was the only option (and I still wasn't a kid then). I kind of liked the mystery, but overall I still prefer the front camera for selfies nowadays.
I'm pretty sure the success of Purikura in Japan was the inspiration behind the Game Boy Camera / Game Boy Printer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Camera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Printer
I remember Sonny Onoo, Eric Bischoff's friend at WCW was taking credit for inventing the Selfie
They still have modern versions of these machines at arcades in tokyo today, I just used some recently. The photo booth is gamified in the sense that you are timed throughout the process and are given some poses to try and replicate, and you only get two photos (which you choose) digitally, plus a selection of a few for the printed stickers. You can still get digital copies of the rest of the photos online for a fee.
It's pretty fun! The small amount of gamification adds an additional layer of excitement to the photo booth.
It's booming again in East Asia.
Indeed. In the hip parts of Taipei entire storefronts have sprung up that are dedicated to photo booths. Inside, they have extravagant props like laundromat, elevator, etc. It’s weird but also fun I guess?
SF, NYC, and else where
Behind the Curtain: Inside the Revival of New York’s Vintage Photo Booths: https://web.archive.org/web/20250822165247/https://www.nytim...
From vintage to viral: Photo booths are making a comeback in the Bay Area: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/from-vintage-to-vi...
Vintage Photo Booths Are Back, and Baffling Newbies. ‘It’s Not an iPad.’: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vintage-photo-booths-are-back-a...
I think this boom started here in Korea, I remember they were already growing quickly here back in 2018 (7 years ago, scary how time flies). They're now exporting them all over the world, I talked to someone who helps run one of the chains and there's a lot of demand from South-East Asia.
Way too many ads, won't read (uBlock doesn't work in the browser that's integrated in my HN reader app)
It seems after making it several times to the front page in HN the author has decided to give this (apart from the ads) really interesting blog a new try... I hope they find a less intrusive way to monetize it.
Yes, annoying. The article feels like it's building to a point and then they end with effectively: lots of people tried them, they're not so popular now. The End.
I can only suggest switching to Firefox then, or finding an 'open external links in browser' setting perhaps?
Oh such a setting obviously exists, but it's annoying having dozens of HN related tabs clutter Firefox, there are convenient gestures that allow to quickly switch between article and comments, etc.
Octal uses the OS Safari view for its in-app browser which uses whatever ad blocker you have installed
I didn't see a single ad but I was on a desktop with UBO lite.
[dead]
[dead]
[dead]
[dead]
That's by definition not a selfie since it's expected to be a group activity.
What additional requirements do selfies have, other than the photographer/camera operator being in the shot? Group selfies aren't a thing?
Group selfies are a thing, but one-person selfies also are.
Group selfie is definitely a thing
It’s an ussie
I call it a "bothie" or an "all-ee" depending on context. But I like "Ussie"! Ty.
it's all in the name.