Overexposed: A History of Fotomat

[DGUtley]

Overexposed: A History of Fotomat - The tiny photo processing kiosks could be found everywhere in the 1970s and 1980s. And that was the problem.




Like the Golden Arches of McDonald’s that came before it, the familiar gold and pyramid-shaped roofs of Fotomat locations acted as a beacon. Instead of hamburgers, Fotomat was in the photography business, offering tiny huts situated in shopping plaza parking lots that were staffed by just one employee. Men were dubbed Fotomacs. Women were known as Fotomates, and management required them to wear short-shorts, or “hot pants,” in a nod to the strategy used for flight attendants at Pacific Southwest Airlines.

Cars pulled up to the Fotomat location and dropped off film they wanted processed. After being shuttled via courier to a local photo lab, it would be ready for pick-up the following day. And aside from selling film and a foray into renting videocassette tapes, this was all Fotomat did.

The idea, which was originally made popular by wealthy aviator Preston Fleet, was almost deceptively simple in concept and execution. At the height of Fotomat’s success in the 1970s and early 1980s, there were more than 4000 of the tiny kiosks located across the United States and Canada. But even with extremely low overhead—the little huts didn’t even have bathrooms—and a widespread love of photography, Fotomat fell victim to its own success. Its legacy even grew to include a former company president who became a federal fugitive from justice.



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https://getpocket.com/explore/item/o...ory-of-fotomat

[Peter1469]

Then as technology improved small units inside places like CVS or Walgreens took that market.

[DGUtley]

Then as technology improved small units inside places like CVS or Walgreens took that market.

...then digital....

[Peter1469]

...then digital....

Yes. Now my CVS has the digital station where the old film station use to be. Although I am not sure why anyone would use it since you can do the same thing over the Internet with your computer (and probably smart phone).

[Chuck]

I still use film, mostly black and white, since I do some art work using various materials and my own developing techniques. I never used a Fotomat, but I certainly remember them. I used a local camera store that had a trained staff that could follow directions re various filters and exposure times for my color stuff.

[LWW]

...then digital....

And for the first time in history fewer actual prints are being made.

[Standing Wolf]

The advent of digital photography meant that we no longer felt obligated to pay for, keep and store physical prints of the 200 photos we took on our vacation every year. We can keep the best ones in our Pictures file and either delete all the others, put them on an external hard drive or leave them in the cloud. Or better yet, just delete the bad or redundant ones from the camera.

[DGUtley]

The advent of digital photography meant that we no longer felt obligated to pay for, keep and store physical prints of the 200 photos we took on our vacation every year. We can keep the best ones in our Pictures file and either delete all the others, put them on an external hard drive or leave them in the cloud. Or better yet, just delete the bad or redundant ones from the camera.

Agree. Ditto. Digital has changed so much....