Beginning in 2006 I became fascinated by the diminishing role of pay telephones in public spaces. The telephone booth has long been a fixture of American culture. Public phones also had an impact on physical spaces and design elements in many buildings such as gas stations and restaurants. Cinema and television still employ the public phone as a device for moving a story-lines in certain directions. Before mobile phones, pay-phones also offered a certain degree of privacy and personal space. The advent of the mobile phone has rendered the public pay phone obsolete in most cases, but as I documented the loss, I also became interested in the customizations that each neighborhood had imparted. Graffiti, vandalism and heartfelt love poems are among the many ways these objects have been transformed into more than a simple telecommunications devices.
Beginning in 2006 I became fascinated by the diminishing role of pay telephones in public spaces. The telephone booth has long been a fixture of American culture. Public phones also had an impact on physical spaces and design elements in many buildings such as gas stations and restaurants. Cinema and television still employ the public phone as a device for moving a story-lines in certain directions. Before mobile phones, pay-phones also offered a certain degree of privacy and personal space. The advent of the mobile phone has rendered the public pay phone obsolete in most cases, but as I documented the loss, I also became interested in the customizations that each neighborhood had imparted. Graffiti, vandalism and heartfelt love poems are among the many ways these objects have been transformed into more than a simple telecommunications devices.