I still vividly recall using my first iPhone about 20 years ago. I was sipping my drink at a bar during happy hour and responding to two emails. Mind blown, wow. I can’t believe I’m managing my business while in a bar! Little did I know that the alcohol would cause relatively little harm compared to the doors in our mind this innovation would open. Soon the dopamine hit at our fingertips and need for popularity would overtake us.
These days I’m trying hard to resist the temptation to look at my phone every 30 seconds. I get obsessed with things.
What is happening to us collectively as a society right now interests me greatly. As I observe and reflect, I’m working on a new series called “Addict.” I hope to continue this on location and explore it in different ways. It’s definitely on the nose in this first round, and that seems fair to me.
An interesting detail about creating these images is that we did it very analog. We took extra care to ensure that everyone felt at ease in this uncomfortable situation. It was important to me that the tape was authentic, that it was truly stuck on there, so it would feel genuine to you as a viewer, not fake or manipulated in Photoshop. I took a nuanced approached to this simple message—that we are losing the ability to navigate this. It’s amazing how many people who worked on this series or saw it in my studio remarked on how it feels so “us” in this moment.
I get nervous that we’re opening these doors while neglecting our responsibility to limit our use. But we can’t...because we are addicted.
