Jack Peacock, 6 months old, watching "Peppa Pig", Bradford, UK, 2009
Savannah Shimmin, 2, watching "Monsters Inc", Bradford, UK, 2009
Janey-Cait Holmes, 2, Watching "Peppa Pig", Bradford, UK, 2009
Hettie Brookfield-Eddison, 4 months old, Watching "Baby Einstein", Bradford, UK, 2009
Tia Richardson, 1, Watching "Teletubbies", Bradford, UK, 2009
Drew Hugh, 7, Playing "Hulk", New York, USA, 2008
Jack Steel, 11, Playing "Grand Theft Auto 4", Grimsby, UK, 2008
Victoria Crowe, 13, Playing "Grand Theft Auto 4", Grimsby, UK, 2008
Joshua Fuentes, 10, Playing "Condemned 2: Bloodshot", New York, USA, 2008
Bradley Bryant, 12, Playing "Call of Duty 4", Grimsby, UK, 2008
Benjamin Kubler, 15, Playing "Grand Theft Auto 4", Grimsby, UK, 2008
Jessica Hardy, 13, Playing "Tekken: Dark Resurrection", Grimsby, UK, 2008
Alexander Kinch, 12, Playing "Call of Duty 4", Grimsby, UK, 2008
Sumara Bi Sultan, 23, Watching "Torture of a Zeta Soldier", Bradford, UK, 2009
Julie Van Der Post, 18, Watching "Eminem, Love The Way You Lie", Amsterdam, 2010
Louis Earle, 12, Paying "Grand Theft Auto 4", Acton, UK, 2008
Genevieve, 24, Watching "www.pornhub.com", New York, USA, 2009
Kan Hang Li (25) and Myrou Bilkerdijk (25), Watching "FIFA World Cup", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Daniel Johnstone, 22, Watching "Saw 2", Bedford, UK, 2009
Natalie Taylor, 25, Watching "Paranormal Activity", Bradford, UK, 2009
Benjamin Solomon, 26, Watching "Overdrive", New York, USA, 2009
SyreetaDasselaar, 29, Watching "U2: With Or Without You", Amsterdam Netherlands, 2010
Rafi, 24, Watching "www.uporn.com", New York, USA, 2009
Thomas Mullaney, 19, Watching "Drag Me To Hell", Bradford, UK, 2009
Lindsay, 22, Watching "Crashpad", New York, USA, 2009
Oktay Ozkan (28) and Sureya Ozkan-Gursoy (26), Watching "FIFA, World Cup", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Rob van Luden (33), Roberto de Cock (42), Eslem Kankaya (21), Watching "FIFA World Cup: Holland vs Brazil", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Anouk Frijdal (25), Kiki Frijdal (25), Playing "Left 4 Dead", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Jeanette Rodriguez (74), Virginio Rodriguez (7), Sierra Taheri (8), Watching "Mr. Bean", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Florian de Leersnyder, 23, Playing "Left 4 Dead", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Theodore Bouloukos, 47, Watching "Undisclosed", New York, USA, 2009
Rob Wanders, 47, Watching "Bach Concerto", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Anastasia Hoving, 34, Watching "Stevie Wonder: Fingertips", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Louis Benoist, 50, Playing "Unreal Tournament", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Hank Botwink, 63, Watching "Robin Williams: Stand Up", Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Mary

Immersion

2008-2014

During the time I was shooting my "Alter Ego" project, I visited a lot of internet cafes in South Korea and China. By western standards some of these places were huge. Row upon row of people staring at screens for hours and days on end. There were stories of people who'd died because they'd neglected to eat or drink whilst immersed in their games or online activities. I realized that this phenomenon was also taking place in the west, we just couldn't see it so much, because people were doing it at home and at work (smartphones hadn't come out at this point, so the sight of multitudes transfixed by their screens in public places, was not yet commonplace).

Two things sprang to mind- the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher with it's systematic or "scientific" approach, and the work of Errol Morris, and his "Interrotron". I liked the idea of creating a system in order to try and minimize the event of taking pictures, whilst maintaining a fairly produced look. The subjects are on-screen, whilst being immersed in it, and often our point of view is looking directly into their eyes, which creates a voyeuristic, intense feeling. I wanted to capture reactions to as much of the full range of media types as possible- from video games to pornography, children's cartoon's and mainstream entertainment, to torture videos. And ultimately to organize this procession as if charting a journey through life.

Exploring this territory around watching and being watched, especially during this time period, was in some ways unsettling. Facebook, Twitter and smartphones had just appeared. It was easy to see how dramatically things were changing, and that this change would reach right into psychological, political and interpersonal realities. But the project has occasionally been interpreted as being a sort of call to arms, a protest. Not only would that be hypocritical if it were true- I'm completely addicted to my phone and to computers- but I also find emotive campaigns of that nature unappealing. It's intended as a hyperreal, slightly kitsch document of the attention economy; a strange and intrusive system that I participate in, often with no real intention.