Paris - the ultimate selfie

 

One of the things I like to do when I'm in Paris is head to the Palais de Tokyo at 13, avenue du Président Wilson, and make a set of self portraits in the genuine 60's style dunk and dip FOTOAUTOMAT machine. For a mere 2 euro you get 4 small argentique portraits, on photographic paper developed, stopped and fixed in the mini rotating tanks inside the contraption.

Palais de Tokyo have this to say:
It was only a matter of time before someone thought of bringing those columns of 4 small silvery portraits back into fashion. The collective FOTOAUTOMAT, which has existed in Berlin for over ten years and in Paris since 2007, restores and restyles black and white photo booths from another era in order to give them a new, more stunning, more unique, and more creative life.
The good old-fashioned photo booth first reappeared in France in September 2007 and made its home at the Palais de Tokyo, where it was ready to take your picture in black and white in four flashes! Notice to the public – to all actors, bigwigs, artists, lovers, etc. Come give in to your narcissistic urges for just 2 euros.

And a very pleasant gallery assistant opened the machine up to show me the tank that holds the developer, stop, fixer and wash. Here's a picture to prove it.

Dunking and dipping

The result comes out here

 Of course the big bonus is that Palais de tokyo have excellent shows of contemporary art, a great book shop, a good restaurant and cafe and is right next door to the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and until 23 February next, showing a retrospective of the painter Serge Poliakoff.

Right now the Palais de Tokyo has a stunning show, the work of Philippe Parreno who has responded to a carte blanche invitation with an exhibition where the architectural modification of the space becomes a work in itself, “a total work of art”. Well worth seeing.