Humans of New York was a blog started by Brandon Stanton in 2010, initially focusing on gathering photos of New Yorkers. Soon, however, his project evolved into mini snapshots of people’s lives.
It’s not just the words that tell the story, but the pictures themselves. Like a snowflake, no two pictures are the same, crating a massive canvas of color and life with just the click of a button. Each photograph holds so many stories, ones that are always itching to be told. With his photography, Brandon provides each of theses individuals with the opportunity to tell the world, sharing a little bit of their life stories, creating an endless stream of heartache, loss, love, and hope that manages to connect everybody in one way or another. These photos create an intimacy within this big, wide world allowing people not only to react to the photos, but to react to the responses of the photos. Each picture posted brings on an onslaught of support, a sharing of stories, and a felling of closeness that isn’t always found in a traditional family photograph. Autobiographies are a way for people to tell their whole life stories, giving people a blow by blow of incredible events that made them who they are today. The most popular stories, in the Western societies, are told by people who have changed the world one way or another, allowing the readers to relate to someone who is generally otherwise not relatable. We read the story, but we don’t always get to feel the same rapport as we do with Brandon’s photos. In his, we see the passion in each little boy’s voice as he so proudly comes home form school. We see the ambition in the little girl’s eyes as they tell us their dreams. We see the joy, and also the sadness, in the faces of the men and women who allow us to see just a little bit into their elaborate tales of life. Every person we see on the street is a mystery, but with the sharing of these photos and stories, the world doesn’t seem that big anymore.
“I’m always sad.”
“Are there certain thoughts associated with the sadness?”
“No, the sadness is under the thoughts. It’s like when you’re on a camping trip, and it’s really cold, and you put on extra socks, and an extra sweater, but you still can’t get warm, because the coldness is in your bones.”
“Do you hope to get away from it?”
“Not anymore. I just hope to come to peace with it.”
