Brandon Stanton is a twenty- nine
year old, New York City based, self-taught photographer and the creator of the
Facebook page with over eight million likes- Humans of New York. He travels all
over New York City taking portraits and posting them to his page with a short
few words or couple paragraphs that came from the person in the portrait. He
shoots with some type of digital SLR, an aspect of his work that comes second
to what he is doing with his camera.
After studying History in college
and spending time trading bonds for a living, Stanton decided to move to New
York City to take portraits of residents and post them to a map where you could
click on different neighborhoods and see the occupants. His original idea has
morphed a bit to become his portrait filled blog he shares with the world. He
has spent time in countless other cities documenting the people of the area and
is currently on a “World Tour” with the United Nations photographing people in
countries including Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the
Congo. I read one critique of Stanton that stuck with me; it stated that in the
past few months his work has done more to humanize the people of the Middle
East than all of the big time media we rely on everyday has in years. Anyone
that follows Stanton’s work can agree that this is true.
What I hope to take from Stanton is
his ability to take his passion, whatever is may be, and make it something
powerful that he can share with others. His portraits tell stories of real
people living real lives. He shares past experiences, future hopes and little
glimpses into the lives of people whom you would normally walk right past and
never think twice about. Whether it be portraits, landscapes, paintings,
stories, ideas or whatever, I hope to bring to if only a few what Stanton has been
doing for millions.
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