![\"Eric\u2019s](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Snoopys.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\tEric\u2019s very first image for the series, shot outside a Snoopy\u2019s restaurant, North Carolina<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
How it started<\/h2>\n
The idea for the project came about when Eric, who was missing his new wife while away on an artist\u2019s retreat, noticed a family in a caf\u00e9 all sitting together, but isolated from each other by their device usage. He made the following notes: \u2018Family sitting next to me at Illium caf\u00e9 in Troy, New York, is so disconnected from one another. Not much talking. Father and two daughters have their own phones out. Mom doesn\u2019t have one or chooses to leave it put away. She stares out the window, and alone in the company of her family.\u2019<\/p>\n
He tells us about that moment:<\/p>\n
\u2018I was at this low point of feeling homesick and isolated, so that made it like this repelling moment where I thought, \u201cWow! These people are really not taking advantage of their time together.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
For Eric, it was one of those perfect moments you later regret not photographing, and the scene stayed in his mind, leading to his idea for a photography project based on the question of how using personal devices can affect our relationships.<\/p>\n
\u2018The motivation wasn\u2019t to create a body of work to shame or bash people who use technology,\u2019 says Eric. \u2018It was more to create a piece that operates like a mirror so people can see what they\u2019re doing and bring attention to something that\u2019s become normal quite quickly.<\/p>\n
\u2018If a sub-culture of people were the only ones who had access to those devices and were using them as often, I think the rest of the world would be quite suspicious or concerned. However, it\u2019s something we\u2019re all partaking in, so I think we\u2019re less cynical as a whole.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tThe children play listlessly with their toys, whilst the adults are distracted with theirs<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n
Eric is keen not to be seen as pointing the finger, but more as an active participant in the culture he is describing. \u2018I want to make sure I\u2019m not coming across like I\u2019m slamming technology,\u2019 he says. \u2018I think that would close down the conversation.\u2019<\/p>\n
The project has also made Eric more aware of his own device usage. He and his wife now have a policy of leaving the phone in the car when they go out for dinner. \u2018We\u2019ve noticed that we have better and more sustained interaction with each other when the device isn\u2019t there,\u2019<\/p>\n
he says. \u2018But it\u2019s weird, because you still reach for your pocket to see if it\u2019s there and that\u2019s when I start to think about the word \u201caddiction\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tA Labour day barbeque at Eric’s sister\u2019s house. Eric’s sister (far left) takes a smoke break with her neighbours.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n
The issue is complex. He adds: \u2018I think there are huge benefits [to technology], because sometimes being near people is just not possible. But when you can be ,and you\u2019re still accessing other people who aren\u2019t there, I think that becomes problematic \u2013 at least for me personally.<\/p>\n
\u2018For me, talking on the phone is not the same as sitting across the table from my wife \u2013 looking into her eyes and having face-to-face interaction.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tThis shot was taken at Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina, an area noted for its scenic beauty.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n
Eric also tried to use the shoots to make his subjects aware of their own usage. He asked them afterwards about their relationships with their devices. Many had strategies such as leaving their phones charging downstairs overnight or banning them from the dinner table, but he also found a unanimous admission of device dependence.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s certainly accelerating in acceptability, but there\u2019s this guilt I think that people have right now because the changes are happening within our lifetime,\u2019 he adds.<\/p>\n
\u2018We haven\u2019t had anyone born with their mother having a device in her hand \u2013 you know, taking a selfie \u2013 and then living a full life expectancy and then dying with a device in their hand. That hasn\u2019t happened yet, but it will, maybe just after my lifetime. I think we\u2019re still experiencing this shift.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tThe man on the right inially refused permision to be in the image, but then, since he did not move out of the frame whilst the image was being set up and shot, Eric decided to use the shot anyway.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
First shots<\/h2>\n
For his first pictures, Eric experimented with images of his wife in a caf\u00e9, taking a shot of her with a device in her hand, and then without, and then using Photoshop to paste the empty hand over the other shot.<\/p>\n
\u2018What I realised is that, first, I suck at Photoshop,\u2019 he says. \u2018The other thing was that there was no difference in facial expressions. So I was like, \u201cWhy am I making this harder on myself? I\u2019m going to have people perform: I\u2019m not going to Photoshop it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I love that this implicated the person in the picture. They knew what the photograph was about \u2013 it wasn\u2019t just me going around and taking pictures in the world and then Photoshopping them out without people\u2019s permissions.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tAnother shot featuring Angie, Eric’s wife<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n
Some have argued that using Photoshop would have given a truer representation of the moment Eric was recreating, but Eric says it was not his intention to be journalistic. He feels photography is too often trusted as a true representation of reality \u2013 which is dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think I have my own troubled, relationship with photography,\u2019 he says. \u2018I\u2019ve studied it for many years and am cynical of the medium, or at least I\u2019m cynical of people\u2019s lack of cynicism towards photography.\u2019<\/p>\n
He continues, \u2018Although I respect what journalists do, the news industry depends on the belief of photography as being able to objectively represent truths, and as someone who has spent the past 12 years being an image maker, I feel there\u2019s no truth in photographs. They have four walls at the left, right, top and bottom, so it is cropping a moment and compressing it into a two-dimensional space. And then there\u2019s a world of possibilities with editing.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tThese newlyweds originally met on an online dating site. Eric shows us dual sides to this kind
of technology<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
Reaction<\/h2>\n
When Eric eventually uploaded his images to his website, he had no idea of the impact they would have. The series had been online for months, but it was only after a friend, Andrew Stern, interviewed him for the website techinsider.io that they really took off. A few days after the story came out, the images were all over the internet \u2013 without Eric\u2019s permission. It is with a touch of irony, and perhaps paradoxical, that a piece of work that questions our use of technology should become so successful online.<\/p>\n
Eric\u2019s first photos have been \u2018liked\u2019, \u2018shared\u2019 and \u2018viewed\u2019 on thousands of devices. He recalls his initial reactions: \u2018I remember on one of the first days I Googled my name and saw that someone had totally ripped off the pictures from my website\u2026 I was like. \u201cThis is terrible! Andrew, does this happen?\u201d and he said, \u201cYes. If you want to go after them you can send a cease-and-desist, but you\u2019re going to waste a lot of time.”\u2019<\/p>\n
Instead, Eric decided to concentrate on the debate that the exposure had attracted. His images have been picked up by numerous publications and sites around the world, sparking many discussions over whether or not our devices are causing greater isolation in society.<\/p>\n
Eric feels the popularity of his images lies in the fact that we are going through an unprecedented period of change, which is happening universally. \u2018There isn\u2019t a culture right now that isn\u2019t interested in talking about this subject, and I also did it in a way where I\u2019m not accusing people,\u2019 adds Eric. \u2018Also, I think the performance part is referential to debates about photography and journalism and realism \u2013 what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not. It caters to so many people that I guess it had to take off, although I had no thought of that whatsoever.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tOne of the only images in the series showing someone with a different expression. Eric says, “Kevin on the left has a kind of smirk, but then he always has that kind of smirk, he\u2019s a really good comical guy, in his resting face, and I think he was also squinting because the sun was in his face.”<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n
Eric\u2019s images have proved divisive, attracting a mass of positive media coverage and debate, but also some negativity. \u2018There are people saying the project has a neo-Luddite slant, but these are generally people who haven\u2019t read my statement and haven\u2019t seen I\u2019m not trying to bash it,\u2019 says Eric. \u2018I just want to illustrate this very specific moment in history and do it in a way that communicates an idea.\u2019<\/p>\n
See Eric’s website at: http:\/\/removed.social<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t