Auto Photo: A Life in Portraits

Auto Photo: A Life in Portraits is a distinctly Australian story, centred on the figure of Alan Adler. Adler, while little known, is likely the most photographed man in Australia and is also the oldest and longest serving photobooth technician in the world. For over 50 years, Adler has been maintaining a suite of photobooths across Melbourne/Naarm, most notably, the site near Flinders Street Station. His story reflects the local communities and a shared dedication and passion for image-making and creative expression.  

As part of his business, Adler would undertake weekly services of his photobooths, a process that produced a strip of photographs to check focus, flash and print quality, leading to an archive of thousands of photographs. These self-portraits are the only surviving record of Adler’s impact and his role servicing these photobooths. Since the 1970s, he has contributed to the photography of over a million people. In Auto Photo: A Life in Portraits discover the history of the photobooth and its cultural significance, alongside visual stories told by the community who preserve and use Adler’s photobooths, to record their lives or in the pursuit of creative expression.  

Auto Photo: A Life in Portraits will feature Alan Adler’s extensive archive, alongside additional works by and drawn from the collections of Katherine Griffiths, Mark Holsworth, Kyle Archie Knight, Ruth O’Leary, Nicky Makin, Brian Meacham, Metro Auto Photo, Patrick Pound and Joshua Smith.  

Auto Photo: A Life in Portraits is a Centre of Contemporary Photography (CCP) exhibition, presented in partnership with RMIT Gallery. Curated by Catlin Langford and Metro Auto Photo.