Photos With Phones Removed Show How Obsessed We Are With Them

How often do you look at your phone? How many times have you sat surrounded by loved ones and chosen to mess about on a tablet instead of talking to them?

Those are questions answered starkly by photographer Eric Pickersgill in this series of photos with smartphones removed.

He first got the idea after observing a family eating breakfast at a cafe together. “They were all sharing the same physical space, however they were engaging with people and content elsewhere,” he said.

“And maybe it was the beautiful light and the mother who wasn’t using a device that made me see the situation as a photograph. I didn’t make that picture but it exists in my mind as an image, a very emotionally charged image.”

So he began a series of photographs called ‘Removed’ in which devices are physically removed, while the models stay in place.

“The absence of the device points to it more so than if it were present,” he added.

Check out more of Eric’s work here.

All images: Eric Pickersgill