Анатолий Йозефович: Изобретатель фотоавтомата "Photomaton"

Jewish inventor
Anatol Marco Josepho (born Anatolу Markovich Yozefovich, Анатолий Маркович Йозефович, later germanized as Anatol Josephewitz; March 31, 1894 – December 16, 1980), was a Jewish immigrant to the United States from Tomsk,

Josepho's father was a wealthy jeweler and his mother died when he was three years old. He developed a close bond with his father and became interested in the Wild West cultural phenomenon of expansion in the United States in the late 1800s. He began taking photographs with a Brownie camera produced by the Eastman Kodak Company during his childhood and he attended a local technical institute to pursue his growing interest in photography in 1909 at the age of 15. On the eve of world war I, his father sent him to study in Germany. There, he studied the photo art to perfection. It was there that he conceived the idea of creating a photo machine that would work without an operator inside and would be able to produce photos automatically, but from the moment of conception to implementation it took more than 12 years. At 19, he opened his own studio in Budapest, Hungary. With the beginning of the First world war, he then moved to Shanghai. There he survived the revolution of 1917 and for a time worked as a photographer in his own photo studio.

Josepho's invention of the photo booth, known as the "Photomaton", debuted in September 1926 at 1659 Broadway Street in Manhattan, located in the heart of New York City. The Photomaton charged twenty five cents for a strip of eight photos that were developed in eight minutes. The automation was achieved in a room that synchronized a coin controlled camera that featured a single source of diffuse light. White gloved attendants stayed by the machine during hours of operation to control the crowds as well as to provide maintenance for the machine. Around 280,000 customers, for instance, waited the eight minute process as reported by Time magazine in April 1927. The Photomaton Company was created to place Photomaton machines all over the country. Future President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a member of the board of directors. The following year, the machine was introduced to the European market, where notable figures such as André Breton and Salvador Dalí had their portraits taken. Sixty five years later, Camp Josepho under the Western Los Angeles County Council (WLACC) continues to fulfill its mission of serving youth throughout Los Angeles, with a unique emphasis on filmmaking, shooting sports, and computer programming. Remnants of what once was Josepho's personal mansion can be found between the camp and Murphy Ranch.