I found the Nokia 216 in the apartment my family was renting in Venice at the bottom of a wooden bureau. Matte white case, clicky buttons, mini camera: a simple white frame to cut out a piece of the world. 

I walked around a lot in Venice. My parents were working and I was on break. I took photos and then I’d draw them, flattening the world into layers of simplification.

These simplifications let me see more clearly, like the way shadows fall as towers of blocks toward tourists sitting in the sun. Simple trapezoids form a lantern. Shiny shapes rest on the surface of water. I captured moments that I could never draw instantaneously. 

These were postcards to myself. I drew one every day I was there. Postcards turn a simple image into a symbol of time and travel, of new experiences and wonder. I was seeing so much. So I compressed it all into my 6×8 black notebook in gray graphite, framed by Nokia.

For Eden Reinfurt, a Nokia would make everyone’s life a little more simple.