The Lumiere Photobooth: A Fully Mobile Traveling Tintype Portrait Studio

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When husband and wife photography duo Loren Doyen and Adrian Whipp drive around for work, it might look to most people like they’re hauling around a tiny mobile home. The trailer is actually their Lumiere Tintype Photobooth, one of the world’s first fully mobile tintype portrait studios.

The Austin, Texas-based photographers launched the Lumiere recently in an attempt to “revive the lost profession of the itinerant photographer.” Just 150 years ago, it was common to find photographers riding tintype wagons from city to city, photographing people and developing their tintypes on site. That type of business has all but disappeared in our new age of digital images and fancy portrait studios.

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As with the wagons from long ago, the Lumiere contains all the photographic equipment and supplies needed to create images. In addition to studio space and a lightproof darkroom, the mobile studio also contains air conditioning and complimentary drinks for portrait subjects.

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Doyen and Whipp use the mobility of the studio to serve clients at special events, including weddings and festivals. After stepping into the tiny studio, customers pose for a portrait while Whipp operates the camera. He then hands the plate off to his wife for some darkroom magic. Customers receive their physical tintype photo in less than one hour.

To make the portrait session even more worth it, the photographers provide a digital copy of the image for sharing and storing. Here are some examples of tintypes created by the duo so far:

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A tintype in the Lumiere will cost you $40 for a 4×5 picture and $80 if you opt for a larger 8×10 shot. You can find out more and book your own shoot by paying a visit to the Lumiere website.


Image credits: Photographs of the Lumiere and the photographers by Tristan Afre, all other photos by Loren Doyen and Adrian Whipp

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