about us:
Fotoautomat Portugal is home to the only functioning analog photobooth in the country — a 1970 Model 21 that still develops photographs using real light, chemistry, and time.
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A small, independent, woman-owned company founded by artist Hannah Roddam-Kitt, the project began as a lifelong dream to own her favorite hobby, but has morphed into a commitment to preservation. Fotoautomat Portugal is part restoration lab, part love letter to a disappearing medium.
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In mid-century Europe, photobooths were rarely playful. They existed for passports, bureaucracy, and documentation — especially in Portugal, where during the dictatorship the idea of “fun photography” simply didn’t exist.
Decades later, when Hannah arrived and began proposing to place her booth in bars, museums, and public spaces, no one remembered them. No one understood the magic she meant — or knew of the queues of people that form for hours in Paris, Amsterdam, or New York, waiting to create tangible memories.
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That’s what makes this booth novel — and new — in Portugal. It’s not a throwback. It’s a first.​​​​
Our mission is simple:
From Lisbon, our small team is building an archival practice disguised as a business;
finding, restoring, and returning analog photobooths to the public.
It’s not nostalgia we’re after; it’s continuity - evidence that the old school never dies, it just needs a little maintenance and fresh chemistry.
meet the technicians
Hannah Roddam-Kitt
Founder of Fotoautomat Portugal, multi-disciplinary artist, and lifelong photobooth obsessive.
She first fell in love with these mechanical time machines as a teenager for the same reason she loves film and design and mail art; because they demand patience and presence.
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As the primary photobooth technician, Hannah maintains her hulking 1970 booth the way one tends a Citroën SM (all mechanics and mood, best left to the last true believers!) …with grease under her fingernails, a touch of profanity, and the kind of faith only really stubborn people and old machines understand.​
Mauro Belem
Photobooth Technician and lifestyle photographer.
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Before his first day training at Fotoautomat Portugal, Mauro had never stepped inside an analog photobooth. Now, he’s learning its language — the alchemy of chemistry, timing, and troubleshooting that keeps a 55 year-old machine alive.
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He brings a meticulous eye and an unflinching calm to the analog process.
In a field where most of the old masters are gone, Mauro is proof that the craft can still be learned, and that the knowledge doesn’t have to die with the last generation of booth engineers.
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