Chances are, your eyes look at your phone more than they make eye contact with other people in a typical day. In order to show how our phone addiction has caused us to neglect those around us, one photographer, Eric Pickersgill removed the smartphones and other devices from his portrait series.
Pickersgill was originally inspired to create the project, which he named Removed, after witnessing the all too familiar scenario of a family sitting together, but incapable of actually interacting with each other.
In his notes from that encounter, Pickersgill writes:
“Family sitting next to me at Illium café in Troy, NY is so disconnected from one another. Not much talking. Father and two daughters have their own phones out. Mom doesn’t have one or chooses to leave it put away. She stares out the window, sad and alone in the company of her closest family. Dad looks up every so often to announce some obscure piece of info he found online.”
Take a look at this photographer’s jarring project below.
The photographer was inspired by a chance observation in a café. He saw a family sitting together glued to their phones, and it hit him how technology was created to improve interaction, however, it has hindered our ability to interact in real life.
“It was one of those moments where you see something so amazingly common that it startles you into consciousness of what’s actually happening and it is impossible to forget.”
“I see this family at the grocery store, in classrooms, on the side of the highway and in my own bed as I fall asleep next to my wife,” Pickersgill said.”
“Despite the obvious benefits that these advances in technology have contributed to society, the social and physical implications are slowly revealing themselves.”
We have all seen- and are probably guilty of- this behavior, but by removing the phones from the subjects in the photos, the pictures really highlight how our phone addictions are destroying our relationships.
Did you find this photographer’s project to be eye-opening? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
[Featured image credit: Eric Pickersgill]