#payphoneproject

[hawaii]

Digits #payphone #payphoneproject #manoa #honolulu #hawaii (at University of Hawaii at Manoa) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnsUZ9Lh4M5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=uxnj3ev1kt4r

[bellpayphoneproject]

[got-joshed]

Toronto's Union Station | GO transit & TTC Concourse #urban_toronto #getonboard #GOtransit #TTC Bell #bellpayphoneproject #payphoneproject (at Union Station)

[bellpayphoneproject]

Introduction

“Today, more than 26 million Canadians have a mobile phone or wireless device – a number that continues to experience significant growth every year,” states Bernard Lord, chief executive officer of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. In an address at the 2012 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto further adding that “we expect to see over 100-per-cent [wireless] penetration in just the next few years.” [1] 

Spanning coast to coast of our great white north are a few things all Canadians should take pride in;

the trans Canadian highway with its recognizable and  distinctive white-on-green maple leaf route markers,

the Canadian National Railway touching the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia and reaching all the way west to the Pacific Coast in British Columbia,

and the Bell Telephone company's matrix of telephone wires that extend beyond our borders.

People have been connected by point-to-point telephones before satellites were orbiting our planet or the goliath cellular hubs towered above our heads, or even the CN Tower with it's amplifying radio waves. Telephonic communication was truly one of the symbols of a modernized and technological advanced society. Now with a projected 100% mobile phone population the need and necessity for pay phone booths is coming to an end. Before these communication hubs vanish I am curating a creative collection of content to document and share with anyone who is interested.  

To add to the conversation use #bellpayphoneproject tag or simply follow me on instagram.com/got_josh or tumblr at the same has tag.    

Bell Pay-phone booths were both the iconic and irreplaceable hubs strategically located around cities, freeways and event centres. These nodes spoked into collection stations populated with business men and commuters connecting with their families, clients and colleagues. Where Clark Kent transformed Into Superman. Would Tippi Hedren still be with us without the safe haven of the legendary telephone booth? Would I have been able to collect call my friends before data plans and social networks with barely audible messages such as "you are receiving a collect call from "heyitsmeimonmywaymeetyouattheparkinabouttenminutes".

When I wander the city I cannot stop myself from getting jealous of the sites these booths get agency over. VIP sections in stadiums, front row center of iconic structures (ROM), inside circles of gossip rings of dorm rooms, universities, underground service in subways, the lineups in hospitals spreading the news of a newborn-or maybe expressing loss of a family member. There is the lonely booth in the middle of highway 67 way up north, the kinky booth getting some action in the village, or the bank of booths between airport terminals. 

They may never spawn an iconic love as those that appear in the dr.no time machine series, the secrecy needed for superman to tear off his suit or the bubbly booths in China that school girls photograph with their smartphones showing a googly giant orange head but the are the ones I did call home from (again sometimes with the very informative collect call. However these are the Bell pay phones that connected us all for decades and gradually get removed from our landscape I will photograph the graffiti tagged, physically abused, and underused gems   

[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/mobile/canada-on-track-to-pass-100-per-cent-wireless-penetration-rate/article4230795/