Humans of New York

Dec 04, 2014

It’s been a while since we wanted to do a small feature on the extremely popular Humans of New York project. Wish we could do this before, but anyway, we get to do it now.

Courtesy : Humans of New York

There is hardly any need to introduce Humans of New York. In a matter of 3–4 years, it has become a fixture of everyone’s feed on Facebook, and currently has more than 8 million followers. The idea behind the blog is very simple. It is a kind of documentation project where the founder and photographer of HONY, Brandon Stanton, clicks pictures of random, anonymous people on the streets of New York, and gives them an engaging caption. The caption can be a small conversation, a response, or something said off the cuff. These simple, miniature photo stories have touched a chord with people across the globe, so much so, that now, hundreds of such blogs can be found online. What’s more, it has become so viral that there are as many spoofs as there are real inspirations.

The huge popularity of Humans of New York has made it possible for Stanton to raise a number of successful charity efforts. For instance, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Stanton got into a partnership with the founder of Tumblr, David Karp, to help and raise funds for the victims of the storm. By the end of the campaign, the figure touched an impressive $318,530, all of which was donated to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Courtesy : Humans of New York

The blog exemplifies the impact that images and pictures have on our society. The way these candid portraits have found so many takers across the world underlines the power of a photograph. Not only does it help narrate the life around us, but also leads us to ask introspective questions about the endless variety of human beings around us. To put things in perspective, maybe Humans of New York is a way to think about a new kind of humanism, the humanism of the 21st century. And it is photography that makes it possible.