Purikura: The Japanese Grandmother of the Selfie(tokyocowboy.co)
tokyocowboy.co
Purikura: The Japanese Grandmother of the Selfie
https://www.tokyocowboy.co/articles/purikura-the-grandmother-of-the-selfie
47 comments
Purikura is not just taking photos of yourself in a photo booth. There is a strong cultural aspect to it, especially for school-aged girls, and I’m honestly surprised hasn’t really made it over to the US in any big way because it’s pretty fun.
The booths are large and fit 4-5 people. Even back in the early 2000s, they had fancy ring lights, touch screens, keyed-in green screen backgrounds, and automatic face retouching. They all had different themes as well. Arcades had/have whole floors of them, and sometimes would have costumes you could put on. Booths would often change seasonally, putting out different themes or gimmicks so you could come back and see different ones.
Once you take your photos, you get to decorate them on screens on the outside of the booth. You add digital stickers, write/draw on them, tweak the editing, and choose the layout you want. Then you print! They have scissors to cut up the pictures and divvy them out. The printed photos also have sticker backing so you can stick them to your cell phone, your journal, whatever.
Lots of girls collect them, swap with friends, and/or take them to commemorate particular events in their lives. It’s also a popular date activity, much like photo booths outside of Japan. But it’s a pretty far cry from the photo booths you’re describing. Honestly it’s a lot more similar to Snapchat, but like 30 years ago.
The booths are large and fit 4-5 people. Even back in the early 2000s, they had fancy ring lights, touch screens, keyed-in green screen backgrounds, and automatic face retouching. They all had different themes as well. Arcades had/have whole floors of them, and sometimes would have costumes you could put on. Booths would often change seasonally, putting out different themes or gimmicks so you could come back and see different ones.
Once you take your photos, you get to decorate them on screens on the outside of the booth. You add digital stickers, write/draw on them, tweak the editing, and choose the layout you want. Then you print! They have scissors to cut up the pictures and divvy them out. The printed photos also have sticker backing so you can stick them to your cell phone, your journal, whatever.
Lots of girls collect them, swap with friends, and/or take them to commemorate particular events in their lives. It’s also a popular date activity, much like photo booths outside of Japan. But it’s a pretty far cry from the photo booths you’re describing. Honestly it’s a lot more similar to Snapchat, but like 30 years ago.
If they really wanted to, 4 to 5 people could fit themselves into a conventional photo-booth. Speaking of 80ies to 90ies Germany here. They were everywhere, stations, post-offices, larger supermarkets, early shoppingmallistan...
I know this, because I did it many times :)
Got some funny photos that way, trying to cram all the faces in the rather small FOV :)
I know this, because I did it many times :)
Got some funny photos that way, trying to cram all the faces in the rather small FOV :)
And at that time people here were laughing at the Japanese that they had cameras on their phone and iMode
Song lyrics were about purikura
Song lyrics were about purikura
When I came to Japan in 2015 and was dating here, I was taken to purikuras in multiple occasions and let me tell you it's totally different experience from the Western photo booths. Both the machines, abilities and creativity of pros managing them made me very surprised in many ways.
Purikura is older than Amelie.
Anyway, saying print clubs are the mother of selfies is of course hyperbole. But I think it makes sense if you think of "selfie culture", especially if you include insta/snap filters as part of selfie culture.
But yes, taking pictures of yourself or in a photo booth is older than print clubs. I would be quite surprised if print clubs didn't come about by someone saying, "photo booths are fun, how can we make them even more fun?"
Anyway, saying print clubs are the mother of selfies is of course hyperbole. But I think it makes sense if you think of "selfie culture", especially if you include insta/snap filters as part of selfie culture.
But yes, taking pictures of yourself or in a photo booth is older than print clubs. I would be quite surprised if print clubs didn't come about by someone saying, "photo booths are fun, how can we make them even more fun?"
I used to love the basic photo booths in the malls in Canada as a kid.
East Asian selfie culture and photo booths are notorious for extremely heavy filters, which reminds me of the early Myspace/Photoshop days:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AxUbEkfatG4
East Asian selfie culture and photo booths are notorious for extremely heavy filters, which reminds me of the early Myspace/Photoshop days:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AxUbEkfatG4
That's by definition not a selfie since it's expected to be a group activity.
What additional requirements do selfies have, other than the photographer/camera operator being in the shot? Group selfies aren't a thing?
Group selfies are a thing, but one-person selfies also are.
Group selfie is definitely a thing
It’s an ussie
I call it a "bothie" or an "all-ee" depending on context. But I like "Ussie"! Ty.
it's all in the name.
