With Flamethrowers and Underwater Cameras, Photo Booths Get Extreme

(Bloomberg) -- Was the clambake on the beach the most memorable moment of that last charity benefit, or watching the sunset? Was it the way the hosts welcomed you, or dancing after dinner under a twinkling night sky?

No, we know: It was the photo booth.

Summer parties, especially in superrich resorts such as the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard, are full of beauty at every turn—as well as perpetual one-upmanship. This season, hosts are plying more money and thought than ever into the all-important social media takeaway.

Call it a photo booth, except it’s underwater in the pool, something the L.A.- and New York-based Hypno did for the nonprofit +Pool. Or perhaps it was among pink clouds of hydrangeas, which event designer David Monn orchestrated for an East End wedding.

Booths aren’t just for the blowout bashes like a Coachella-themed 50th birthday party in Water Mill that Hypno has been hired for. “We’ve done it for the little barbecue on a Sunday afternoon,” says Monn, who has planned events for billionaires and President Trump. Holly Peterson, author of social satire It’s Hot in the Hamptons, bought a photo booth for her home in Southampton, with a “tacky silver curtain and metal seat.” With so many people coming over so often for pizza on the outdoor grill, “I decided to relax, sip my rosé, and let someone else worry about the photos,” she says.

Smilebooth, which does business all around the U.S., has more than 30 events booked in the Hamptons in the next month, including the Parrish Art Museum benefit, says Josh Ratner, president of business development and partnerships. He’s mum on the scenario this year; last year’s lured guests into a mini-hall of infinity mirrors.

Budgets for photo booths can range from $2,000 to $2 million, depending on the technology, scenic elements, and output—from photo strips to Horst-style portraits to cinematic-quality video from many angles, like those celebrity-filled music videos at the Met Gala. This is a far cry from that crazy wig you donned during your last wedding reception snap.

“It works because everyone’s a narcissist,” says Marcy Blum, an event designer who works for a jet-set client roster in locations from Positano to Aman, Bridgehampton to Aspen. “People can’t get enough of it. We’ve had to close it off sometimes during dinner or speeches, or if someone is singing.”

Resort towns offer natural light, gardens, sandy beaches, ocean waves, and gorgeous homes to serve as backdrops. Last summer, Blum planned a party for a couple at their historic white farmhouse straight out of Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting, with guests posing in front of the house with hoes and overalls.

For a Bollyhamptons party, Blum brought in a life-size elephant statue from Behind the Fence Gallery in Southampton. It can be rented for about $500 plus delivery charges, said gallery director Alison Jennerich, who has also sent baby elephants to baby showers and unicorns to weddings. At the Southampton Arts Center opening of a National Geographic photo exhibit, EventsTag, which has offices in L.A., London, and New York, posed guests virtually with hippos and pandas, using green-screen technology.

“People are going to take photos no matter what. That’s the culture we live in. But the photo booth is an opportunity to get out of the phone and experience the event with other people,” says Champ Bennett, co-founder of Hypno. “If you do it well, the photo booth can be the life of the party. People will flock to it in the same way they flock to the dance floor. You need to facilitate that.”

The photo booth moment is also a way to both convey a personal brand and give the host more control.

“If you’re having a party at your home, you may not want guests meandering around snapping photos wherever they like,” says Samantha Yanks, chief brand officer of ID Brands and former editor of Hamptons magazine.

Some photo booths have a vintage feel, to get people away from the digital world. Mark Lacourse of Martha’s Vineyard purchased a 1976 VW Bus, painted it a color he sourced from a 1958 Renault, and turned the inside into a mobile photo studio that fits up to 12 people. He charges about $2,000 to bring the bus to a wedding. Vannagram & Co. in Austin offers a similar concept.

Lacourse offers only printed photos, while other companies specialize in digital-only moments that show guests doing everything from kissing to taking a golf swing. When working with companies that have in-house creative teams, the only limit is the host’s imagination.

Photo booth companies sometimes recommend having several different moments throughout the party: a more formal step-and-repeat as guests arrive, an animated GIF once it’s dark and guests have had a few drinks. Flower walls are a popular gambit. An 8-by-8-foot creation starts at about $3,000, says event designer Ron Wendt, who’ll be decorating the Parrish’s gala. Other party elements with a wow factor often turn into backdrops—like a hot air balloon at a party in Amagansett last weekend.

Smilebooth will roam the party, taking shots it can send to guests instantly, starting at about $2,500. It can create a digital collage projected on a wall or screen that incorporates the photos as they’re being shot, as it did for the Whitney’s spring gala ($5,000-$10,000), where it also staged a music video moment (about $10,000).

For $5,000 a night, Hypno offers an “Eye” or “selfie ball,” an orb guests can use to take pictures, with music and effects dropped into the resulting, instantly shareable images.

Sharingbox, which has 45 offices in 20 countries, for private events charges $150 to put a “beauty filter” on images and for $2,500 will send a photo booth with nine cameras to capture a moment from every angle. Luna PhotoLounge on the Connecticut shoreline charges $125 to create a “memory book” for the hosts, in which guests handwrite a message next to their photo.

For guests and hosts alike, sophisticated photo booth setups generate tangible takeaways they often prefer to a hired photographer’s output. “It’s a meaningful piece of memorabilia that isn’t a candle,” Blum says.

“We love a snapshot of the moments of our lives that are fun, chic, and beautiful, and when we’re at our happiest,” says Yanks.

And if you can have flamethrowers shoot a wall of fire behind you at the exact moment of the picture—that happened at an IWC gala dinner at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva—then all the better.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net

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