Since 2010, Brandon Stanton has been capturing stories of New Yorkers on what is perhaps one of the Internet’s most popular photo blogs, Humans of New York. Armed with his 5D Mark III, Stanton roams the streets of the Big Apple for eight hours a day after day, crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers and their stories. Meanwhile, his site features 4,000 portraits, boasts a social media following of nearly two million and has inspired a movement of street photography pages from around the world. Al Jazeera gets an inside look at the man and story behind the blog.
He had no clue of photography when he started, but he practiced, practiced, practiced and the Internet and social media made it easy for him to move very quickly with his ideas. Three years ago he was at zero, had no clue about photography and just fell in love with it. Today, each day two million people visit his blog that inspired similar blogs around the world.
It’s a truly stimulating story and shows anything is possible if you have a decent idea and just dedicate yourself fully to whatever your cause is. One autodidactic photographer’s mission to document the people of New York has not only become a global phenomenon, it’s proof that still today you can have a unique vision.
Take your time and watch the entertaining conversation. It’s good stuff for us photographers, especially in these times when everyone’s a photographer and many doubt photography can still make a difference.
And BTW, there’s also a new book based on Brandon’s blog that’s focused on the most challenging and beautiful subjects/objects of photography: humans.