Martin Parr is a photographer who is known to take photographs of ‘like objects’. For example, Parr collected photographs of post boxes in remote parts of Scotland. In isolation the viewer is presented with an image of an unremarkable post box, but when viewed as a collection a narrative emerges that grows with each additional image.

Jana, Tess and I set out to create a similar group of images. Options we considered for our project included: statues, shopping bags, signs and shoes. We finally settled on public phone boxes! As with Parr’s focus on an archaic method of communication, my team saw a similar relationship to the public phone box. Public phone boxes were once widely used in the CBD but the popularity of mobile technology has meant a steady decline of usage.

When viewing the image below, one cannot help but see life going on around this public phone box. People blatantly utilise their mobile phones in ignorant defiance of this once indispensable piece of technology. We see the woman staring straight ahead and the man literally turning his back on the payphone. To add insult to injury, the advertising inside the phone box shows a woman using a mobile phone.

It is unlikely this public phone box will ever rise to popularity again. Unlike other forms of obsolete technology, there is not a noticeable amount of nostalgia around public phone boxes. I feel this group of like-photos act as a reminder of an era that has only recently ended. It makes me wonder;  What technology widely used today will be as casually bypassed tomorrow?