Artist Statement
Life-Lines Throughout the United States
This body of work is a companion series to my project, “Felicific Calculus: Technology as a Social Marker of Race, Class, & Economics in Rochester, NY,” to demonstrate how communities throughout the United States are facing the same dire situation. Throughout the United States, many individuals are being left behind by technology, whether that is for communication or Internet access. Our society has become one in which you must have access to these tools to be provided support services and a job, or you are left behind, widening the gap between the lower and middle classes.
Often, this outdated technology is also used to label individuals or areas of a community where they can be found as social markers without further knowledge. The individuals I have met who still rely on payphones have stated, “I hate how people look at me like I am doing something wrong when I am using the payphone.” Those individuals have explained that they are typically calling their families to check in or for support.
My work aims to raise the following questions: how do we ensure access to basic needs for a sustainable community, such as communication, shelter, and food, without labeling those relying on support?
Why has the United Kingdom decided to save their iconic payphones, convert them to digital ones, and install other emergency necessities such as defibrillators in the red booths?
Once the payphones are gone, how will we communicate in a natural disaster similar to Hurricane Katrina & Sandy?
The payphone may be a symbol of a different era. Still, we must remember how we use technology as a social marker and often forget those individuals who cannot keep up with fundamental technological advancements.
Artist Bio
Eric T. Kunsman (b. 1975) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. While in high school, he was heavily influenced by the death of the steel industry and its place in American history. Exposure to Walker Evans’s work during this time hooked Eric onto photography. Eric had the privilege of studying under Lou Draper, who became Eric’s most formative mentor. He credits Lou with influencing his approach as an educator, photographer, and contributing human being.
He is a photographer and book artist based in Rochester, New York. Eric works at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as an Assistant Professor in the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and is an adjunct professor for the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences. He also owns Booksmart Studio, a fine art digital printing studio that specializes in numerous techniques and services for photographers and book artists on a collaborative basis. Eric also serves as a board member for CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY.
Eric is a recipient of the 2025 CENTER Santa Fe’s Callanan Excellence in Teaching Award, 2025 Center for Photographic Art Grant Recipient- Juror’s Choice, and the 2024 JGS Fellowship for Photography Recipient from The New York Foundation for the Arts. He was a 2022 nominee for Prix Pictet- Humans and named one of 10 B&W photographers to watch of 2018 by BWGallerist; B&W Best Photographers of the Year 2019 & 2021 by Dodho Magazine; won the Association of Photography (UK) Gold Award for Open Series in 2019 and a finalist in 2024; Critical Mass Finalist Top 200 Critical Mass 2019, 2020, 2021; Top 50 Critical Mass in 2022; Top 15 Photographers for the Rust Belt Biennial; and LensCulture’s New Visions Award 2025, Critics’ Choice 2022 and B&W Jurors’ Pick 2021. His Project Felicific Calculus was also awarded a Warhol Foundation Grant through CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY.
Eric has held over 40 solo exhibitions, with more to come. His work has been exhibited in over 250 galleries and museums and featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Harper’s Magazine, LensWork, Loupe Magazine, Dodho, B&W Photography, Analog Explorations, All About Photo, Black+White Photography (UK), The Washington Post, and Dek Unu. He has also been featured in online articles by All About Photo, F-Stop Magazine, Analog Forever Magazine, Catalyst: Interview, Texas Photo Society, and others.