From the inmates of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York to groundbreaking cultural leaders in Iran, Humans of New York has told the story of thousands of ordinary and extraordinary humans around the world.
Such an incredible, modern venture could only be accomplished by someone with enough determination, passion, and respect for people of all kinds to tell their subject’s stories in a way that highlights the profound nature of the human experience. Fortunately for us, Brandon Stanton has all of the above, and a whole lot more.
Stanton’s life has been one filled with obsessions. Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, he committed to his interests – piano, filming, saltwater aquariums – with everything he had to give.
He also liked taking risks. In 2002, he started studying history at the University of Georgia. During his senior year, he took out a student loan of $3000 and bet it all on Barack Obama becoming president. Hearing about this, a friend set him up with a job trading bonds on the Chicago Board of Trade.
It was during his time in Chicago that Stanton first picked up a camera. “I would go into downtown Chicago every weekend…and I would just kind of photograph everything, or take like a thousand photographs a day.”
The job didn’t last long (apparently he took too much risk), but it gave Stanton the excuse he needed in 2010 to move to the brownstone neighbourhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York and pursue his newfound calling as a photographer.
Through experimentation, Stanton began to realise that the photos he took of people – mostly inadvertently – were the ones he found most interesting.
He was particularly shy, however, so the notion of approaching a person to ask if he could take their photo didn’t even cross his mind until after he was chased down Manhattan roads several times by confused and angry subjects.
After shooting for around four hours, Stanton would return home and upload a few of his favourite images to his project’s Facebook page: Humans of New York. The original intention was to create an online interactive map featuring 10,000 images from around the city, but that soon changed when Stanton began adding a few lines of text to each image. Initially, the short paragraphs simply featured his musings on the photo or the person in it, but then eventually expanded into fragments of interviews Stanton undertook after finally summoning the courage to engage with people.
“When I first started, I was amazed that anyone would let a stranger take their picture! Now, I’ve found that there’s very little a person won’t disclose. You know why I think that is? Because so much of our life revolves around small talk. Weather, finances, things like that. And here comes somebody on the street really digging at the marrow of your life, and your experience. I think it’s validating in a deep sort of way,” Stanton explained during a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything Interview).
Stanton never asked for a name or proof of identity. This leant the resulting micro-stories a sense of communal belonging. These weren’t just the experiences of a single person, they were a fragment of the overall experience that came with living in New York.
The project soon gained attention not just around the city, but internationally. HONY‘s Facebook and Tumblr fanbases swelled to around 75000 as, over two years, the project collated over 4000 portraits.
The same year, Stanton travelled to Iran. The resulting images humanised a population many Westerners had been led to believe was alien and malicious. From the little boy holding a Spongebob Squarepants doll, to the Chinese filmmaker high-fiving an Islamic cleric, Stanton revealed a reality clouded by xenophobia and political sabre-rattling.
And the world embraced it.
By the following year, HONY had over 1.5 million Facebook followers. Stanton also released a book, which launched at #1 on the New York Times Non-Fiction best sellers list, and remained in the top 10 for 26 weeks. That December, Time listed Stanton as one of the 30 people under 30 changing the world.
Stanton continued to cast his vision for the project wide – the United Nations supported him in a 50-day trip across the Middle East in 2014, and he photographed President Obama in 2015 – but his passion remains for the people of New York.
“I’ve said publicly that I don’t want to ‘cash out’ or ‘monetise’ HONY. I like to say it publicly because I want my audience to keep me on mission. HONY print sales have raised nearly $500,000 for charity in the past six months (as of mid-2013). I want to further monetise the site for non-profit ventures. I honestly want to “give” HONY to New York in some way.”
It may not have been his intention, but Stanton has become a humanist icon across the world. As of early-2016, the HONY Facebook page boasts almost 17.5 million followers, along with over 4 million on Instagram.
Recently, Stanton took to Facebook to denounce Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In the open letter, he criticised Trump’s hate-filled, fear-fuelling agenda. Shared over 1.1 million times, it is the most shared post in the history of Facebook.
For those wishing to follow in his footsteps (an online search will reveal an array of imitation sites), Stanton has some simple advice: “Start by starting”. It seems easy enough, but Brandon Stanton’s journey is proof that passion and a willingness to grow are all you need to take the first step on the path to greatness.
For a great video of Stanton in action, plus five tips on how to be a great street photographer, check out this article from Shutterstock.