Fotomat.sg

Fotomat.sg rents out photo booths that its makers build themselves in St. Gallen, for weddings, parties, gallery openings, client events and company celebrations. The business is Fotomat.sg GmbH, Geltenwilenstrasse 20, 9000 St.Gallen, and the three people behind it introduce themselves as "Ueli & Philipp & Phillip": two professional photographers and a designer. The site is signed by Ueli Steingruber and Phillip Bührer. Their aim, they write, is to combine functional simplicity with good looks, and they like tinkering and testing, which is why each booth is built in-house and has a name. The site is in German, written with a lot of humor, and gives a daily price for every booth.

The four booths

Each model gets a short character sketch on the homepage.

Loretta (Model N°4), 550 CHF per day. The luxury model, "der goldene Schimmer auf jedem roten Teppich" (the golden shimmer on every red carpet), with a golden umbrella reflector giving warm portrait light, red-shimmering larch wood cladding, a front touchscreen, adjustable height and an optional matching printer. Her name comes from a famous scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and she was, the site jokes, once a functional but heartless booth called Herr Korni. She is pitched at premieres, gallery openings and after-show parties, which makes her the obvious choice for a formal evening wedding.

Berta (Model N°3), 550 CHF per day. Made of ash wood, "Holzkleid aus dem Braunkern der Esche" (dressed in the brown heartwood of the ash), originally developed for the glittering world of big casinos, and just as happy in a circus ring. She has a studio double flash for even lighting, a front touchscreen, is stable and height adjustable, and can take a matching printer.

Helga (Model N°2). The booth for trade fairs and big crowds, very stable, robust and fast, with an integrated high-speed printer holding up to 700 prints per load, a studio double flash and two touchscreens, front and back. Helga is the only model the team sets up on site itself. Her listing reads "750.– bis auf Weiteres fix im Einsatz", a price of 750 with the note that she is in fixed use until further notice, so ask whether she can be booked at all.

Hannelore (Model N°1), 450 CHF per day. The first booth, which the site says can handle anything from a dark cellar party to an open-air summer wedding, with a studio double flash, a rear touchscreen and adjustable height. She is named in homage to a photographer colleague. At the moment, the site says, "Hannelore weilt in den Ferien und ist aktuell leider nicht buchbar" (Hannelore is on holiday and unfortunately cannot be booked).

The listings for Loretta, Berta and Hannelore say each fits in any car. Every model includes professional studio flash lighting, all photos digitally in full resolution, a foot pedal for guests to trigger the shot, and a built-in screen for viewing the pictures.

How the makers describe them

The character sketches are worth reading for the tone of the business as much as the facts. Hannelore, the site says, has been on the loose for 10 years and has celebrated at more parties than her makers ever have, and her pictures are as crisp as she is. Helga is described as a myth hovering over the Sittertobel, a legendary woman who turns up at the wildest parties and vanishes as fast as she came: where her little sister Hannelore sips a glass of sparkling wine at the apéro, the site says, the sturdy Helga surfs the crowd. Berta likes the spotlight. Loretta loves luxury and beautiful things, and her larch skin in golden light flatters everyone.

Behind the jokes are two practical choices for a couple. The first is the look: warm, golden portrait light and reddish larch on Loretta, or the brown ash heartwood and double flash of Berta. The second is the printer, since prints are an add-on rather than part of the booth price. The foot pedal that every model uses is a detail worth mentioning to guests, since it frees both hands for props and drinks.

The printers

The printers are called the "uncles": Onkel Robert, Onkel Albert or Onkel Tobi can accompany the booth, so every guest can take a printed memory home. They print on matte lab-quality photo paper in the classic 9 × 13 cm format, 15 seconds to a finished print. A printer costs 150 CHF per day including 250 prints, which the site says is usually enough, and each further print costs CHF 0.60.

Collecting the booth

Booking is by form, phone (077 408 14 31) or email (hoi@fotomat.sg), and the team confirms reservations as quickly as possible. The booth is collected in St. Gallen on the day of the event or the day before, by arrangement, with instruction on the spot, so whoever collects it learns the setup from the people who built it. The site reassures that assembling the booths "ist keine Hexerei" (is no witchcraft). Apart from Helga, which the team sets up itself, there is no mention of delivery.

What the site leaves open

The site does not publish a delivery service or charge for the booths couples collect themselves, so a couple without a car in St. Gallen should ask whether delivery can be arranged. It does not say whether prices include VAT, how long a day's rental runs, what layouts or text can be added to the prints, or whether the booths can stand outdoors in bad weather. It says nothing about English; the site is German only, so write in English and see how the reply comes back.

Who it suits

Fotomat.sg suits couples marrying in or around St. Gallen who care about the look of the booth as much as the photos, and who can collect it. Loretta's warm light and larch wood suit an elegant evening; Berta's ash wood fits a rustic or country setting. The photographers' hand shows in the lighting on every model. The printers add a physical keepsake at a clear, published price. The caveats are that only two models are bookable right now at 550 CHF, that the booth has to be fetched and set up, and that the site is in German.