Alan Adler, the Photo Booth man

I’m a huge fan of the photo booth. I’ve indulged at every opportunity offered, but I think I was born a little too late for ‘peak photo booth’, and sadly there are very few left. 

There’s one that has always stood out to me, though. It’s quite a famous booth here in Australia, that has sat inside Melbourne’s Flinders Street train station for 65 years.

For 50 of those years, it was owned by a man named Alan Adler. He had a whole bunch of booths across Melbourne, which he ran until a little over two years ago, retiring at the age of 91.

During that time, in the course of servicing those booths, Alan took hundreds and hundreds of self portraits. (Selfies!)

Lucky us: those test shots have become the subject of a huge collection collated into a wonderful book titled Auto-Photo, A Life In Portraits.

You can grab a copy here if you’re keen: metroautophoto.au/shop or at perimeterbooks.com.

Mine came recently, and I’ve been poring over it all week. I’ve been loving the chance to get to know Alan through these photos, as they reveal a small yet lovely piece of his personality. There’s a great interview with Alan inside as well. 

I would have loved to meet the Photo Booth man, but sadly, he passed away last December.

There’s good news, though: a young couple, Chris Sutherland and Jessie Norman, have taken over the running of a bunch of Alan’s photo booths, including the Flinders St location – which still has a few of Alan’s selfies on the outside.

👇 You can follow that journey on instagram, too.

If you’d like to read more about Alan’s life and legacy, hit the links below.

‘It’s been my whole life’: Alan and his photobooths – a picture essay

The famous photobooth at Flinders Street station in Melbourne has been the centre of one family’s life. Alan Adler tells how he got into the industry by chance in 1972, shares photos from down the years and explains why digital just doesn’t have the ‘warmth and character’

Alan Adler, Melbourne’s beloved Flinders Street photobooth operator – in pictures

He was possibly Australia’s most photographed man, having tested his analog photobooths with weekly selfies for more than 50 years

And this one, which talks about his meeting up with Chris and Jessie.

After 50 years, Melbourne says goodbye to iconic photo booth operator

Alan Adler spent nearly half a century maintaining the iconic photo booth outside Flinders Street Station in Melbourne’s CBD.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-10/vic-alan-adler-flinders-street-photo-booth-legacy/104800486

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