We
live by telling stories. They are what makes life interesting, they are what
show how uniquely different each one of us is but how intrinsically the same we
are at the same time. Brandon Stanton, the creator of “Humans of New York” (“HONY”)
was insightful and motivated enough to collect these stories that we all carry
around with us and has, as a result, developed one of the most beautiful and
creative photo-blogs ever.
29-year-old
Brandon Stanton grew up in Atlanta and attended the University
of Georgia and later went to New York after a short spell as a bond trader
in Chicago. As a self-taught photographer, he travelled around New York
City in 2010 and walked through the streets everyday taking portraits of
complete strangers, originally just posting them on his Facebook profile.
Today, he has collected over 6000 pictures of people he has met in the city.
He
initially aimed to collect photographs with captions only in his first year of
starting the blog but after starting to converse with his subjects; he began to
include quotes with the photos that he posted. Stanton travels daily from his
home in Brooklyn to shoot for about 4 hours before posting the images on his
blog later. Today, “Humans of New York” has developed an incredible following on social
media and has over 3,2 million followers on Facebook just waiting for
him to upload more images.
The
blog has become so popular and successful that a “Humans of New York” book was
compiled in October 2013 and from the inspiration of “HONY”, hundreds of spinoff
blogs have been created around the world.
When
Stanton started “HONY”, he just thought it would be a really cool idea to
create an extensive database of the people walking through the streets of New
York. But today it has turned into much more. The blog has become a work of art
that has managed to capture the inexhaustible beauty of people and the stories
they carry around. He has also written about 50 short stories inspired by the
people he has met along this journey. “Humans of New York” started with a
simple but inspired idea that has grown, and is still growing, into a
collection of something great and spectacular.
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