Saturday, August 31, 2019

"An L.A. photo shop was struggling — then country star Kacey Musgraves dropped in"

LAT:
Kacey Musgraves was in town earlier this week for two sold-out nights at the Greek Theatre. In her downtime, the Grammy-winning country artist and her sister stumbled into an inconspicuous little photo shop in Koreatown.

On a quest to develop some film, they found a “gem”: a cash-only, mom-and-pop shop with no internet presence but plenty of handmade backdrops, retro photo sessions and an endearingly old-school photo lab struggling to survive.

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The “High Horse” singer spent some time chatting with the shop’s owner and learned that the once-bustling business, which opened in 1991, had slowed to a crawl since the digital wave. (But as interest in ’90s camera culture surges , things could be looking up.)

Determined to give it a much-needed boost, Musgraves enlisted her 1.6 million Instagram followers and 811,000 Twitter fans for support.

“Let’s keep this charming business afloat!,” Musgraves wrote on her Instagram. Her efforts are paying off splendidly. As of Thursday morning, the shop had accrued nearly 28,000 Instagram followers. And a happy and overwhelmed Tom has been flooded with calls and portrait requests.