ABSTRACT
The lack of intention in this case doesn’t refer to the photographer’s, but to the participants in the scene. How could they be otherwise? Only the photographer can see the connection, or suggest the connection, through where he or she stands, and the framing and lens, and so on. These are the classic red British phone boxes introduced in 1935, except one of them is not what it seems-it is an entry in a London-wide display of “Artboxes” commissioned by British Telecom from different designers and artists. For a shoot on this summer project, I was deliberately
looking for locations where I could juxtapose real boxes against the not-quite-real boxes. This was one good location, not least because this particular Artbox, at first glance, looks similar (many entries were nothing like the originals). I also had another note in my shooting script, something to hope for, which was to do with passers-by. Any of the pictures would be improved by having some form of interaction between a box and people, ideally if they were not simply being looked at as a curiosity, but it was unpredictable. This scene happened by good luck.
