NEW Yorkers’ most ridiculous texts have been exposed in stealthy pics taken by a street photographer.

Jeff Mermelstein has been shooting the streets of the Big Apple for more than 30 years.

But the snapper recently turned his lens to the phone conversations of those passing through them, the New York Post reports.

Jeff said he’s compiled the pics, which he’s been taking since 2017, into book titled “#nyc”.

He revealed he started the project after taking a picture of one woman’s phone and being fascinated by what he saw.

He said: “After looking at my picture I saw what was on the screen – it was a Google search about wills, and it had something to do with $6,000 in the attic.

“It was fascinating, and that kind of opened up a door of awareness.”

Jeff – who takes all the photos on his iPhone – said he always crops the pictures to make sure his subjects stay anonymous.

But he added that he never asks permission.

He said: “It’s just so not my methodology. I’m interested in the real.”

The content of the messages ranges from the bizarre to the heartbreaking.

One exchange sees two people discussing a cantaloupe melon as a “consolation prize”, before one suggesting is has been “poisoned”.

In another, the person messages a friend saying he is sick of America as “everyone is stupid, lazy and fat”.

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And one sees the texter begging someone else to start chemotherapy, adding that they are holding on for a “miracle”.

Jeff said: “I most like the texts that have that kind of absurdist content.

“I like that element of surprise and uncanniness.”

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