The image shown here, Hutton Street, shot in Rhinecliff, NY is from Amy’s series Dead Ringers: Portraits of Abandoned Payphones. Today, with her iPhone camera, Amy seeks these phones with the very invention that has rendered them into relics.
Think of Clark Kent rushing to the nearest phone booth, emerging as Superman ready to save Lois Lane. During the Eisenhower era, college students crammed into phone booths. Those days are over. This century’s rapid embrace of cell phones has dramatically diminished the need for working payphones. Yet many payphones remain standing, scattered throughout the landscape—abandoned, beaten, and disfigured. Amy often finds payphones hidden in plain sight. Others, stripped down to a shell of their former selves, reveal a suggestion of sculpture in metal and plastic.
Dead Ringers depicts the remains of those payphones and the environments in which they exist. Today, cell phones deliver multiple ways to reach out and touch someone. What persists is the need to communicate, anyplace, for any reason, or for no reason at all. Visit amybecker.com
Our photography critique group typically meets about every six weeks. It’s a supportive environment in which all have the opportunity to share work. The feedback helps me to get out of my own head and gain fresh perspective on my photography. I find the group’s collective input enriching and very helpful on what is and is not working with my images. I also find it rewarding to hear others speak about their own work and process, and then discuss it with the group. When I reflect on the five-plus years of our group’s existence, I’ve been struck by the range, quality, and growth of our members. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to the day we can safely meet again in each other’s homes, where we can share prints and thoughts on our work in person.