By: Brian Slattery | November 16, 2021 at 9:11 AM

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Post to: Art and Culture, Visual Arts, Fair Haven

Mo-Pho is a company that is about to become a mobile photography studio and event space. It is run by Teresa Joseph and Chris Randall, partners of the photo business The Notorious PIC. It started as an idea in Joseph's mind four years ago. This week, I bought a double-decker bus from Liverpool, a major leap forward, and there will definitely be more buses in the spring.

For Joseph, this is not just a dream come true; it is also a manifestation of the support she and Randall feel from the surrounding community.

"The original idea was that we were going to drive a photography bus. It's like an ice cream truck. We will have a jingle and everything," Joseph said. But she added that it was not the children screaming for the ice cream truck, but the adults yelling "Mo-Pho is here!"

The bus there was very similar to Joseph's original idea, until she thought of the first vehicle. There are photo buses in Southern California and Northern California, Kansas City, Dallas-Fort Worth area and Utah. There are also Shutter Bus from Joplin, Missouri and Blue Photo Bus from Annapolis, Maryland. Sa Stewart's signature wedding-all used Volkswagen buses modified in the 1960s and 1970s.

"But as I envisioned, how will it cover everything we have experienced in life, everything we have been exposed to-art performances and private concerts, and all the other things we want to host and promote," Joseph Said that this idea began to surpass the size of the Volkswagen bus.

This is partly because the idea has germinated for many years. "On the second day of my date with Chris, I thought of this vision," said Joseph, who works as an ophthalmologist in the ophthalmologist's office. Joseph and Randall have just started to meet, but Joseph is taking care of her children, so date nights are rare. Then "Miracle, we had two date nights in a row. This is a big deal." They went out for dinner, and Randall asked her what she wanted to do the next day. At dinner, they came up with an idea to cruise downtown New Haven in animal costumes. "We were planning all night, like a wedding." The next day, Joseph, "Let's go to the city center and put on these suits"-one is a rabbit, the other is a cat.

"This is not Halloween," Randall recalled. "These are just random, regular days."

Randall brought his camera. "We are going to the city center, everyone is stopping us, the car is beeping, and everyone is saying,'Take us a picture!'" They drove the Elm City Party Bike across the path. This is one of the passengers' birthdays. The party bike passengers jumped out of the car and started to take photos with them. "Then someone walked up to Chris at random and put a dollar in his hand. "This is the first dollar we made together," Joseph said. "We didn't even try. We are just here. "

The next day, she drove to work, and the inspiration came. "We all have the same purpose," she said of herself and Randall. "We like to bring joy to people. We do it separately, but we do it better together." She considered how they might have a project for them to do this, and thought of the idea of ​​a photography bus. She told Randall about it during her lunch break. "And we just marinated in it for four years."

In November last year, when Joseph's mother sold a property in Gaylordsville near Lichfield, the idea suddenly became more feasible. Her mother donated part of the auction proceeds to each of her children. "I think it's time," Joseph said. Coincidentally, Joseph and Randall have been working with entrepreneurial developer Collab New Haven to organize a business proposal for their ideas, which was presented in December. Joseph said that this process "required me to put myself in the position of someone I had never heard of before." "But I also need to investigate and understand my heart better."

By then, Joseph and Randall's joint photography company The Notorious PIC had been established and operated for several years, taking photos and providing photo booths for events. "We have it, and it's tangible," Randall said. "The bus is still just a dream, a vision"-Joseph's vision.

Completing this process with Collab gave Joseph a clearer vision of this vision. When she reviewed the history of The Notorious PIC, she saw how it fits in with their personal relationship. She saw that her vision was "just an extension of ours," she said. "This is just an extension of our heart. This is who we are. All we want is to take the world, this magic we built together, and invite others to participate." She followed an old adage: "When you have more than As long as you need it, you build a longer table instead of a taller fence."

