Business

Vintage Photo Booth Studio ‘The Strip Club’ Pays Homage to Analog Nostalgia

Married couple Anthony and Andrea Vizzari, who started a business of repairing and manufacturing photo booths nearly two decades ago, opened a photo booth studio in Bucktown earlier this month amid a resurgence in popularity for photo booths and vintage-style photos.

The Strip Club, 1702 N. Damen Ave., features 10 vintage analog and “digital-retro” photo booths — with the oldest working photo booth from 1946. The studio is operated by Anthony and Andrea Vizzari’s Lyons-based company A&A Studios, which is behind many of the photo booths found at bar establishments in Chicago, such as Empty Bottle, Penny Whistle, Sleeping Village and the Game Room at Chicago Athletic Association.

The renewed interest in photo booths comes during a time when many people’s photos end up in “the cloud or the ether,” Anthony Vizzari said. He added there’s an appeal to having physical photos to put on a fridge or a mirror, for instance.

“A physical, tangible object, something to walk away with documenting that experience in the booth, especially if it’s with friends or your partner, or sometimes just yourself,” Anthony Vizzari said, “I think that goes a long way.”

Patrons use a photo booth at the Strip Club Photobooth Studio in Bucktown on Feb. 10, 2026. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

The idea to open a photo booth studio came after several years of strong sales and more inquiries to place photo booths at new locations, according to Anthony Vizzari. The duo was also inspired by Photomatica’s Photo Booth Museum in California, offering a similar “pay-as-you-go” model with each machine.

Photo booth sessions at the Strip Club start at $7.

Despite the name, the Strip Club is meant for all ages, offering a place for those who might not be old enough to go to bars or simply don’t want to go to bars, according to Andrea Vizzari.

“Our first day, we had a line around the block before we opened, which is what every small business wants,” Andrea Vizzari said. “Of course, we do have a lot of Gen Z people coming in, but we’ve had seniors in here, we’ve had babies and everybody in between.”

Some of the photo booths found at the Strip Club were formerly housed at local establishments that have since closed, such as Berlin Nightclub and Time Out Market, Andrea Vizzari said.

Strip Club’s oldest working analog photo booth is an Autophoto Model 9, named “Lady,” built in 1946. The photo booth has been the Strip Club’s No. 1 draw, according to Andrea Vizzari. An even older photo booth, a Photomatic model circa 1943 on display at the studio, is still several months out from being fully repaired, the owners said.

Strip Club’s oldest working analog photo booth is an Autophoto Model 9, named “Lady,” built in 1946. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Anthony and Andrea Vizzari bought their first photo booth in hopes of using it for their wedding when they got married in 2007. It didn’t take long, though, before they started a full-time business of repairing vintage photo booths. The early days of learning how to repair photo booths was “trial by fire and just tinkering and figuring things out,” Anthony Vizzari said, along with learning from other technicians in the field. 

At the time, Anthony Vizzari said, there wasn’t much information online. Today, there’s a larger online community of people interested in repairing analog machines and sharing insights, he said. He also shares information and manuals on the A&A Studios website.

In addition to repairing vintage analog machines, the company began to manufacture its own customizable “digital-retro” photo booths for customers, making between 30 to 50 photo booths a year, the owners said. Some can be found at the Strip Club photo booth studio.

“A lot of people will come in here and not realize half the booths are actually digital,” Andrea Vizzari said. “Some people don’t know or care about the technology, but a lot of people go, ‘Wait, you guys just built this?’ People are oftentimes surprised that it’s digital technology on the inside because we really wanna maintain the look and feel of the vintage machines.”

The digital photo booths offer an alternative to the analog photo booths, which require various chemicals and mechanical systems, and are more expensive to care for and maintain, the owners said. As the popularity increases, the couple has seen prices for vintage analog photo booths skyrocket amid a limited availability of machines.

Strip Club Photobooth Studio co-founder Anthony Vizzari explains and demonstrates the inner workings of a vintage analog photo booth on Feb. 10, 2026. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

During the early days of their business, Anthony Vizzari said he’d be able to get analog photo booths for a couple thousand dollars, and sometimes even for free, from those looking to get rid of their machines. 

Today, analog photo booths can sell for anywhere from $40,000 to more than $100,000, he said.

“There was a time when everyone was moving to digital — these older machines literally ended up in landfills,” Anthony Vizzari said. “I actually put some into landfills because they were so far gone. We would never do that now. Now, we would take the ugliest, most broken-down machine, and we would restore it because they’re so hard to get.”

The couple previously had a retail location with photo booths in Oak Park in the early 2010s, but photo booths weren’t as popular then, Andrea Vizzari said. Rather, there was a greater interest in Polaroids and general analog photography at the time, she said.

Within the first few days of opening the Strip Club, Andrea Vizzari said people have brought in their pets. The owners have seen an entire bridal party following a wedding and people celebrating birthdays, engagements and a gender reveal. The studio can also be a place to take photos during a night out with friends.

“That’s what I love about photo booths,” Andrea Vizzari said. “They allow people to be themselves, to express themselves, and it’s just you and the camera. There’s no photographer. The timing isn’t what you would predict, so you just have to be yourself.”

The Strip Club Photobooth Studio is located at 1702 N. Damen Ave. in Bucktown. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

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