While photographing the streets of Japan, I began to realize how often people were looking down at their phones. At first this felt like a roadblock for me to capture genuine moments of human connection. I tried to avoid these scenes, intentionally hiding smartphones just out of the frame. But soon I realized that this, staring at your phone, was just as much a part of the human condition as any other candid moment on the street.

In a world where people increasingly retreat into digital spaces, it’s more important than ever to step back and consider what engagement with the digital world looks like from the outside.