Kind of sad

Here are two pictures of quickly-disappearing vintage European phone booths that I took with one of the devices that are making them disappear. 

Cell phones are better in virtually every respect, but it seems like we’ll lose something of the universal city fabric when phone booths are finally relegated to technology museums.  It is fitting that the last generation of cell phones to overlap widely with phone booths have cameras on them to help document the evolutionary passing of their predecessors.  When you take a snapshot of a phone booth with a camera phone, you get a neat trophy, but you also feel like you’ve helped speed the demise.  At some point, the only function of phone booths might be to be photographed by camera phone toting tourists.

Click on the thumbnails for a full-size view.

Leicester Square, London.  Taken with a Motorola V300. 
Was it built at a time when it was considered unthinkably rude to subject passersby to your conversations, or simply when transmission quality was so bad you had to isolate yourself from the outside noise?

Gamla Stan, Stockholm.  Taken with a Motorola V300.
Notice the raised standing platform for inclement weather.

Anyone else have these kinds of snapshots?  There might be a geek-sentimental photo book waiting to be made here.  I’ll try to snap more on my next trips.