Profile of a Chinatown film shop whose passport portraits became an internet sensation and what that says about community and craft.
A few months ago, someone stole Bolton Brown’s gym bag from his locker. His favorite jacket was gone. So were his keys — and his passport. With a trip to Italy coming up, he needed a new one. This, of course, meant a new photo.So Brown went where he’d gone five years before: Eliz Digital, a small, cash-only film shop in Chinatown, wedged between a hair salon and a food market. It was quick, like the first time, Brown said. The woman behind the camera, Chunika Kesh, is “pretty down to business. Straightforward. Just tells you where to sit, tells you where to look.”A few minutes and $25 later, Brown had his portrait. He posted it to X — “the best portrait photographer in ny is the chinese passport photo lady on elizabeth lol” — and now more than 1.1 million people have seen the photo online.Brown’s viral post brought fresh interest to Eliz Digital, but it’s long been a quiet favorite among New York’s analog set.On TikTok, “film girlies” post “get my film developed with me” videos as they weave through Chinatown’s crowded sidewalks and into the shop. On Reddit, it’s a default answer to anyone asking where to develop film. And X has been full of love letters to Eliz Digital for years.“I don’t get it,” Brown told Gothamist. “But it looks really good every time.”He thought it might have something to do with how Kesh asks her subjects to look under the lens — “which I guess does something with eye contact. I don't know.”Whatever it is, the internet agrees. Soon after Brown posted, other accounts started sharing their own portraits, taken at the same shop.“Eliz digital is the f---ing truth,” user @frajankie wrote. From @adrnvic: “passport appt tomorrow, eliz digital came thruuuuuu.”Kesh is not on social media, so she missed the latest wave of attention. What she didn’t miss was the sudden rush of people coming in for passport photos. A few of them mentioned the posts. She’d gone viral and just kept working.“That was a very nice surprise,” Kesh said. She’s a petite woman, so