Disconnected: New Works by Eric Goodfield

Disconnected: New Works by Eric Goodfield

One day, Eric S. Goodfield took a picture of a pay phone with his iPhone. The light was just right. The pay phone was just right. When he looked at the picture of the phone on his phone: the irony struck him to the core. He had just taken a picture of the thing (the pay phone) with the thing (the cellphone) that killed the thing. Ever since, Eric has taken photos of pay phones using Shake-it (Polaroid emulator) to create life-to-death filmstrip-style documentary photos of pay phones throughout the US and Europe.

From functioning, to vandalized and decayed, the hundreds of phone photos Eric has documented over the last six years represent what is now Disconnected. Like so many things that were once vital and important, the Pay Phone has moved into the realm of obsolescence and decay – now abandoned and disappearing entirely from social context and human consciousness.

“I’ve been shooting some of these phones for years. Over time, I have developed a sort of relationship with them,” said Eric, “while people pass by and say ‘you don’t see those anymore,’ I’ve realized we don’t think about them, so we don’t see them anymore.”

Eric’s methodology has been to take every image with a cell phone. This distinction is important to the project for the obvious irony conveying the cell phone as the device essentially killing off the pay phone.