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It's booming again in East Asia.
Indeed. In the hip parts of Taipei entire storefronts have sprung up that are dedicated to photo booths. Inside, they have extravagant props like laundromat, elevator, etc. It’s weird but also fun I guess?
SF, NYC, and else where
Behind the Curtain: Inside the Revival of New York’s Vintage Photo Booths: https://web.archive.org/web/20250822165247/https://www.nytim...
From vintage to viral: Photo booths are making a comeback in the Bay Area: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/from-vintage-to-vi...
Vintage Photo Booths Are Back, and Baffling Newbies. ‘It’s Not an iPad.’: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vintage-photo-booths-are-back-a...
Behind the Curtain: Inside the Revival of New York’s Vintage Photo Booths: https://web.archive.org/web/20250822165247/https://www.nytim...
From vintage to viral: Photo booths are making a comeback in the Bay Area: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/from-vintage-to-vi...
Vintage Photo Booths Are Back, and Baffling Newbies. ‘It’s Not an iPad.’: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vintage-photo-booths-are-back-a...
It is a private space inside a public venue for people to do drugs in.
I think this boom started here in Korea, I remember they were already growing quickly here back in 2018 (7 years ago, scary how time flies). They're now exporting them all over the world, I talked to someone who helps run one of the chains and there's a lot of demand from South-East Asia.
Way too many ads, won't read (uBlock doesn't work in the browser that's integrated in my HN reader app)
> Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
It seems after making it several times to the front page in HN the author has decided to give this (apart from the ads) really interesting blog a new try... I hope they find a less intrusive way to monetize it.
Yes, annoying. The article feels like it's building to a point and then they end with effectively: lots of people tried them, they're not so popular now. The End.
I can only suggest switching to Firefox then, or finding an 'open external links in browser' setting perhaps?
Oh such a setting obviously exists, but it's annoying having dozens of HN related tabs clutter Firefox, there are convenient gestures that allow to quickly switch between article and comments, etc.
Octal uses the OS Safari view for its in-app browser which uses whatever ad blocker you have installed
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I didn't see a single ad but I was on a desktop with UBO lite.
They still have modern versions of these machines at arcades in tokyo today, I just used some recently. The photo booth is gamified in the sense that you are timed throughout the process and are given some poses to try and replicate, and you only get two photos (which you choose) digitally, plus a selection of a few for the printed stickers. You can still get digital copies of the rest of the photos online for a fee.
It's pretty fun! The small amount of gamification adds an additional layer of excitement to the photo booth.
It's pretty fun! The small amount of gamification adds an additional layer of excitement to the photo booth.
This is a bit false. After phones started adding cameras in 2002, only 3G phones started adding front facing cameras, because it looked like we would use videotelephony over the 3G-324M standard. The first 3G phones available in the UK in 2003 were also the first phones with front facing cameras, NEC e606 and Siemens U10.
As far as I'm aware the first phone with a front-facing camera was the Kyocera VP-210, released in Japan in 1999.
I'm pretty sure the success of Purikura in Japan was the inspiration behind the Game Boy Camera / Game Boy Printer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Camera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Printer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Camera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Printer
Gen Z takes selfies with the higher quality back-facing camera using 0.5x zoom. You can't see yourself while taking the photo, but that's part of the appeal.
A lot of older cameras (and early phones too) would have a small mirror next to the lens, specifically for taking photos like that. The word selfie is kind of recent. The concept of taking a photo of yourself is probably as old as the invention of the camera.
I remember taking such pictures in the '90s and and calling them "autofoto" and I thought I was very clever.
I remember watching a podcast at the time where they were making fun of the word selfie for being an absurd unnecessary word. I remember vehemently agreeing.
In hindsight I don't know wth I was thinking.
In hindsight I don't know wth I was thinking.
Do you guys remember the mid-2000s “MySpace Angle” ? Usually shot in the bathroom.
I'm from the generation where that was the only option (and I still wasn't a kid then). I kind of liked the mystery, but overall I still prefer the front camera for selfies nowadays.
I remember Sonny Onoo, Eric Bischoff's friend at WCW was taking credit for inventing the Selfie
Silly observation but the avatar 'Jack Frost', the snowman looking character on the attract screen was also used as a character in the early 'Persona' video game series also produced by Atlus.
That's absurd. Selfies are almost as old as photography. The reason behind the current selfie culture is the ubiquity of cellphone cameras and the show off culture that came with social networks
There's a photo booth as part of the plot in one of my favorite movies, Amélie.