The “Life-Lines Throughout the United States” exhibition at St. Joseph’s University’s Maguire Art Museum tracks disappearing payphones throughout the nation, writes Peter Crimmins for WHYY.

In Philadelphia, there are about 35 currently operable payphones, showcasing them as being virtually obsolete.

Among the ones that are still operational can be found at Les and Doreen’s Happy Tap, a Fishtown neighborhood bar that wired its phone line to the payphone.

“A lot of the younger kids that come in – adults, of course, but they’re kids to me – they take pictures with it,” said bartender Shannon Bosak. “Some of them have never seen one.”

Eric Kunsman, the artist behind the exhibition, has spent years documenting payphones throughout the country. For his project, he combined large-format portraits of payphones with census data maps of their locations and interviews with the people who use them.

The Maguire gallery has actual payphones visitors can use to listen to pre-recorded interviews with people who use them as their primary form of communication.

Kunsman has turned his art and documentary project into a form of advocacy, part of an effort to install free phones with free voicemail in areas with a significant number of people without cellphones or are housing insecure.

Read more about the new payphone exhibition in WHYY.

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