Four builds. Each one simpler than the last.
Portrait Booth is not a first attempt. Every version worked and every version taught us what actually mattered, so the next one could lose whatever did not. Seven years of taking things out — the crew, the truck, the weight, and finally the expertise — until what was left fits in a case.
Four generations, lined up
The 13-camera array, the PB Max, the PB Slim and the production case, together in one frame, in order.
Must prove: Seven years of building, in a single image. This photograph is the whole page and no competitor can produce its equivalent.
Needed for launchThe 13-camera array
Thirteen cameras firing at once, freezing a moment from every angle at the same instant.
What it taught us: It taught us what people actually react to, which turned out to be the thing worth keeping. It also took a crew, a truck and half a day — so everything after this was about holding on to the reaction and losing the production around it.
The array, built out
The 13-camera rig assembled, cabling visible, with a person in frame for scale.
Must prove: That it was genuinely spectacular and genuinely immovable.
Wanted soonPB Max
The first booth that was actually a product rather than an installation. Big, heavy, and very good.
What it taught us: It worked, and it showed us where the cost really sat: two people and a van inside every single booking. That is the ceiling every booth company runs into, and it is why the whole category charges by the hour. Out came the crew.
PB Max, next to a person
PB Max in a venue with a person beside it for scale.
Must prove: That it needed two people and a van, which is the ceiling the page describes.
Wanted soonPB Slim
Same picture, far less machine. We took out everything that was not doing work.
What it taught us: We took out everything that was not doing work and the photograph did not change — which is how you know it was clutter. What was left still needed somebody who knew things, and knowing things does not fit in a case. Out came the weight.
Slim beside Max
PB Slim and PB Max side by side, same frame, same distance.
Must prove: How much machine came out. The comparison has to be in one frame to land.
Wanted soonThe one that ships
One case, on wheels, that goes to your door. Six steps, one allen key in the foam, nobody sent.
What it taught us: The version where the design problem stopped being the camera and became the customer. It had to survive a courier and be set up by somebody who has never seen one, on the day of something that matters to them. Out came the expertise.
The case, closed, on a doorstep
The production booth in its case, closed, standing on an ordinary doorstep.
Must prove: The end of the story: no crew, no truck, just a box that arrived. No people in frame, which is the point.
Needed for launchThe hard part was never the photograph.
We could take a good portrait in 2018. What took another six years was making a machine that takes a good portrait after being thrown in a truck, carried through a service entrance, and switched on by a groom’s brother who has never touched one.
Where it came from
All of this happened inside Mammoth, which has been producing events since 2012. Portrait Booth exists because we kept watching booths get packed up before the part of the night worth photographing — and we had the bench to build it on.
You get the fourth one.
Everything the first three taught us is in the case that arrives at your door.