Hurry up and shut down the $%&? call!

I shot this photograph on a winter evening when the city was still busy but already slowing down. The street lights had taken over from the sun, and the air was full of that post-work restlessness — half leisure, half impatience. In front of me, a couple had paused mid-walk.

She waited, a shopping bag at her side, wrapped in a red coat that caught every ounce of the lamplight. He, a few steps ahead, was absorbed in his phone — fingers scrolling, face lowered. It was a scene of quiet tension, familiar to anyone who has ever waited for someone whose attention is elsewhere.

The composition relies on opposition. She stands at the left third, perfectly upright, her body language saying enough without words. He drifts across the middle ground, unaware, slightly blurred by movement. The patterned pavement ties them together — a grid of diamonds suggesting a chessboard where both have stopped mid-move.