Why We Love the Humans of New York

Cover of Brandon Stanton's new book. Promotional image courtesy of St. Martin's Press
The cover of Brandon Stanton’s new book. | Promotional image courtesy of St. Martin’s Press

The hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale once said: “Today you will meet a beautiful stranger. Actually hundreds of beautiful strangers. Everyone is beautiful and you know almost none of them.”

The Humans of New York project, and the numerous offshoots that have spawned in other cities, has taken the internet by storm. Started by Brandon Stanton in 2010, Humans of New York is a photo blog that posts a few portraits of random New Yorkers daily. These portraits are sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and always thought-provoking. With one picture and a few sentences, that random face on the street suddenly becomes a real person. But why exactly has this project resonated so strongly with so many people?

In the forward of his new book, Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton credits Facebook for helping the project reach a large audience, especially praising tumblr for the community’s support of upcoming artists. In an interview with Mashable, Stanton praised the strong community that has sprung up around the project. “I think Humans of New York has a very warmhearted, supportive, celebratory tone that I’m proud of.” As of right now, the project’s Facebook page has 2.7 million likes, and it is continuing to grow.

While social media helps explain how Stanton was able to distribute his content, it can’t give a fulfilling explanation for why people gravitate towards it. In an interview with Glasschord, Stanton said he thinks people are drawn towards the project because these photos “allow people to connect with strangers on a deeply personal level, in the safety of their own house.”

Anyone who lives in a city can likely understand this desire to interact with the faces on the street, to break the bubbles that i-products and cellphones and the general fast-paced attitude that characterizes most cities create. Humans of New York slows that breakneck pace down, bringing a sense of stillness in an otherwise constantly moving environment. Stanton breaks through the fast pace by looking for “people who are by themselves and not in a hurry.”

Stanton’s photography, if nothing else, is often strikingly beautiful. People stand in dazzling contrast of  the red wall behind them, or in the middle of riots of neon and passing headlights, or sitting before a scene of blossoming trees in Central Park. When asked by Glasschord about the magical quality of his photos, he replied “the camera adds a certain sheen to things. Something about being frozen in time really makes things sparkle.”

Like Welcome to Night Vale said, people pass by hundreds of unique and complex individuals each day, and are never the wiser because of it. Humans of New York lets people connect with those strangers in an easy to consume, intimate manner. It takes the daily routine of city life and shows it to be beautiful, intensely human, and even magical.

To learn more about Humans of New York or to purchase the new book, click here. To see the Boston version of  the photo project, Portraits of Boston, click here

About Andrew Olson Evans

Andrew Evans is a sophomore in CGS from Rochester, NY. When not reading a book or watching movies...actually, never mind. It's probably not him in that case.

View all posts by Andrew Olson Evans →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *