Auto-Photo: A Life in Portraits

AUTO-PHOTO: A LIFE IN PORTRAITS

5 JUNE – 16 AUGUST 2025

This exhibition celebrates the contribution of Alan Adler (1932-2024) to Melbourne. For over fifty years, Adler operated and maintained photobooths across the city.

His work meant generations of people were able to record themselves, their relationships and create personal and expressive images using his photobooths. This exhibition also marks 100 years since Siberian-emigre Anatol Josepho filed a patent for his ‘Photomaton’ – a coin-operated photobooth, in New York City. This exhibition is among many worldwide events in 2025 that mark this important centenary and reflect on the photobooth’s power to delight and inspire.

Auto-Photo: A Life in Portraits features Adler’s extensive archive, alongside additional exhibits and works of art from the collections of Katherine Griffiths, Mark Holsworth, Kyle Archie Knight, Ruth O’Leary, Nicky Makin, Jesse Marlow, Brian Meacham, Metro Auto Photo, Patrick Pound and Joshua Smith.

Auto Photo: A Life in Portraits is a Centre of Contemporary Photography exhibition, presented in partnership with RMIT Culture and Metro Auto Photo.

Curated by Catlin Langford with Christopher Sutherland and Jessie Norman (Metro Auto Photo).

This exhibition is accompanied by a book ‘Auto-Photo: A Life in Portraits‘, published in partnership with Perimeter Editions and Gordon Darling Foundation.

www.rmitgallery.com www.metroautophoto.au

Exhibition Partners: Spicers Australia; HC Pro.

Installation photos by Christian Capurro.