For more than fifty years, Adler maintained a suite of photobooths across Melbourne/Naarm – most notably, at a site near Flinders Street Station – and would undertake weekly testing and servicing on each photobooth across his network. To ensure the focus, flash, and print quality were all up to standard at the end of each service, Adler would take a seat in the booth and produce a test strip of photographs.
Through these weekly tests, Adler produced an archive of thousands upon thousands of photographs. While his decades-long operation has contributed to the photography of over a million people, these self-portraits are the only surviving record of Adler’s life’s work – a tangible document of his role in maintaining the photobooth tradition.
The images that appear in Auto-Photo, which span from the 1970s to the 2010s, give us clues about the person who inhabits them, along with the passing of time. Adler’s gappy grin, comedic expressions, and pet cats intermingle with shifting fashions, retro color film tints, and an increasing crinkling around the eyes.
Alan Adler passed at 92 on December 18, 2024 after a long and full life. Through his dedicated 50 years running photobooths, His life work and his impact on strangers will last forever through the endless tangible memories his photobooths made for Melbourrnian’s and its visitors.
