Facetime

Dave Fieldhouse shares the story behind his micro street project on people on their phones

- Dave Fieldhouse

Feedback is essential to developing our skills, and social media for all of its faults can often be the best place for that feedback to be found. It’s faceless and at times can be incredibly cruel but also, occasionally spot on. When I posted a street photograph and received the comment ‘Boring’ from a photographer whose judgement I trusted, I took a second look at the work I had proudly displayed less than an hour earlier, just as soon as I had calmed down. There was nothing technically wrong with the image: it was sharp enough; exposed correctly (maybe a little high key); and there was nothing wrong with the subject – the guy against the wall – whatsoever (see image on far right, middle row).

The fault, if that’s what we’re going to call it, was the subject matter. People on phones are largely detached emotionally from the scene. There is a metaphorical gap between the viewer/photographer and the story within. A simple image of someone on their phone just didn’t ‘do it for me’, and I guess this was what the critic was getting at too. I made an instant decision to simply avoid photographing people who were using a mobile device. And herein lies the problem…