Oleg Tolstoy's Silicon Beach is a Showdown Between Smartphones and Real Life

Ah, iPhones … what ever did we do before they came along? Silicon Beach, the latest series by London-based photographer Oleg Tolstoy, explores and questions our complex relationship with our smartphones by taking us to the busy shores of Shenzhen’s Dameshina Beach, China’s very own Silicon Valley. Here, the people crowding the beach aren’t gazing at the sea, sand or sky, but are glued instead to their smartphone screens.

Despite the holiday vibe brought about by Tolstoy’s bright color palette, beachgoers are seemingly oblivious to where they are as they take photos, text, or even hold their phones up to their faces as mirrors. Considering the minimal interaction with their surroundings and the maximum involvement with phones, Silicon Beach — much like the rest of Tolstoy’s projects that tackle social interaction and human behaviour — raises inevitable questions: Is this the future of leisure as we know it? And if people choose a virtual world over what’s in front of them, who are we to say they should do otherwise?

More of Tolstoy’s work here and on Instagram, and read our previous feature on his Tokyo taxicab series.