And many of these discussions are going on silently around us all the time, as people in public spaces become increasingly absorbed in their screens, thumbs rapidly spelling out their part in a dialogue that might be no more important than asking advice about the ambient temperature of their refrigerator, to pleading with a lover for forgiveness.įor several years, street photographer Jeff Mermelstein has been taking covert pictures of New Yorkers’ phones with his own iPhone. Text messages have become the means by which some of the most urgent and pivotal conversations of our lives are conducted.
