I tried taking pictures at a rare photo booth — here's how it was like compared to my childhood Neoprint experience

If you were born in the 90s, chances are, you'd probably remember the legendary Neoprint photo booths that used to be found in arcades across Singapore.

I fondly remember squeezing into that small, claustrophobic space with my friends just to pose for a few cringe-worthy shots. After which, we would beautify the pictures with drawings and stickers before plastering them all over our notebooks and files.

Sadly, Neoprint booths are quite a rare sight these days — the only photo booths most of us use now are those for passport pictures.

I have come across the occasional Neoprint booth overseas in places like Johor Bahru, but even then, it's still rather uncommon.

So imagine how thrilled I was when I heard that there's a new old-school photo booth at indie cinema The Projector, which is situated at Golden Mile Tower.

Granted, it isn't the same as a Neoprint booth, but the idea of stepping into one to pose for pictures made me feel excited nonetheless.

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What makes it even more special is the fact that it is currently the only analogue dip and dunk chemical photo booth in Singapore.

A piece of history

This photo booth in particular also has a pretty intriguing history.

According to Fotoautomat Singapore, which runs the booth, it was built in 1991.

The booth, which was in storage for ten years, had previously been located in a Neiman Marcus store in San Diego.

With the help of a friend based in the US, the company managed to get the booth air freighted to Singapore, they told us.

While they are working closely with other film photography enthusiasts from around the world to source for the required materials, keeping the booth up and running isn't an easy task as some of these are no longer in production, they explained.

How does it work? A shutter release within the booth projects light onto photo-sensitive paper. The film strip then goes through several chemical washes within the machine.

This means that you have to wait for your photos to be developed the old-fashioned way but this takes only four minutes, which isn't as long as one might expect.

Wanting to see how this old-school gem compares to the Neoprint booths from our childhood, I decided to pay a visit with my partner.

Be prepared to queue

Upon arrival, we found it tucked away near the spiral staircase at The Projector. There was some initial panic because the machine was out of order and we thought that we had made a wasted trip down. However, it was repaired quite efficiently. In about 15 minutes, the booth was back up and running.

It seems that word about the photo booth has already gotten around as there were quite a number of people who were visiting The Projector just to check it out.

So it wasn't surprising that there was quite a long queue and visitors were expected to line up in an orderly manner at the side of the booth.

One thing to note is that the machine only accepts $1 coins so do prepare these in advance before you come down. There is the option to change money at The Projector's dining area too, but you can only do so if you make a purchase.

A strip of photos with four frames costs just $4. Considering that this is quite a rare contraption, it's surprising that the prices are kept so affordable — it's even cheaper than the typical passport photo booth.

After a 10 minute wait, it was finally our turn. Stepping into booth was like hopping into a time machine and made us feel like we had been teleported all the way back to the 90s.

Adjust the seat to a desirable height before slotting your $1 coins into the slot at the bottom right. Once the money is in, the machine whirs to life and you can start posing for your photos.

Don't be blur like us — we didn't realise that the lights at the top of the box were an indication of when the photo would be taken, so we weren't prepared for our first shot. Subsequently, we followed the cues from the lights and the rest of our photos turned out less awkward.

A downside of the analogue dip and dunk chemical booth is that you aren't allowed to view the photos before printing, so it's good to be prepared before each shot.

After we were done, we had to wait for our photos to be ready, which took around four minutes. This means that there will be around three groups at a time gathered outside the booth, waiting for their photos to pop out, which we personally feel made the process quite messy.

After nearly taking someone else's photos twice, we finally received ours. We found the photo strip to be slightly damp when we removed it from the machine and suspect that this may be due to the chemicals used to develop the film.

We were also very pleasantly surprised with the outcome and definitely feel that it was worth the queue and our $4. The pictures were printed in black and white and the high-contrast effect made our faces look somewhat contoured, giving the illusion of us having more chiselled features.

In addition, unlike Neoprint machines which produce glossy prints, our prints were matte to the touch. In our opinion, this makes the photos look more professional.

Would we do it again? The answer is a unanimous yes. We personally feel that it's an excellent place for lovers and friends to create memories together and the best part is that you can bring the photos home as a souvenir.

Unfortunately, the photo booth won't be calling The Projector its permanent home. It will only be there for the next two months. After that, it will be moved somewhere else so you'll have to check out Fotoautomat Singapore's Instagram to see where it will be heading to next.

Address: 6001 Beach Rd, #05-00 Golden mile Tower, Singapore 199589

melissateo@asiaone.com