Street photography shot on an iPhone during fake phonecalls by Jay Giampietro

Street photography has changed irrevocably from the days when photographers used to take to the streets clutching a small Leica camera, blacked out with gaffer tape, to steal shots of their unsuspecting subjects from the hip. These days iPhones have made everybody a photographer, which makes the ability to nail that shot – the one that captures the essence of a place and its inhabitants, all the more precious.

Enter Jay Giampietro, a New Yorker who has perfected the art of photographing passers-by from his ear while pretending to take phone calls in the street, while glancing around confusedly. From indiscreet pleasures on park benches to people in fancy dress, and men with more facial tattoos than square inches of bare skin to Time Square’s famed Naked Cowgirl, Jay has caught it all, and to our delight, it’s right there on his Instagram for us to gawp at.