Flinders Street photo booth operator Alan Adler dies, aged 92

Indonesian tourist, Jaa Zulkarnaen, and her family have listed Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station as a must-see destination. What drew her in wasn’t the famous clock tower or the historic station itself, but a small photo booth tucked away behind a pedestrian walkway pillar outside the station.

“I was searching on TikTok for tourist attractions and activities in Melbourne, and this photo booth came up in my search results,” she said. This Flinders Street photo booth has been operating for 65 years, 50 of which were maintained and operated by Alan Adler. Mr. Adler passed away last month at the age of 92.

As part of his weekly job maintaining multiple photo booths across Melbourne, Mr. Adler had to take his own photos to test the machines’ focus, flash and print quality. He created an archive of thousands of test photos, which has led to him being described as “possibly Australia’s most photographed person” and “the world’s oldest and longest-serving photo booth technician” in an upcoming gallery exhibition.

Current Flinders Street photo booth manager, Chris Sutherland, said, “He spent most of his life driving around by himself, maintaining his machines, dealing with constant jams, vandalism, or whatever else kept him busy all day.” He and his partner, Jess Norman, saved the Flinders Street photo booth from closure in 2018. On their first date, things went so well that they decided to make the moment eternal. After getting engaged there years later, they noticed a handwritten note from Mr. Adler, informing that he could no longer operate the machine. The couple called him and established a partnership that has turned the photo booth into an international attraction and a legacy to their late mentor.

Mr. Sutherland described Mr. Adler as a stoic but solitary man, saying it took years of shadowing him on maintenance runs and asking questions about the machines to “open his heart.” “It took a while for him to trust that we weren’t going to leave. It was probably five years before he called me his friend on a radio broadcast.” While Mr. Adler initially purchased the Flinders Street photo booth as a business investment, Mr. Sutherland said that Mr. Adler slowly realized it was more than just a machine to maintain, as he captured the joy of tourists giggling and smiling in front of the lens.

But Ms. Norman said it wasn’t until the digital age and the creation of social media accounts dedicated to the Flinders Street photo booth that Mr. Adler learned of the impact his decades of work had on locals and Melbourne tourists. “We would show him comments of people visiting the photo booth,” Ms. Norman said. “You know, he didn’t get that in his 48 years of maintaining these photo booths. He just felt like all these people were so grateful for his career, which was amazing.” Mr. Sutherland added, “For a 92-year-old man, I think the best words he could use to express his emotions were ‘I have a nice fuzzy feeling inside.’”

The couple reflected on Mr. Adler’s quiet anonymity despite the photo booth’s popularity, with a steady stream of visitors for decades. Mr. Sutherland said his legacy is more than just the black and white photos pinned to cork boards and fridges around the world. “A solitary man who didn’t consider himself a photographer created arguably the largest body of work of almost anyone alive and had such an emotional impact on people’s lives.”

While many may not know Mr. Adler’s name, the Flinders Street photo booth itself has become a Melbourne landmark. Mr. Sutherland said it has become an item on tourist itineraries rather than something they stumble upon while wandering the city or leaving the train station. “The problem now is that it’s become a tourist attraction for international tourists, so I have to get there earlier and earlier every morning because now I have to deal with tourists from places like Korea who are coming with their airport luggage,” he said. “It’s kind of like the first thing they do at 6:30 in the morning.”

Mr. Sutherland said that analogue photo booths began disappearing from city streets as countries started requiring digital photos for passports. “For most of the world, these machines disappeared 20, 30 years ago. For many people in places like Asia, Indonesia, Korea, they’ve never seen these machines before until recently.” “For anyone under 30, if you’re young, your life is digital now, so to have a physical photo of you and a loved one, which used to be the norm, is now incredibly rare.”

Lord Mayor, Nick Reece, described the Flinders Street photo booth as one of the things that makes Melbourne special. “There is something magical about the ritual: the practice and perfecting of your pose, the excited wait as the photos print out,” he said. Cr Reece said Mr. Adler helped capture many special moments in the hustle and bustle of the big city. “We are so grateful to Alan – all those wild and precious moments captured in iconic black and white. First dates, milestones, crazy times – the Flinders Street photo booth and Alan saw it all.” Metro Trains, which operates Flinders Street Station, has extended its condolences to Mr. Adler’s family and friends. “Passengers will fondly remember him, many of whom have used Mr. Adler’s photo booth at Flinders Street Station to capture their special memories over the years,” a spokesperson said.

Olivia De Krester, 17, and Olivia Chiavaroli, 16, stopped by the photo booth on Thursday to capture photos to mark the start of their milestone year. “It’s our last year of high school, so we just wanted to come and get a photo to remember the year,” Ms. De Krester said. Ms. De Krester was in the CBD to celebrate her birthday. She said she first learned about the photo booth last year through TikTok and went with a different friend to mark 12 months of their friendship. She said she will add the new black and white snaps to a display she has at home. “My photos are in my room, just under the mirror where I get ready every morning,” she said.

Like others in the queue, Melbourne students, Nutamas and Karnokpon, also discovered the photo booth on TikTok. “I like the vibe and the tone when we took the photo,” Karnokpon said. “[Now] the photos are more colorful, but this one is old.” Year 10 students, Frida and Zoe, plan to visit the photo booth every term to document their final years of high school. “I found out about it from my aunt who lives in the city, and she took me here and showed me,” Frida said. “And then one time when I was in the city with Zoe, we thought it would be fun to try.” Frida said physical photos aren’t as easily lost as “random photos on your phone.” “It feels nice to have a physical copy, it’s special,” Zoe added. “We put it on our wall … there’s something about black and white.” “It’s very retro.”

Mr. Adler’s decades of work have been compiled into a book published by the Centre for Contemporary Photography, documenting his test photos from the photo booth over the decades. A gallery exhibition of his photos, along with other contributions from photo booth users, will be held at RMIT University in June. It will also mark the 100th anniversary of the first photo booth debuting in New York in 1925.