NEED TO KNOW
A couple from Utah began chronicling their love in a photo booth at the bar where they met in 2022
Zoë Lazerson and Brandon Minton went on to open two street-accessible New York City photo booths called Old Friend
“A lot of people feel nostalgic for photo booths that actually never even have experienced them,” she says
Love blossomed like a rose — or rather, developed like a Polaroid strip, just without all the shaking — thanks to a Utah dive bar’s photo booth three years ago.
Now the happy couple has made it their mission to share that same 2D joy with others.
Zoë Lazerson, 28, and Brandon Minton, 26, first met playing pool in their home state in 2022. Just as it began getting chilly that year, their cozy first-date joint installed an analog photo booth.
“We started using that photo booth every time we went back there,” Lazerson tells PEOPLE.
A 2023 move brought them to New York City, where they pulled back the curtain on Old Friend Photobooth, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, by June of the following year. They opened a second location, in Brooklyn, in August.
Old Friend Photo Booth/Instagram
Zoë Lazerson and Brandon Minton in the Lower East Side Old Friend Photobooth
The creatively-minded couple knew the ins and outs of media before taking on the project. Minton previously worked in production at a film lab and Lazerson has been an influencer for more than a decade.
“We both really wanted something that brought people together more in that brick-and-mortar sense, where you go to experience something,” Lazerson says. “But also, visiting Old Friend, you’re actually taking something away with you.”
Automatic photo booths date back exactly 100 years, when the first one popped up in New York City, thanks to Anatol Josepho.
Though dated in an age of instant digital gratification, the old-school technology maintains some persistent throwback popularity thanks to booths like Old Friend — which offers four flashes and four images, in three minute — attracting people of all kinds.
“A lot of people feel nostalgic for photo booths that actually never even have experienced them,” Lazerson says.
Unlike a selfie, of which one could take a near infinite amount, filterless photo booths are “really authentic,” Minton believes.
“You don’t really know what you’re gonna look like ’til after,” he adds. “It’s like a little moment that maybe stays in your brain a little longer, versus when you see something on Instagram, you’re just swiping, swiping, swiping.”
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Old Friend Photo Booth/Instagram
The street-accessible Old Friend Photobooth in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Conveniently situated in high-traffic neighborhoods of one of the world’s most densely populated cities, the Old Friend booths have seen many pearly white smiles since their respective openings and even had some kisses blown in their direction.
Lazerson says she’s seen it all: “Mom visiting in the city, or they just got married and are coming from City Hall; their birthday; they’re announcing their pregnancy.”
For the one-year anniversary of Old Friend, Lazerson and Minton flew out a pair of lovers from Texas as part of a giveaway. They got engaged on the trip and came to the booth to immortalize the moment with a photo strip.
Lazerson and Minton say their street-accessible booths were inspired by those they saw while living in Paris and traveling in Europe, rather than the more common dive-bar photo booths in America.
“It was important that anyone, any age, at any time of the day, could use it,” Minton says. “We didn’t want any restrictions.”
From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, anyone can pose for four frames at 145 Allen Street in Manhattan and 243 Berry Street in Brooklyn.
Read the original article on People