Vintage photo booth studio opens in Wicker Park for 'analog' fans
In 2001, Anthony Vizzari met his future wife, Andrea, at her Wicker Park apartment. He was still an undergraduate student, and she worked in advertising. The two bonded over collecting and digging through estate sales for fun.
Now, the duo is set to open up what they say is Chicago’s first vintage photo booth studio, just blocks away from where the couple met 25 years ago.
Eleven photo booths — six vintage-inspired digital and five vintage analog — are in the 2,000 square-foot space, the former home of Bellows Film Lab. Starting Feb. 6, people and pets alike are welcomed into the space to pay $7 for a turn in a photo booth.
The Strip Club Photobooth Studio at 1702 N. Damen Ave. is taking advantage of the “return to analog,” which has gained popularity on social media, where influencers and users are opting for physical media like CDs and journals.
Since 2007, the Vizzaris have been designing and restoring photo booths under their company, A & A Studios, based in Lyons, Ill. Pretty early on the business turned a profit, allowing the couple to focus full-time on the company by 2010, Anthony said. They now operate over 50 booths in businesses in Chicago, at bars and venues such as Replay, Hopsmith Tavern and Schuba’s Tavern.
Typically, photo booths are at the site of an event or business, and friend groups often pile in after a night of partying. They are left with a couple of strips of photographic physical evidence of their night. And although those locations still exist, age groups like Gen Z and Gen Alpha may not have grown up with them, Andrea Vizzari said.
"There's a big resurgence right now of especially Gen Z folks that are really excited about vintage,” she said. “Most of them grew up in a time when there were no printed photos... So this is a novelty to a lot of people."
And at the Strip Club, the photo booth is the event.
“There's a lot of people that are not 21 or aren't drinkers, or, they can't get into the photo booth because they're in bars, but here, everybody's welcome," Anthony Vizzari said.
The couple was willing to pay more in rent for the prime real estate in Wicker Park, close to Gen Z hotspots like Baggu and Abercrombie & Fitch.
Each booth is unique in format and has a “slightly different look,” he said. There are no screens for visitors to pose in.
"We take the digital completely out from the user's perspective. So it kind of strips away all of that sort of control... it’s just genuine. It's you and your friends... in this little enclosed space just enjoying the moment,” he said.
Photo booths at the studio vary in age, with some dating back to the 1940s and 1950s.
The couple purchased their first vintage photo booth, a 1960s model, in 2007 for about $5,000, Anthony Vizzari said. They put the purchase on a credit card, he remembers. But now, those same photo booths are much harder to find and can cost $50,000 to $100,000 each.
Only about 200 working analog photo booths are left, NBC reported in 2024.
The Vizzaris are used to big moments happening in their booths. They have been privy to proposals, birthdays and gender reveals.
A neighbor preparing for a new baby told them he plans to bring in his child each month to have a physical memento of his baby’s growth.
A few weeks ago, Andrea was setting up in the back of the business when she heard screaming. She ran to the front of the studio to find a group of young women screaming in excitement over the studio’s opening in the busy shopping corridor.
“What's fun about these is the spontaneity of the photo booth. You don't know exactly when it's going to start,” she said. “You don't know when the next photo is going to come. And that's really part of the fun. It's you and your friends or your partner, whoever, and this little enclosed space just enjoying the moment.”