A View From A Bridge: Strangers reveal all on old telephone

Inspired by the seminal social art project Humans of New York, London artist Joe Bloom invited passing strangers to look out onto the water and speak into an old-fashioned chunky red telephone.

He shares videos of what they say on the Instagram account A View From A Bridge.

"I wanted to showcase people and their stories in a way that doesn't feel intrusive", Bloom tells Culture 101's Perlina Lau.

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In A View From A Bridge, Bloom begins with a close-up of each person, and then, as they start speaking, the camera begins zooming out. Eventually, they blend in with the people and traffic around them.

Connected to the phone through his earbuds, Bloom stands 500 metres away with his camera.

The range of stories and musings are diverse, intimate, revealing and poignant - from pondering the privilege of infrastructure, a Tourette's syndrome diagnosis and the state of cinema, to questioning one's sense of belonging and the relentless work of raising a child amidst a world of war and brutality.

It's about taking the time to listen, Bloom says.

"Listening isn't really part of our social media discourse anymore - it's much more visual, and it's a cut every two seconds to keep the viewer interested."

Just don't call him a 'content creator'.

Bloom despises that description and wanted to make something which "didn't feel like the content that you put into the tube that gets inserted into your head."

He's less interested in what each person does for a job than what they think about.

"What encompasses their brain? What do they lead their life by and how does that relate to the brain and the people around me?", explains Bloom.

The bridge is both symbolic and practical, he says.

"It's someone in transit. It's a place where people are walking through and thinking about where they are going.

"I thought of benches or a chair - a place where people could talk but feel as though they weren't talking to anyone in particular."

It's also unlikely the person will be interrupted or intersected if they're leaning against the side of the bridge and staring out.

As for the telephone, similar to the bridge, there's an element of romanticism.

In a world of smartphones, scrolling, endless chat groups and voicenotes, the magic of picking up the telephone for a conversation is disappearing. It's created barriers, and for some, speaking on the phone can be daunting.

"A lot of people don't get that experience anymore - to hold an actual handset that you grip with your entire hand - you don't hold it flat to your ear - and that in itself creates this pretext of romanticism and something different."

Bloom is of the generation which still had landlines in the household. His mother collected antiques, including a red Bakelite phone, which served as inspiration for A View From A Bridge.

Typically known for his large-scale, vivid and detailed oil paintings, this video series is a departure from the artist's usual work, but he'll endeavour to keep both sides of his practice.

With almost 250,000 followers on the Instagram account devoted to this project, putting strangers on the line clearly speaks to people. Giving them a chance to share snippets from their lives has brought extraordinary moments.

"Everyone's real. We're all these intricate beings. It's so easy to live in our own heads and think how special we are, but it's incredibly sobering that anyone you could have walked past is just like you in the depth of their brain."

The project is currently based in London but there are plans for a UK tour from August.

Along with the cities, his team will also be venturing to the regions.

"As long as there's a plank of wood over a stream - that's a bridge to me so we're going to get really creative with the locations and we're going to go to some really remote places as well.

"There's always going to be a bridge and someone with a story."