(STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
In 2010, an ambitious young man squeezed everything he owned into 2 suitcases and moved to New York with a camera and a dream.
New York is a people watcher’s dream. The city is busting at the seams with people from every culture; it’s a canvas smeared with every color imaginable. The fashion, the language, and energy- are electrifying. Everyone seems to be in a rush to get somewhere.
Mesmerized by the New York inhabitants, an immense wealth of interesting photographic subjects, Brandon Stanton decided that he would take 10,000 photos of 10,000 of different New Yorkers.
Stanton was a mere amateur at photography. People laughed and asked him what on earth he was doing. But for 6 months he kept his head up. Every day he walked the streets, snapped photos, and published them online. And nothing happened. There was no response from the public; No-one had interest in his photos.
Frustrated but driven, Stanton persisted. One day he decided to publish his photos to Facebook along with quotes or stories attached to his photographic subjects. He created a page and titled it Humans of New York.
Doubtless, you’ve heard some of these stories. Soon after the page was created, Stanton had 1 or 2 new followers every day. People weren’t excited about pictures. Anyone can take pictures. But pictures paired with real stories are almost irresistible. He began conducting short interviews with the people he photographed and their stories and their photo compose Humans of New York. Soon, Stanton had a massive following.
Today, Humans of New York has over 17 million followers on Facebook alone. Humans of New York started with a goal to catalogue the inhabitants of New York, and is now adored by people all over the world.
Brandon Stanton, I think, is the proverbial entrepreneur. He’s someone who didn’t give up. He pivoted his idea and didn’t allow the apathetic spirit of those around him to blind him from seeing, capturing, and celebrating peoples’ stories. Today, he continues doing what he loves most – sharing the stories of New Yorkers along with incredible photos.
I’ve always love that Brandon started as an amateur. It’s massively inspiring that people can be so successful even when learning on the go. Your idea is your main driving force- the skills and everything else can come later so long as we don’t limit ourselves to only what we know currently.
I love Humans of New York. I always find it so inspiring to read about the stories of those people who are sometimes rejected and forgotten by the rest of society. It truly gives perspective in how lucky I am in what I have and what I was raised with. Brandon has done a wonderful job and throughout it all he has not lost his passion nor his pride in what he is doing. Any entrepreneur should have those qualities! If you can’t believe in your product and be passionate about it, what else do you really have?
I absolutely love Humans of New York and what Brandon does! I’ve been following him for the past two years and I love what he does! I didn’t know that he only started as an amateur though! I find that so cool that he kept pursuing his dream and that created who he is today. His story is inspiring and I want to be like Brandon with my film projects!
Brandon Stanton definitely portrays the ideal entrepreneur. He never gave up on his idea, and pursued it even though it seemed hopeless. Eventually, it paid off, and now he has found a massive crowd of supporters of his work.
That’s awesome, his art feels real and refreshing.
I’ve seen this page multiple times and never really looked at it that much. However, it seems like an incredible idea. It’s something different that not many people do. Today people are so concerned about themselves and don’t think about others walking around them, especially in a city like New York. It’s a very unique idea and I’m glad he didn’t give up on it.
What an inspiring story! And how great to see how he reaches millions of people daily and inspires and brings happiness all over the world.
This is a great combination of pictures and stories. They always say pictures are worth a thousand words, and I believe the stories help make this true. This is also a very unique way to make people’s stories personal and relevant to others.