A prototype of the world we want to live in.
More than a photo-booth company — a regenerative system for self-representation at the intersection of art, technology, and social change. We try to model the world we want to live in: in how the method works, in how we carry it into the world, and in how we structure the organization itself.
Inspired by Other Worlds.
The Self-Portrait Project was founded with social justice ideals as its roots and a love of photography as its driving force. Before creating SPP, I was a co-founder of the multi-media non-profit Other Worlds, which sought to document case studies of living, thriving alternative economies around the world.
During my time with Other Worlds, I photographed social movements such as the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil (MST); worker-owned factories in Argentina; a gift economy in Mali; and the Zapatistas of Chiapas. Ingrained in many of these societies is the belief that decisions are best made by those directly affected by them: I saw it in the Buenos Aires glass workers who set their own hours and pay, and in the Brazilian farmers who occupied fallow parcels land for years, turning them into brilliant, autonomous utopias.
The mirror & remote control method we use in SPP to capture photographs intentionally models self-determination, mimicking a core tenet of some of these global social justice movements which are upending inequitable power structures. To me, using the Self-Portrait Project – regardless of whether it's in the field, at a bar, or in our studio – represents a minor act of rebellion, captured in a moment of light.
andy lin, creator + creative directorIntention runs through every layer.
We don't only model it in the picture. We try to live it in three places at once.
You author yourself.
The subject becomes the photographer. Visibility shifts from imposed to chosen — the whole system is built so you decide how you're seen.
We carry it where it's needed.
From galas to Haiti to the West Bank, we bring the system to places where self-representation has been denied — not extraction, but self-determination. The impact work.
The workers share and govern.
Through Reputation-Based Pay, the people who do the work earn a stake, a profit-share, and a say — a deliberate path toward broad-based ownership of the work. Nothing about us without us, applied to us.
Regenerative system for self-representation.
We treat our method, archive, community work, technology stack, workforce, and our network of clients and partners as a single regenerative ecosystem designed to build capacity into everything it touches.
Download the concept paper- Experiential
- Social
- Cultural
- Financial
- Material
- Intellectual
- Living
- Spiritual
Participants
to be seen
Partners
to connect
Clients
to steward
Technology
to transform
Workers
to evolve
Self-representation as capacity
to be seen ↔ to witness
The system is nested inside the larger whole it serves: the community, the ground from which its participants are drawn and the field into which its value flows back.
Regenerative paradigm after Carol Sanford · Eight Forms of Capital after Ethan RolandFrom a Brooklyn contraption to a living archive.
The method never changed — you look into your own eyes, and you choose the moment. Almost everything around it did.
Born in Brooklyn
A framed two-way mirror, some 2x4s, and a wired remote in Williamsburg. The first self-portraits go up on Facebook.
Brooklyn Museum
The mirror shows as public art at the Brooklyn Museum — the method’s first museum audience.
The road to SXSW
A Kickstarter-funded road trip carries the mirror through the American South, ending at SXSW — portraits gathered mile by mile.
Times Square
The mirror goes public as art in the middle of Manhattan — strangers authoring themselves in the busiest place in the city.
Haiti
The system travels to communities rebuilding after the earthquake, with Amnesty International — self-representation, not extraction.
Palestine
Seven cities across the West Bank author their own portraits, on their own terms.
Incorporated
The Self-Portrait Project raises its first investment and incorporates — the art project becomes a company.
The patent
The two-way-mirror method — camera behind the glass, shutter in the participant's hand — is issued a U.S. patent.
Sundance
The mirror sets up at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City — five years running, self-portraits authored at independent film’s defining gathering.
Permanent mirrors
The first always-on installations open in venues — the mirror starts running every day, with no operator.
Ten years
A decade in — and the Big Buck Hunter cabinet whose gun trigger fires the camera.
Nonprofit status
Fiscal sponsorship through 501(c)3 partner Fractured Atlas is attained — a formal home for the self-representation work carried to Haiti, Palestine, and beyond.
The phone becomes the shutter
The wired remote gives way to a QR-linked phone — your own device releases the shutter.
One million
The millionth portrait is authored at Anchored Inn in Brooklyn — fourteen years from where it began.
First major award
The project wins Best Marketing Activation at the Booth Mastermind Awards — the method, recognized by the industry.
First international
The first permanent mirror outside the U.S. opens at Another Brick in Taipei — the archive goes global.
Design Science Studio
A Regenera talk at Gray Area in San Francisco — presenting the project's regenerative model to the design-science community.
DiscoShow & Art Basel
A rewired 1970s phone booth on the Las Vegas Strip; a life-size dollhouse with Laurie Simmons at ICA Miami.
Reputation-Based Pay
The people who do the work begin earning a stake and a say; SEAT Spotter and pop-ups scale the reach.
The pop-up studio
The first Pop-Up Portrait Studio opens — the whole studio experience, brought to a room for a day.
BoothCamp keynote
The keynote at BoothCamp: Create in Las Vegas — the project takes the stage at the photo-booth industry's own gathering.
Two million
The two-millionth self-portrait, authored on 3 June 2026. The archive keeps growing.
Participatory crowdfund
A community, crowd-funded investment round — slated for fall 2026, opening ownership to the people the project is built with.
Five bases, and wherever the mirror travels.
We work from five cities and carry the system anywhere it's needed. The flagship studio is open to visit; the rest run permanent mirrors, activations, and partner work.
The storefront on the Lower East Side.
Walk-ins, sittings, and small groups at the original two-way mirror — the same method Andy Lin built in Brooklyn in 2009. Our home base, and where the project began. 137 Rivington Street, New York.
West Coast base.
Permanent mirrors and activations across Southern California.
See Los AngelesAsia base.
Permanent mirrors running daily across Taiwan.
Europe base.
Activations and brand work across Europe.
Self-Portrait Southeast.
Our independent partner studio across the Southeast.
Visit their siteThe company we keep.
We don't do this alone. The lineage we grew from, the partners who carry the work, and the recognition along the way.
Build a piece of the world we want to live in.
Bring a mirror to your room, carry the work somewhere it's needed, join as a co-creator, or just say hello.
hello@selfportraitproject.com · +1 917.714.3492