However, in this case, a longer table also means a longer vehicle. Joseph said: “It’s not until June or July of 2021 that the double-layer part of this really appears.” By December, she was looking at the 14-foot trailer, but found that she was not satisfied with what she wanted to do with this car. All activities-not only provide a photo booth, but also provide a place where people can relax, maybe a place that can be the focus of activities.

"The trailer can solve this problem, but it can't solve this problem," she said. "Bus will work for this, but not for that. Pinning things to the ground is a bit scary." She haunts online groups that specialize in everything from trucks and school buses to transporting containers and ships (once there was a Mo- Flo," Joseph said). They almost bought a van in Florida, which has been transformed into an art studio with windows until a van Facebook group "frightened me".

She "thought about a bus, but stay away from it" because the bus cannot have a flat floor due to the need to make room for the wheels. Then, she saw a photo of an Australian double-decker bus on Pinterest. "This thing is great," she said. "It used to be beautiful." She realized that the double-decker bus could contain all her thoughts on mobile business, from photo shoots to rest space and entertainment. She contacted Jerry Dolejs of US Bus Utah, who runs double-decker tours in Salt Lake City and other cities, but also arranges to sell double-decker buses from the United Kingdom.

"He kept sending us buses that were almost correct but incorrect," Joseph. "The biggest obstacle is that most double-decker boats are 40 feet. I said,'Listen, it's already big. The steering wheel is already on the other side. I don't need the biggest one." Dolejs found theirs in Liverpool 30-foot double-decker bus.

"It belongs to Liverpool Football Club," Randall said. "It crossed out most of us," Joseph said. And "We have to make a decision very quickly." They jumped up. The bus was repainted in Liverpool, loaded onto a barge, and transported to New Jersey. Joseph, Randall, and Dolejs met him at the dock, where he was preparing to take the American road.

"I went in alone because only one person is allowed in at a time," she said. "My first thought was literally,'What did you do? What did you do? Now it's your responsibility. It's terrible! My stomach hurts. I'm doubting the city." But an hour later, when When they drove into the first gas station in New Jersey, "Everyone and their uncle stared at our bus. Everyone was amazed. I thought,'Well, I can get used to this. We can succeed. "

The height of the bus means it takes 6 hours and 200 miles to get home to avoid the lower overpass on I-95. Dolejs was driving the bus; Joseph and Randall were driving in front of him. "I keep the correct distance and look at the GPS ahead. I will check every overpass he passes. I will look in the mirror and say,'Well, he did it,' and we will move on."

After the bus stopped safely in their Fair Haven lane, Joseph and Randall are working on a renovation plan. All seats will be withdrawn. They plan to install a railing and an awning on the outside of the bus, which can be folded up while driving. The windows there will be transformed to be openable so that people outside can get services from the bus. "There must be an external atmosphere," Joseph said. "We really want it to be picturesque. We don't want it to look commercial. We want it to look retro." They will put a bike rack in the front.

"The whole interior will be white," Joseph said. There will be seats outside, "It's like a booth setup... the atmosphere of a cafe lounge." A built-in camera will be used to take photos and videos. Upstairs, "We will do this so that it will be open on beautiful days. This is more like a place where we take photos." They plan to host their own events and make it easy for others to host events, no matter Is it a place for private gatherings, an expanded event space for restaurants, or a place for company events. "Anything you can do in a small venue, you can do it here. We are going to stand up to the party. You just need to find a reason to throw things."

Their goal is to complete the renovation in the spring, even the jingle, hopefully the instrumental ice cream truck version of this song. They have felt the support of the New Haven community. "Someone wants to hire us this week. Someone wants to hire in December. The bus is not ready yet." They are receiving reports from The Arts Paper and WTNH.

In the process of making buses a reality, "The other thing I realized is that New Haven—our community, the people we attract—allows us to understand exactly who we are. The land here is very fertile. ." Friends and acquaintances walked out of the woodwork. "A lot of people want to help," Joseph said. "A lot of people feel ownership." Their project "is like an echo, really," not only her vision, but also the energy of the people around them.

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