How An Old-Timey Photo Booth Sparked Love…and Business

Old Friend was born out of love, and etches it into forever.

The owners and operators of New York’s much-coveted analog photo booths met in 2022. Just two weeks later, on a date at the Whitney Museum, Zoë Lazerson and Brandon Minton captured their budding love via a classic black-and-white photo strip, which later sparked the idea of refurbishing OG photo booths for the NY (and its visitors’) masses, to capture some sense of nostalgia and a moment in time untouched by filters or AI.

For Valentine’s Day this year, on February 14th and 15th, FP is partnering with Old Friend to take over one of their 2 booths at 145 Allen Street in the LES. The usual fee of $8 will be covered by FP; the rest is up to you behind the privacy of your photo booth curtain.

Read on for our interview with Zoe and Brandon:

Free People: What influenced you both to take on this project?
OLD FRIEND: We have an undying love for real, tangible art. This world we have grown up in is surrounded with technology being the main form of communication. We wanted to create something people could hold and keep for a lifetime.

FP: How does it feel to see other people use your photobooth, to connect in a similar way that brought you both together?
OF: It’s the sweetest realization. We’ve met people using the booth on their first date, and that just makes us smile, thinking “If they work out they’ll have this photo of their first date together…” These photo strips really bring you back to the day you took it, where you were, the top you were wearing, etc. It’s 4 photos you’ll remember forever.

FP: How would you both describe your love for film photography?
Zoë: Film can be the happiest accident, it can be unforgiving, it has to be patient, and it’s also limited. You don’t have this high quantity of images, only 36 for 35mm and 12 for medium-format. I love how much you imagine with film, the instant gratification is almost non-existent. It’s a way I capture my life, but also stay present and intentional. Brandon: I’ve never loved to be in front of the camera. Film has given me this lens to capture what I see and witness. There is so much that happens in front of me, and I love to be the silent observer, documenting away at these moments.

FP: What drew you both together?
OF: We feel like two independent, creative, passionate people who found each other. We both have always admired and respected one another. It’s really special to be committed to someone while still feeling such a strong sense of self. We support each other to continue developing the life we both want to have together and individually.

FP: How does it feel to partner with FP?
Zoë: Really exciting for me! Free People was one of the first brands who ever asked me to create imagery. I believe it was back in 2014. It just feels so true to where my roots are back in UT, and how much my creativity was influenced by this brand.

FP: What's your favorite story or anecdote about owning a photo booth?
OF: We both love how private of a photo opportunity this is. People always say this was the first selfie, and they’re not wrong. It’s just you, being photographed by the mysterious camera behind the glass that you can’t see. There are so many limitations within the photo booth, so we love the control each person has to relinquish to just be themselves. You step behind the curtain, and you have 3, 2, 1, to decide who you want to be.

FP: In an age of fast-paced social media and digital fatigue, how does it feel to focus on more slow-paced physical media like film photography?
OF: It’s incredibly fulfilling. Film is a nerve-wracking process for a lot of people to get into. A photobooth is giving access to experience film, to hundreds of people who most likely find it foreign. The beauty of film is what you see is what you get. Your one photo strip of 4 frames is the opportunity to have “4 poses” in mind. Your phone is the opportunity to take 100 photos of the same thing, and pick the best one.

FP: Will you both continue to chronicle your life together via film?
OF: Yes. I don’t see us ever stopping this art form. We can only hope and pray and work to keep photo booths alive. All while we document life through our own film cameras.

FP: How does it feel to work so closely with your partner?
Zoë: I never pictured myself working on such an intimate life project with my person. I wouldn’t have it any other way. We have grown so much together–we couldn’t have done this alone. It’s really beautiful but can be brutal with how many hardships we’ve been dealt as new business owners. Having Brandon be by my side and me his, is why we have pushed through each obstacle.
Brandon: Zoë has helped me see things from such a comforting eye. We can feel differently about how to proceed with the business, but in the end there is always respect for how each other feels. You need respect in any type of relationship, and the respect we have for each other is why we can grow this together. This is both of our dreams, we just didn’t know we had this dream until we discovered it together.