Publisher: Perimeter Editions x CCP, ISBN: 9781922545350, Editors: Daniel Boetker-Smith, Catlin Langford, Ash Holmes, Justine Ellis, Dan Rule, Format: Paperback 22 x 14.7cm, 256pp,
For more than fifty years, Adler maintained a suite of photobooths across Melbourne/Naarm – most notably, at a site near Flinders Street Station – and would undertake weekly testing and servicing on each photobooth across his network. To ensure the focus, flash, and print quality were all up to standard at the end of each service, Adler would take a seat in the booth and produce a test strip of photographs. Through these weekly tests, Adler produced an archive of thousands upon thousands of photographs.
The images that appear in Auto-Photo, which span from the 1970s to the 2010s, give us clues about the person who inhabits them, along with the passing of time. Adler’s gappy grin, comedic expressions, and pet cats intermingle with shifting fashions, retro colour film tints, and an increasing crinkling around the eyes.
In 2018, with the booth at Flinders Street Station facing imminent closure, Christopher Sutherland and Jessie Norman – whose operation later became known as Metro-Auto-Photo – began working with Adler to generate interest in his work and to successfully save his photobooth. Now in his nineties, Adler has since sold his photobooths to Metro-Auto-Photo, who have compiled this publication with the CCP and Perimeter to illuminate Adler, his unique collection, and his impact on Australia’s photography history.