Photo Booths in Philadelphia

The Photo Booth Scene in Philadelphia

Philadelphia has 16 verified analog photo booths — a strong number for a city whose bar culture is underrated nationally. The machines are concentrated in the neighborhoods where Philly's creative energy runs hottest: Fishtown's music-and-bar corridor along Frankford Avenue, South Street's long-running alternative strip, Northern Liberties' warehouse-arts district, South Philly's neighborhood bars, and Old City's historic entertainment district. Fishtown is Philadelphia's most interesting booth neighborhood — the bars and music venues on Frankford Avenue between Girard and Berks have installed machines that serve a creative crowd making some of the best music and art on the East Coast. The strips from Fishtown booths document Philadelphia's current cultural moment: affordable enough that artists stay, close enough to New York that the influence goes both ways, proud enough of its own identity that the booths feel like Fishtown and not a Brooklyn knockoff. South Street, which has anchored Philadelphia alt-culture since the 1970s, has booths in the dive bars and record shops that have survived decades of change. Northern Liberties — the original warehouse-arts neighborhood before Fishtown took the crown — still has several machines in the bars and event spaces that line 2nd Street. What makes Philadelphia special is the continuity: the booths at South Street dive bars and Old City taverns have been running for decades, and the strips they produce have a patina that you can only get from years of bar chemistry and Philadelphia air.