Humans of New York

Humans of New York (HONY) is a photoblog and bestselling book featuring street portraits and interviews collected in New York City. Started in November 2010 by photographer Brandon Stanton, over 6,000 portraits have been gathered thus far.^[1] Humans of New York has developed a large following through social media, and has over 12.1 million followers on Facebook^[2] and over 2.8 million followers on Instagram as of April 2015.^[3]

Stanton, who grew up outside of Atlanta and attended the University of Georgia, came to New York after a three-year stint as a bond trader in Chicago. Having started his career as a bond trader in the year 2008, Brandon Stanton decided to pursue his passion of photography professionally after he lost his job in 2010. He started to take candid portraits on streets which became a hit on his Facebook page. Stanton is most known for his photo blog Humans of New York, started in 2010.^[4]

During a speech at New York's 2013 Social Media Week, Tumblr founder David Karp described Humans of New York as his favorite blog on Tumblr.^[5] At the 2013 Webby Awards, Humans of New York won the Webby for "Best Use of Photography" and the People's Voice Award for "Best Cultural Blog."^[6] In December 2013, Stanton was named one of Time Magazine's 30 Under 30 People Changing The World.^[7]

History

Brandon Stanton, a 30-year old self-taught photographer, started Humans of New York in November 2010.^[1][8] Initially, he planned to gather 10,000 portraits of New Yorkers and plot them on a map of the city. The project soon evolved, however, when Stanton started having conversations with his subjects and including small quotes and stories alongside his photographs.^[9] With this new format, the blog began to grow rapidly. In a matter of months, HONY became so popular that when Stanton accidentally updated his Facebook status by tapping his phone's Q key, his post garnered 73 likes within a minute.^[10] As of February 2015, Humans of New York has over twelve million likes on its Facebook page.^[11]

DKNY dispute, 2012

In late 2012, fashion label DKNY approached Stanton with an offer to buy 300 HONY photos for use in window displays "around the world."^[12][13][14] Stanton turned them down, but in February 2013, a fan noticed HONY's photos in a DKNY store in Bangkok, Thailand.^[12][14] After learning of the infringement, Stanton publicly asked DKNY to donate $100,000 in his name to the Bedford-Stuyvesant chapter of the YMCA.^[12][15] The donation request was shared over 40,000 times on Facebook, and after heavy pressure on social media sites, DKNY issued a public apology and agreed to donate $25,000.^[12][15] Stanton started an Indiegogo campaign to raise the remaining $75,000, and succeeded in raising an additional $103,000.^[14]

Travel

In December 2012, Stanton spent two weeks collecting street portraits in Iran. Following the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Stanton spent the week collecting street portraits in Boston. During the 2014 SXSW conference, he spent a week in Austin, Texas, where the conference is held, to gather portraits of Texans.

On August 7, 2014 Stanton began a 50 day "World Tour" in partnership with the United Nations spanning twelve countries around the world, collecting portraits and stories along the way. Countries on this trip included Iraq,^[16] Jordan, Israel, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ukraine, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Mexico.

Criticism

On August 13, 2014, while Stanton was gathering stories from refugees in Iraq, gossip website Gawker published an article by a college student and television blogger named Daniel D'Addario titled The Problem With Humans of New York. D'Addario criticized the photoblog for what he claimed to be a selective bias towards portraits and stories that would affirm its readers' limited assumptions about the lives of ordinary people, calling the portraits "caricatures" and alleging that "Stanton sees people not as people but as vectors of how young, white New Yorkers see them."^[17] The following day, writer Anastasia Sasewich wrote a retort on The Daily Dot, claiming that HONY's stories were not caricatures, and that D'Addario failed to understand the artistic technique of "inclusion and omission." ^[18]

Humans of New York book

On October 15, 2013, the Humans of New York book, which is based on the eponymous photography blog was released. Published by St. Martin's Press, the book had already sold 30,000 copies as preorders.^[19] In an interview to CNN he also talked his next release, a children's book called Little Humans, which was due for release the following year.^[9] Ahead of the release he was also interviewed by with Bill Weir, for ABC News's Nightline news story titled, "'Humans of New York': Photog Gone Viral"; this incidentally was also Weir's last story for the program.^[20][21]

As of January 20, 2015, the book had been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 28 weeks; it reached the number 1 position on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers of 2013 on the week of November 3, 2013, and again on the week of December 21, 2014.^[22][23]

Philanthropy

“Humans of New York” has launched a number of highly successful charity efforts. Following Hurricane Sandy, Brandon Stanton traveled to the hardest-hit neighborhoods in New York City to photograph the residents, volunteers and first responders who had lived through the destruction. Stanton then partnered with Tumblr founder David Karp to launch an Indiegogo fundraiser for the victims of the storm. The original goal of the fundraiser was $100,000. The campaign raised $86,000 within the first 12 hours, and reached a total of $318,530 by the end of the campaign. All of the proceeds went to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a family-run charity that played a major role in the Hurricane Sandy Relief efforts.^[24]

In 2013, HONY launched another Indiegogo campaign entitled “Bring Richard Home” to help news cameraman Duane Watkins and his wife Kristen raise the funds to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia. The goal of $26,000 and was exceeded in 90 minutes. The campaign raised a total of $83,000, and the excess funds went to an educational fund for the adopted boy and his sister.^[25]

In 2014, Stanton photographed a boy, Rumi, whose dream was to own his own horse. Stanton set up an Indiegogo campaign to send the boy and his family on a vacation to a ranch in Colorado. Stanton donated $300 to the fundraiser and set the goal at $7,000.^[26] Within 15 minutes of posting the fundraiser on his Facebook page, the goal was met; the campaign eventually raised $32,167. After paying for Rumi and his family to go on the trip, Stanton donated the remaining $20,000 to the New York Therapeutic Riding Center, an organization that helps provide horse rides to children with disabilities.

Stanton, Mrs. Lopez and Vidal visit the White House on 5 February 2015

In 2015, Stanton photographed and interviewed a 14-year-old boy from Brownsville, Brooklyn, the region with the worst crime rate in New York City. The boy, Vidal, said his greatest influence was his principal at Motts Hall Bridges Academy, Mrs. Lopez. Stanton later met and conversed with Principal Lopez and her Director of Programs, Ms. Achu, and decided to set up an Indiegogo fundraiser that will provide each incoming 6th grade class at Motts Hall Bridges Academy a chance to visit Harvard University. Set up on January 22nd, 2015, the initiative's original goal was $100,000, enough for one trip for three different classes over three years; it was met 45 minutes after the fund's start; the fund was advertised on subsequent posts depicting the academy's staff and aspects of Vidal's personal life. Two further goals, one for summer programs, and another for a scholarship fund (named The Vidal Scholarship Fund), were made as a result of the significant attention and rapid pace of donations that the fund received. When the Indiegogo fundraiser ended on February 10th, 2015, it accumulated $1,419,509 in donations from 51,476 contributors. As a result of the campaign, Stanton, Mrs Lopez and Vidal were invited to visit the White House on 5 February 2015.^[27][28]

Bibliography

• Brandon Stanton (2013). Humans of New York. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-03882-1. 

References

External links

• Official website
• Humans of New York on Tumblr