A New Melbourne Icon Arrives at South Melbourne Market: The Metro Auto Photo Booth
South Melbourne Market is excited to welcome an authentic analogue photobooth from Metro Auto Photo, joining a rare network of just seven operating booths across Melbourne.
These vintage photobooths are more than a novelty. They’re living pieces of the city’s cultural history - machines that have captured generations of laughter, love, and everyday moments in their signature black-and-white strips.
A Century-Long Tradition
The story begins in 1925 on Broadway in New York City, where the first coin-operated photobooth was patented and opened by inventor Anatol Josepho. Over the decades, photobooths became cherished fixtures: tiny private spaces for everything from passport photos to spontaneous fun with friends and family.
Today, only around 200 analogue photobooths remain in operation worldwide. Melbourne is home to seven of them thanks to the incredible legacy of one man, Alan Adler.
For 50 years, Alan dedicated his life to keeping Melbourne’s analogue booths running, including the beloved Flinders Street booth. Every morning from 6:30am, he would visit his machines, test them by printing his own photo strips, and maintain them piece by piece. His personal archive of hundreds of self-portraits - taken over half a century - was recently showcased in the exhibition Auto-Photo: A Life in Portraits, celebrating the man affectionately known as “the man behind the curtain.”
Alan passed away earlier this year at age 92, but his legacy lives on through Chris Sutherland and Jess Norman, the custodians who now operate Melbourne’s remaining booths as Metro Auto Photo.
Continuing the Legacy
After years of mentorship under Alan, Chris and Jess gave up their nine-to-five jobs to preserve Melbourne’s analogue photobooth culture. Their vision is to place these rare, beautifully restored machines in iconic and culturally significant locations around the city, including Flinders Street Station, The Curtin in Carlton, Hillvale Photo in Brunswick, and now, South Melbourne Market.
“We believe these machines create beautiful tangible memories,” Chris and Jess shared when reaching out to the Market. “It’s one of the few activities everyone can enjoy - from great-grandparents to tiny babies.”
As analogue photography experiences a resurgence, the photobooths have become destinations in their own right, used daily by locals and tourists for everything from wedding announcements to baby milestones, celebrations of life, and yearly family traditions.
Find It in East Aisle
The South Melbourne Market photobooth will be located outside The SuperCool in East Aisle. It’s not coin-operated - simply tap your card to pay, step inside, and enjoy a moment of creative expression and nostalgia.
Whether you're visiting for your weekly shop or showing the Market to a friend, be sure to capture a strip (or two!) and take home a little piece of Melbourne’s photographic history.
A century of photobooth magic lives on - and now, it’s part of the Market.