“I photograph everything that makes me happy!”
What would you do, if you lost your job? Would you lock yourself up in your house for days? Would you scream at the top of your lungs in anger and frustration? Would you call your mom and cry about it? Would you look for another job? Or, are you the type of person to drop everything, re-evaluate your life, and start taking pictures of random strangers on the street? Well this is exactly what Brandon Stanton did during the summer of 2010 when he lost his job in Chicago. Over the past five years, Brandon has set out a goal to take the picture of over ten thousand New Yorkers. He has been able to strengthen a community through his photos and share the lives of strangers in New York City with the entire world. Humans of New York (HONY) started as a pet project, but it grew into something filled with so much more passion than initially anticipated. In over five years he has gained more than twelve million followers on Facebook, 2.8 million followers on Instagram, and 266K followers on Twitter.
HONY has become a worldwide phenomenon, and it doesn’t stop here. With the help of his followers and his fellow New Yorkers, Brandon is able to shed light on the lives of so many people, and give us a glimpse into their hopes, fears, and dreams. We are brought on this journey and shown humans of New York in their natural habitat.
Here are some of the top pictures and stories of HONY:
“She always has something exciting planned for us.”
When I came out of the closet, everything came out of the closet.”
Today in microfashion…
“I’m just giving you a little taste of my energy right now. I’m not even full fledged. You can say that I’m a little bit of a holy man. I’ve seen a lot of miracles.”“What’s the biggest miracle you’ve ever seen?”“One time a wild sparrow landed on my shoulder and sang while I played the drums.”
“I teach 11th grade.”
“I used to be obsessed with cooking. It was all I thought about. I did cooking shows on the BBC. I wrote 27 cookbooks. I wrote a whole cookbook just about garlic. Then one night, I was editing the proofs for my 27th cookbook, when I picked up a marker and drew a mermaid on a piece of scrap paper. I looked at that mermaid, she looked at me, and I never thought about cooking again. Ever since that moment, I’ve thought about nothing but art. I was sixty years old when I made the switch. I’m not sure what caused it. It was either menopause, a psychotic break, or a muse bit me on the bum!”
“We saw each other in the hall, and knew that we should know each other.”
It’s amazing the amount of wonderful people you can meet on the streets if you just stop and say hi, and Brandon has given the world this amazing gift of community and fashion all in one! He is able to take the very mundane things that everyone sees everyday, and turn them into something so much more beautiful. Because when you’re in New York, why not? To find out more about HONY, take a look at Brandon’s incredible journey here!