Celebrating the art of the photobooth

Oct 10, 2008 (North Adams Transcript - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- JBX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- American Photobooth by Nakki Goranin (Norton)

In the efforts of ordinary Americans to document their own visual history, a consumer-level camera has always been the most common tool for any of us, whether it's an old Brownie or a Kodak Instamatic or a Polaroid or an inexpensive digital camera. There is another receptacle for the average person that we've all encountered at one time or another as a novelty -- the photo booth. It's hard to say what it is about photo booths that inspires glee.

When I was a kid, they were the sort of thing you didn't find everywhere -- maybe a traveling carnival. As I grew up, they became more common, they'd pop up in K-Marts and malls. Eventually, I noticed them getting placed in big city hipster boutiques and night clubs. It never occurred to me to ask where in the world these things came from -- they were like phone booths, permanent marks on the American landscape.

One thing that did capture my imagination, though, were those occasions when I would find a discarded or lost photo strip from one of those machines -- usually four or five images of the same person in a vertical line, each image revealing a different expression, often with the desire to be goofy.

Nakki Goranin's "American Photobooth" does a wonderful job at filling me in on the history of something I never thought much about and presenting the beauty of something in a context that I now see as an unlikely

and accidental art form.

Goranin traces the stories behind the colorful folks who created and popularized the photo booth with a sober and well-researched style that lets the characters and technologies steal the show. At the very least, there is no way to forget Anatol Josepho, the inventor of the photo booth, who had many adventures through Europe in World War 1, complete with dozens of narrow escapes and Asian excursions. Goranin compiles the visual history of this odd contraption as well, collecting scores of advertisements and other ephemera, including documentation of the many styles of booths through the years.

The highlight is, of course, the vast section reprinting the work that came out of the booths. This accounts for more than two-thirds of pages and it's a stunning collection of faces and imagery that asks some big questions about the nature of automation and art -- these are some of the most artful, lovely portraits you will ever set your eyes on. This is largely because the photobooth focuses on a moment in time that a human photographer would never think of -- that moment before a person is ready to have their portrait taken, that moment after which they have waited long enough and let go some honest confusion as to what to do with themselves.

Modern humans spend more time waiting than anything else, I think. When you mix that activity with the drudgery of attempting to present yourself in the best light, you end up with some touching examples of moments frozen forever. And they are not public moments -- they are as intimate as they get, in an odd little room with all the world hidden behind a curtain, like a consumer-oriented confession booth.

These are supremely human photos taken not by a human at all and they illustrate the way we build machines to see inside of us in ways we often can't.

Aya of Yop City by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie (Drawn and Quarterly)

The second in a series of graphic novels following teenager Aya in the Ivory Coast in the 1970s, "Aya of Yop City" is that great sort of teen drama that never panders nor becomes prosaic in its effort to teach its reader a little something about another culture. As a best case scenario in the young adult genre, the "Aya" series treats its subjects as individuals of depth and uses the characterizations and situations to unite teenagers around the world.

As author Marguerite Abouet notes in an interview at the end of the book, teenagers are fairly similar the world over and part of her goal was to capture that truth. It's an admirable goal that has found champions in other skilled storytellers in this day and age -- graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi being the most prominent.

Tolerance and world peace may only result from the understanding that we are all clueless and doing the best we can -- we are all a 17-year-old grappling with big questions on a tiny level.

Aya is a young woman whose goals move far past those of her peers -- she doesn't care about hooking a man. Instead Aya wants to attend school and become a doctor. Her father would prefer her to marry young as part of a plan for upward mobility. Despite Aya's clearheadedness in purpose, her friends are still swept up in the economic movements of the time, enjoying their place in the rising middle class and acting generally boy and girl crazy. It is burden by association -- a good friend shares in their dramas and defeats and when one friend gets pregnant, Aya is very involved in the baby's life. In the culture, family involvement is the norm.

Aya, being very together and on top of things, doesn't cause much drama -- that's left for the rest of the cast, including her friends single mom Adjoua and man-hungy Bintou. In the mix are also stories of infidelity, mysterious birthright, business deals, parental battles and more. It's a rich tapestry that draws you in with humor as well as pathos, a charming balance that melts the characters and the situations into an intimate space shared with the reader.

In writing the "Aya" stories, Marguerite Abouet draws from her own experiences growing up in the Ivory Coast -- she says that these were a way for her to hang onto the stories of those years after moving to France at age 12. Bringing Abouet's words to life is the colorful and lively cartooning of French artist Clement Oubrerie, who captures the atmosphere with an optimistic eye focused on honesty. He manages to portray the cramped quarters of the African families with a funky, comical dignity.

What's really wonderful about the "Aya" books is that they speak to the lives of teenagers, present their concerns and interests and indulgences, without being prurient or pandering. It also puts these experiences perpendicular to those of the adults in the cast, showing the lines between the two ages and how one grows into the other. So impressive are these books that I think they should be on student reading lists everywhere. Abouet's triumph of teaching about other people while giving the readers a chance to learn about themselves is masterful and something to be savored.

Jack and the Box by Art Spiegelman (Toon Books)

It's always a great day when Art Spiegelman puts out something new and "Jack and the Box" is as delightful as a children's book can be.

Spiegelman's set-up is simple -- a little bunny kid named Jack is given an unpredictable Jack in the Box toy that inspires slight terror before giggly delight. The Jack in the Box -- whose name is Zack -- is a mischievous toy who is so often pronounced silly that he's able to get away with quite a bit. It becomes a Seussian tale of absurd excess as Jack must corral what he has unleashed from this playful Pandora's Box.

As part of the Toon Books line, "Jack and the Box" is an easy reader comic, but rather than going for either the traditional page grid or a free form sequential style, Spiegelman has the story unfold entirely horizontally. It creates an ongoing narrative that begs the question, "Oh, no, what's next?" Spiegelman lends plenty of atmosphere to the story by placing his characters against some unusual background washes, with foregrounds equally as off-the-beaten path -- pages that mix gray-blues with aquas or throw light purples in there. Spiegelman's shifting of the color scheme, which builds through the book, is simply masterful -- it's a multi-hued map of the emotional pathways in the story.

It's always a pleasure to see someone so skilled as Spiegelman not only opt for simplicity to express his ideas, but to direct what results to kids.

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka (Scholastic)

There are two sides to every coin -- that's a simple way of expressing duality to a kid, but it doesn't get to the subtleties. And these things are only really of concern in regard to people. There are times in life when you find out for the first time that people you think are one way are also another and that other way of being is a part of them you are not privy to. The worst realizations in this regard revolve around parents and peers and feelings of betrayal are the gravest hurt these moments can inspire. At times, they can also inspire self-reflection as you begin to understand that you, too, have more than one side to you.

The little girl in "Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie," the new children's book by the Caldecott-winning duo of Norton Juster and Chris Raschka, has a head start -- her grandparents have made clear the two sides to her personality. Sometimes she's Sourpuss, who doesn't want to go anywhere, do anything, eat anything or be nice to anyone. Other times she's Sweet Pie, complimenting her Nanna's wrinkles and begging stories from her Poppy.

While Juster's words investigate the idea that these two are one and vice versa by presenting a real character through the sing-song monologue, Chris Raschka's vibrant illustrations capture the emotional dance of the child. Stripped down to an existence of simple thick lines that create expressions topped by a curly brown mop, Raschka's portrayal of the little girl offers his typical animated delights as well as a purposeful generic quality to her being. She could be any kid have this book read to them and this identification with something so bursting with color and personality will have any kid laughing at their own behavior as well as hers. It's identification as self-realization and the emotional seed is planted that duality is common and it's kind of funny, too.

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