Today I photographed a payphone that I’ve passed everyday since my move to CoRK. It sits on the corner of McDuff and Rosselle. I thought many times about taking this photo, I don’t know why it became such a big deal. Where to park, where to stand, what lens, will people be watching, what time of day…overthinking much?
It was the guilt of knowing that one day this phone would be gone without my record of it that finally put me over the top. Funny how the mind tricks you into doing something.
I pulled into the parking lot of the adjacent laundromat and quickly exited my vehicle. There were people in the building, and for some reason this was of concern to me. I soon realized that I parked behind the phone and that my vehicle would be in the shot if I chose to include the building and sign. Darn!
Burned into our DNA, the reflexive action of picking up the handset and listening for a dialtone took over, and then checking the coin return for change. That’s the ritual when approaching a payphone. Unfortunately the phone was dead, no surprise there.
I had the camera on a tripod and thought I needed it, which made things more awkward. The phone is actually positioned quite low for handicap purposes so I had to fuss with the legs and get everything set up. Also I was using a new camera and was having some challenges learning how to use the autofocus, so I messed with that a while. What would probably appear as a comedy of errors I finally got in a position to take a shot. Then I decided to move back off the sidewalk into the street which required a tripod leg adjustment and a diligent watch for traffic. Finally my shots were done, with a typical understanding that I needed to return to get the wider shot that included the laundromat and not my car.
Things aren’t always this difficult when making images but even after all these years I still manage to get befuddled over simple things. Little did I know that this opener shot would start an obsession to find every payphone in Jacksonville…more on that later. For now, I got the shot I wanted.
Most of my progress on this project is posted to Instagram - @dougengphoto
Click here for the Series Images.
716 McDuff S at Rosselle