by SCOTT STUMP
A photo of a woman glued to her phone by Hong Kong photographer Brian Yen was selected as the winner of this year’s National Geographic Photography Contest. PHOTO/National Geographic/Brian Yen
Hong Kong photographer Brian Yen captured the image he called “A Node Glows in the Dark” when the lights dimmed during a train ride at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park.
“I feel a certain contradiction when I look at the picture,” Yen told National Geographic. “On the one hand, I feel the liberating gift of technology. On the other hand, I feel people don’t even try to be neighborly anymore, because they don’t have to. The picture is also a reflective one. I also feel a bit guilty, more and more, that I’m just like that lady in the middle of the train, lost in her own world.”