Pick up the phone: View from a Bridge heads Down Under

His subjects have included a man who escaped a religious cult, a student midwife at the end of a night shift, and a man targeted in a sextortion scam.

Not to mention the part-time Santa, asked to bring back a child's parents.

"That's really hard to deal with, and that's when I wish I was magical," he says.

A View from a Bridge started as a small project in London in 2024, and Bloom, 30, has since travelled to New York, Zurich, and Mexico City to record people's stories.

Next, he's heading to the 2026 Perth Festival to see what tales the city has in store.

The artist and director believes there's something about standing on a bridge that helps people access truths they would never usually reveal.

"They can tell us something they wouldn't talk to many people about, it could be topics such as grief, longing - all of the emotions really," Bloom said.

"It's like being in a plane, looking around and being nowhere in particular, but at the same time being somewhere quite specific, because you can see life and movement all around you."

Bloom's videos do have a kind of magic about them - as participants talk, the camera slowly zooms out to take in the crowds, the architecture of the bridges, and the wider landscape.

All this gives some very personal tales a feeling of universality.

The sudden global popularity of A View from a Bridge has meant Bloom and his team receive hundreds of emails each week from people wanting to participate.

There's also the occasional celebrity appearance, with participation from the likes of performer Cynthia Erivo.

But no matter how famous the storyteller, Bloom insists the heart of the project remains the stories that come from lived experience.

As well as reviving the lost art of the phone conversation, A View from a Bridge also offers something of an antidote to the way people often present themselves online.

"It's not about how hot you are, it's not about what jeans you're wearing, it's not about how many followers you have," Bloom said.

The videos run three minutes or less, but they are often the result of phone calls that last as long as 45 minutes, and have been compressed to their vital elements.

Bloom and his team have made more than 200 videos since the project began, and while there's demand for daily content, he wants to make just a couple of videos each week.

Before A View from a Bridge, Bloom's main gig was the solitary pursuit of studio painting, exhibiting his magical realist scenes at commercial gallery shows.

Since his video project has taken off, much of his time has instead been devoted to managing the success of A View from a Bridge.

"If there was a seesaw I don't know whether I'd be at the top or the bottom of it in terms of busyness," he said.

Sounds like a story best told from a bridge.

A View from a Bridge is part of the Perth Festival from February 6 until March 1.