Upgraded public pay phone on Jefferson blvd next to the legendary Mel’s Fish Shack.
It goes without saying, but world was a different place before the internet and before cellphones. We used to leave in the morning to go skate or paint or whatever and meet friends at a few different spots in the city. If u didn’t see your friends at one spot, you’d run into them at another one or on the way there. You knew at around what time dinner was and just found yourself back at the house for that without the possibility of being reached. Being connected the way we are today is great, but we are also constantly distracted - if not addicted - to looking at our phones. We can’t help it , the dopamine-driven feedback loops in our brains reward us for the texting, checking our likes, shooting and posting stuff, etc.
Aside from the nostalgic feeling they give me, I feel pay phones represent a certain time period that was free and innocent in certain ways, without the constant distractions that keep us from being fully present in the moment. With the last pay phone recently removed from NYC, this is my attempt to (hopefully) make them a little harder to remove from the streets of LA.