No one can deny the huge impact that the invention of smartphones has made on our lives. The technology has completely engulfed us, so much so that we cannot even imagine taking a stroll without glancing at our phones at least once. Well then, the sight of various people ducking down their heads to look at their smart phones on pedestrian streets caused an interesting idea to strike in London-based illustrator Andrew Rae’s mind. His initial idea came when one of his friends and him, along with their two-year olds, went out for a walk. He remembered thinking, “..of the phones as if they’re little pets or creatures and people are tickling their bellies to keep them happy”. Later on, he collaborated with the photographer Ruskin Kyle to materialize his vision for the series, Phone Buddies.
Kyle conducted a spree of street photography trips and supplied Rae with various photographs of people lost in using their smart phones amidst the pedestrian crowd. However, since the phones came out too small in the photographs, Rae could not implement his original idea of drawing over the phones to make them look like tiny creatures. But, this minor obstacle worked like magic in opening up the illustrator’s imagination even more.Taking inspiration from NSA monitoring, Rae started drawing illustrations of beasts and monsters coming out of the phone screens, instead. While talking about this Rae says, “Instead of replacing the phones, I’d draw objects or creatures coming out of the phones and looking back at us. The different styles of the photograph and the drawing would make sense together, as the phone screen is like a portal where the real world and the digital world meet.”
Interestingly, the abstract creatures very cleverly cover the faces of the subjects hence keeping their identities anonymous while showing how phones make us lose awareness regarding our surroundings. Check out these illustrations right here!
Image Credits: Andrew Rae | Ruskin Kyle
Andrew Rae: Website | Instagram | Tumblr
Ruskin Kyle: Website | Instagram | Twitter
h/t: My Modern Met