Calling Collect

I was 27 when I got my first cell phone. Not because I wanted one. But because my boyfriend at the time, like a teacher escorting the troubled kid to the principal's office, marched me down to Crossgates Maill to buy me one. He was tired of leaving messages with my roommates, wondering where I was, and most importantly (to him, anyway) why I wasn't returning his calls. To be honest, I liked being off the grid. Still do. There's freedom in being unattached to technology and all it's bells, whistles, and yes, ring tones. Which is why I find it interesting that as a photographer, I am fascinated by pay phones.   

The first public pay phone was invented in 1889. At the height of pay phone madness, there were over 2 million of them in the United States. Who can't recall a popular movie from the 80s that didn't include a pay phone scene? And now their worn-out, beaten-down shells are like bones of a dinosaur - decaying remnants of another time.

Which is perhaps the attraction. With today's incessant connectivity, we forget that there was a time, not long ago, where it was easy to feel the anxiety of wandering astray from our regular routine. Perhaps the pay phone represented our desire to return to the grid, to hear a familiar voice and know that wherever we are, we're never truly lost...