T H E
P R O D U C E R S
B E R L I N
Smile for the camera
Meet the two Berliners who have breathed life into a dying icon
back in 2003
,
Asger Doenst (
above right
)
and Ole Kretschmann
(
above left
)
were in Zürich to photograph an art performance
when they came across one of the city’s old black-and-white
photo booths. What the two friends experienced was something
akin to love at first sight.
“
It was a case of seeing it and having to have one,” says
photographer Doenst, who installed Berlin’s first Photoautomat in
2004
with Kretschmann, a novelist/scriptwriter. “Initially, I had no
intention of starting a business. I just loved the quality of the picture
and the fact that you got a beautiful, tangible record of a moment.”
Fast forward to the present day, and the two Berliners have
revived a tradition that dates back to the 1950s. There are now 18
Photoautomats in Berlin, where the booths have become
an iconic attraction, as well as in Cologne, London,
Florence, Hamburg, Vienna and Leipzig.
You could say the pair arrived just in time:
in 2003, there were 150 of the booths in
Switzerland, but Schnellphoto AG, the
company that ran them, collapsed in 2005,
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WORDS
TOBY SKINNER
PHOTOS
ASGER DOENST, PHOTOAUTOMAT
leaving just one outside the Zürich home of Martin Balke, who ran
the company with his brother Christoph. It was the Balkes who
taught Doenst and Kretschmann how to maintain the booths.
Since the pair installed their first Photoautomat, the number of
booths has grown through necessity. “We needed more booths
to cover the cost of the paper and the maintenance, so we started
scouring Europe. We found a few in Spain that companies wanted
to throw away – one had birds nesting in it.”
Their involvement grew, too, from a hobby to full-time jobs,
with a workshop and five employees. Soon, people in other cities
wanted Photoautomats, so the pair taught them how to source and
fix them up. “It’s always been strictly for friends and family,” says
Doenst, who insists that expansion has never been the
goal. Instead, it’s to keep a tradition alive.
“
The amazing thing is that they’re built to last
100
years. They’ve been around for the last 40
and almost died out – we want to keep them
going for another 40.”
Visit photoautomat.de for locations
“
I just loved
the quality of the
picture and the fact that
you got a beautiful, tangible
record of a moment”
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T H E R E G U L A R S
