When Kacey Musgraves spent some time in Los Angeles recently, she happened upon a tiny shop tucked away on Beverly Blvd, deep in the heart of Koreatown.
Naturally, Spacey Kacey decided to stop in and have a look around, and what she found there was a heartwarming, nostalgic little photo shop called Tom’s One Hour Photo. Run by a man who had lamented business had gotten a bit slow since the wave of digital media, Kacey immediately fell in love with Tom’s work and its aesthetic.
Kacey posted her shots on Twitter, announcing to her nearly 1 million followers that she and her team had created an Instagram account for Tom, since he has no internet. The shop is also cash only. It’s retro in just about every sense of the word.
But she wanted to see the shop flourish, urging fans to “save dying businesses like this.”
“They’re the backbone of this country,” she concluded. So to do her part, she did what any international country pop star would do: she set Tom up with an Instagram page with plenty of photos to help spread the word, complete with examples of his work and how to use filters to give photos purchased there an even more retro feel.
Just hours after setting up an Instagram page for Tom’s One Hour Photo, it quickly reached over 20.2k followers, as well as a special shout out from Nick, owner Tom’s son.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH for visiting and supporting us!!!” He wrote. “I have listened to your music for so long and it makes me so happy that you graced us, I love you and thank you so much again!!” shared Nick. Kacey retweeted his heartfelt message, replying “CRYING FOREVER ?? HEART AT FULL CAPACITY #TomsOneHourPhoto,” obviously touched by his reaching out.
“Tom may never even know about the insta we made for him (@tomsonehourphotolab) but I hope you will make a special trip to Beverly Blvd to get your film developed or portrait/passport photo taken ??,” the singer encouraged fans on Twitter.
Anyone up for a trip to Los Angeles in the near future? Looks like we’ve got to see a man about some awesome retro shots.
