“Humans Of New York” Brandon Stanton’s: Book Review
By Joanna Uruchima, Zach Kuehn, and Maddie Schafsma
About The Author
Brandon Stanton author of “ Humans Of New York” describes it as “an exhaustive catalog of the city’s inhabitants.” In 2010 Stanton decided to get more personal with these photos and began to speak to his subjects and learned about the people he was photographing. Instead of focusing on shooting people, he gained their stories and published them with his photographs.He slowly started building on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where he now has over eight million followers. The genre of the documentary is almost just presenting a picture and letting the reader come to their own opinion.
History Behind The Lens
Stanton creation of Human’s Of New York developed through social media platforms portraying residents in the inhabited city. In July 2010, he initially was a bond trader in Chicago, and photography was just a hobby. In an article, written by Brand Stanton in The Huffington Post discuss his past life explaining, “Instead of updating my resume and looking for a similar job, I decided to forget about money and have a go at something I truly enjoyed.” Stanton went on a photography tour of Chicago and Pittsburgh where he experimented with different types of photography. He arrived in New York late August 2010 and was captivated by the city’s lifestyle and people, “ I’d never seen anything like it. They were completely covered with people. I knew immediately that I was going to leave New York with an amazing collection of street portraits.” Human’s Of New York initially was a private blog seen only for friends and family and posted the images with no context.
After much consideration, Stanton decided to push his blog to Facebook, and combined images with text began to gain followers. He realized the quality of his work came from the characteristics of the subjects and inputted their storytelling with the photographs. Stanton method has alternated the game in photography with his aesthetic appeal worldwide. It’s fascinating how a simple photograph blog turned into a storytelling page that captivates the hearts of millions of people.
Stanton has published two books in featuring his work in 2013: “Humans of New York: Stories” and “Humans of New York”. In HONY, there is often a caption with only a sentence or two while HONY: Stories, each story was usually a paragraph long. After this came out, “Little Humans” was published in 2014. “Little Humans” is a children’s book, featuring only children on the streets of New York. The captions are big and easy for kids to read. Although he has published these three books, his primary medium is social media. His Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are continuously being updated with new content and gaining more followers every day.
Visual Language & Art
Stanton focuses more on the genre of documentary photography by incorporating a sentence or two onto an image alone. Throughout Humans Of New York, particular images displayed without captions are durable to stand alone. Overall, the combination creates an aesthetically pleasing catalog depict resident’s lifestyle.
Humans Of New York fits together as a mosaic of city life, and the color vibrancy is primary through Stanton depiction of color and contrast. In some images, there is a contrast focus between the subject and local environment creating an illusion making you wonder more about the person’s life. Often you noticed the person’s face isn’t always the primary attention in his photographs. Stanton use’s body language, as a technique to convey a hidden message within the picture. This contrast of texture grabs attention in expressing the outstanding personalities of New York has to offer.
Although the placement of these photographs might seem unintentional, its purpose overall portrays significant themes in the book. Instead of focusing on individualism, Stanton specific captions in the pictures displayed humanity uniqueness that coexistent overall as a whole piece. Each story paints a raw anecdote of viewerships of people old and young, rich and poor, black and white. The following spread below exposes fierce humans on the verge to conquer greatness and linked to various modes of transportation. The color coordination yellow is associated emotionally from confidence, Passion, intellect, honor, firm determination, and joy. All three images come together and seem to unify the theme of transportation.
Throughout HONY, Stanton approaches his subjects with a series of questions about their thoughts about life. The theme dedicates life advice for the twenty-century generation about growing up. From an older man perspective towards the young women on the left side and children playing on the fountain each holds the same life advice, happiness doesn’t determine by age number. These individuals embrace themselves based on the overall body language in being true to yourself.
In this set of photographs, the street background is blurred which is repeatedly shown in HONY and to focus solely on each passion — on upper left corner, captioned “ Artemis” a women proudly holding the bear head, while at the bottom a man who’s passionate towards edgy European vibes and a women intense towards helping the homeless with necessities. A similar backdrop in the background is the streets of New York City entailing back Stanton purpose to exhaustive a catalog of the city’s inhabitants.
An art form doesn’t strictly confine in just facial features but the body position as a whole. The man who’s dressed up like Micheal Jackson strikes fierce based on his body position mimicking the former star. The tense facial feature can ultimately speak for thousandth words let alone just by looking at it. In Humans of New York, the different structural photo layout in each page strikes curiosity about the way he published his images. The book colorful layout adds touch about the excited yet creative individuals in The Big Apple.
The deceptive nature of photography and visual observation generate what makes Human’s Of New York extraordinary. His interaction with strangers and taking the time to listen is the essential recipe for great photographs compared to monochrome photography. Stanton’s take on the documentary subject is unique does his work correctly.
Facing Critics
“You can take something that happened in someone’s life that seems very meaningless, and by crafting it into a story, you’ve taken something that is something that can be unexplainably tragic — like the brain cancer in your nine-year-old child — and turned it into something that speaks to people and gives them meaning.”
It’s no surprise millions of people admire HONY. However, there are many critiques of the project (social media pages and books) as well. Berenice Fernandez wrote an article for “The Politic” about her opinions towards HONY. Not only does Fernandez have problems with the way HOYN “exploits” people, but she has issues overall with the project. If it is so well-known, why is Stanton not helping the people he is photographing? Fernandez says
“ We do not see a fundraiser campaign to create a public policy that helps homeless people because everyone (including Stanton and the viewers) focuses particular stories that conjure up specific, relatable feelings. This makes it seem as if a particular problem, like homelessness or addition, is personal, and not social.”
How Does Stanton Do It?
Human’s Of New York is stunning collections of images showcases unique personalities in the city. Stanton work in this book delivers priceless stories, quotes, and, advice, photographs mastering every detail and convey emotions through his work. People’s wishes, losses, difficulties, and other bits of their life’s journey are exposed for people to see and read. HONY easily makes the reader captivated with people that we don’t know and establish a new perspective towards the way we view life.
Stanton skills in photography and the phrases he includes in each image are thought-provoking. Taking a photograph of someone and taking a portrait a person to tell their story are two very different things. Stanton idea combined writing with pictures is a redefined art in the form of storytelling. Each image portrays emotion with a limitation of word format letting the reader express his/her interpretation of the image. Stanton makes it seem easy to capture a random photograph on the streets, but communication with the subject matters the most. The book influences people to start a conversation with local people and to share not only the subjects but their own as well.
Humans Of New York is a map pinpointing the city’s diversity among his photos, subject and literacy can be life changing for the reader. The book itself contains ethnic backgrounds dedicated a full page in regards to religion holiday captured from a stranger perspective. It can connect with strangers who go through similar problems, Property, Love, and confidence. These conversations speak about life harsh realities people face everyday burst resonate and sentimental emotion. Within each photograph, Stanton comprehensive approach in outstanding highlight little victories of a robust city. Being able to relate sympathy and sorrow based on the book Human’s Of New York establish a strong relation toward Humanity.
