Photographer Spies On New Yorkers’ Text Messages, Shares 10 Of The Most Unusual Ones He’s Captured
Photographer Jeff Mermelstein, 63, from Brooklyn has spent almost 3 years secretly capturing New Yorkers' private text messages. Ranging from heartbreaking and alarming to downright bizarre and hilarious, these photos not only reveal the mundane details of their everyday life, but provide interesting insights into human nature as well.
Jeff has been using his iPhone photograph strangers' cellphone screens and sharing the images on his Instagram over the years, making sure the authors of the texts remain anonymous. Recently, the series have even made it into a book, #nyc (2020), published by MAC.
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You expect privacy in a public place where you're typing in public on a machine that's publicly visible? Seriously? I bet you can guess why this isn't illegal...
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There is only one human race, although most of us seem to have some Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA in our genes, which actually makes people of European or Asiatic descent mixed race! https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/africa/africa-neanderthal-dna-scn/index.html
What an a*****e! It's someone's privacy. Im even not interested to read it.
oh the existential irony!! (to be read with the sarcasm it's written with)
1% battery. Very much setting this conversation up for a "I've had enough, I'm switching off my phone" perception.
Good job promoting complete invasion of privacy. This site never ceases to amaze me with what they think is ok
Ok although these are some what funny, he/she shouldn't read their text messages because it's their personal life.
I agree with the others. This is an invasion of privacy and should not be allowed, let alone posted on here. Bad show. Remove it.
I really hope this is fake, because it's a serious invasion of privacy otherwise.
You have just crossed the line bored panda... there is a fine line between funny and intrusive and you have crossed it.
Eh no, this is not good. Other people's private message are no business of this chaps. And putting them online without the original owners' permission is wrong. Bad move Panda. BoredPanda should take it down before you get hit with lawsuits.
I deliberately scrolled straight to the bottom of this page (without reading any of the photographed messages) just to say that this is unethical and invasive. Shame on the photographer for spying on these people! He might as well have hidden in some bushes and taken photos of the people in their bedroom.
Please stop advocating that there is no legal expectation of privacy when you step out of your home and realize its part of a huge problem if you want to put it into perspective remember no expectations of privacy was the legal argument of the lawyers defending people who took upskirt photographs on the subway
For me, this feels a wee bit contrived as well as intrusive. Some of these camera angles look staged, especially the second one from the top, surely the other person knew that someone was there, right ? Also the second last photo has a thumb over part of the text, so they must've known that in fact someone was there.
It's probably just statistical likelihood - there's a lot wrong with America and a lot of Americans and plenty other English-speaking countries using Bored Panda. Chances are it'll come up a lot!
Load More Replies... Good job promoting complete invasion of privacy. This site never ceases to amaze me with what they think is ok
Ok although these are some what funny, he/she shouldn't read their text messages because it's their personal life.
I agree with the others. This is an invasion of privacy and should not be allowed, let alone posted on here. Bad show. Remove it.
I really hope this is fake, because it's a serious invasion of privacy otherwise.
You have just crossed the line bored panda... there is a fine line between funny and intrusive and you have crossed it.
Eh no, this is not good. Other people's private message are no business of this chaps. And putting them online without the original owners' permission is wrong. Bad move Panda. BoredPanda should take it down before you get hit with lawsuits.
I deliberately scrolled straight to the bottom of this page (without reading any of the photographed messages) just to say that this is unethical and invasive. Shame on the photographer for spying on these people! He might as well have hidden in some bushes and taken photos of the people in their bedroom.
Please stop advocating that there is no legal expectation of privacy when you step out of your home and realize its part of a huge problem if you want to put it into perspective remember no expectations of privacy was the legal argument of the lawyers defending people who took upskirt photographs on the subway
For me, this feels a wee bit contrived as well as intrusive. Some of these camera angles look staged, especially the second one from the top, surely the other person knew that someone was there, right ? Also the second last photo has a thumb over part of the text, so they must've known that in fact someone was there.
It's probably just statistical likelihood - there's a lot wrong with America and a lot of Americans and plenty other English-speaking countries using Bored Panda. Chances are it'll come up a lot!
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