I’ve had this idea on my mind for years – to make a book documenting all of the pay phones around the world. They’re fascinating to me how they are relics fading before our eyes. Morphing into art on the street. I had collected pics from places like Kyiv, Vancouver, and Tbilisi…but then got to other cities where they’ve all been removed, so I began to wonder, is this really a thing?
Then, I got to Toronto in July 2023 and, for the first time in a long, long time, I saw phones that still actually work! Intermixed with ones that have already become art.
I guess they’re leaving them out there, and one by one as they slowly get written on, beaten on, used as a food counter, or have its phone violently ripped from its station, then they effortlessly segue into street art and culture.
I’ve decided to post images of payphones in real time as I see them because their practical existence is as temporal as any mural or tag out there.
August 2023