Communications

## Communications

Talking, texting, typing — the choreography of staying connected.
This week, the focus is on how people communicate in public — phones, gestures, conversations, glances, and distractions.
We’re surrounded by it:

• Heads tilted toward screens
• People talking, laughing, deciding
• Fingers tapping out messages
• Cables dangling from pockets
• Video calls on sidewalks
• Loud Bluetooth conversations no one asked to overhear
• Quiet moments of connection—or isolation—in a crowd

Let’s photograph what communication looks like today, out on the street. Person to person, person to device, person to the world.

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### What to Look For:

• People mid-call — expressive gestures, facial tension, pacing
• Texting and typing — heads down, thumbs moving, lost in thought
• Groups talking — animated, laughing, arguing, leaning in
• This isn't just phone — its about people sharing ideas, jokes, decisions and commentary
• One-sided conversations — people speaking into the air via earbuds
• Body language — implications to the person nearby, or hardware device; posture shaped by headphones, screens, or social cues
• Solo moments — someone sitting alone, preoccupied with their screen

This is about motion, emotion, and connection and disconnection — how we communicate with, without, or through devices

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### Approach & Style Ideas:

• Shoot fast — gestures and expressions come and go quickly
• Use a longer lens if you want to keep distance
• Or go wide and close to emphasize context and contrast
• Try candid street portraits of people mid-gesture
• Look for layers — someone talking in the foreground, someone texting in the back
• Play with reflection — phones in windows, faces in screens
• Go for motion blur if it helps tell the story of urgency or distraction

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### Why This Matters:

We’re all constantly communicating — but often, we’re not really present.
This assignment is a way to document the modern rituals of connection — or perhaps, disconnection.
It’s a chance to photograph the little human dramas happening everywhere: the argument on or off the phone, the joke shared, the waiting, the searching, the scrolling.

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### Meet-Up Details:

Start: 2:30 PM
Location: Mong Kok MTR Exit D3, street level, by the phone booth—how appropriate!

Debrief: 4:00 PM at Couch Club (subject to change).
G/F T.O.P. Building, 700 Nathan Road, Mong Kok.
Let’s talk about what we saw — and what people didn’t see, while staring into their screens.

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### After the Walk:

Post up to 5-7 images that capture communication in action — or in absence.
Look for emotion, contrast, and expression.
What does it look like when people are reaching out — and what does it look like when they’re not?
COMMENT on your fellow photographers work. Constructive criticism is welcome, but the idea is to be involved.