HONY

H.O.N.Y.

             I was introduced to Humans of New York (HONY) a couple of years ago, when it was in its early days, and thought it was a brilliant idea. I checked in occasionally but never had much dedication to it. Recently, my Facebook feed has been flooded with liked and shared HONY posts and the obsession was born anew.

If you don’t know, Humans of New York is a blog run by an independent photographer, Brandon Stanton. He takes photos of average, every day New Yorkers that he encounters around town. He then posts their photo, with a quote from his interview with them alongside it. The project began in 2010 and has since developed an estimated following of more than 3 million social media users.

His interview questions range from, “If you could give a piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?” to “What was the saddest moment of your life?” He doesn’t discriminate age, gender, occupation, or state of readiness to be photographed. The only criteria, as far as I can tell, is to be in the same place Stanton is and not ask to be photographed.

In the age of street style and online image overload, it seems absurd that a blog full of average folks would have such a following. But, the photographs are absolutely enthralling. Stanton doesn’t ask his subjects to pose in any special way; they haven’t had time to prepare or fancy up their appearance. It’s just real, average humans doing whatever it is he happened upon them doing, whether it’s smoking a cigarette or waiting for a train.  It sounds simple but there is something indescribably special about the outcome.

I believe some of the allure is in the way Stanton doesn’t post a transcription of his entire interview with the subject. He posts just an excerpt, maybe even just a sentence, which gives you a taste of the person’s story and makes you wonder. It’s certainly those mysterious stories that keep me scrolling the pages.

HONY has amassed such a following that Stanton has released a coffee table book, of the same now, featuring his favourite photos from the blog so far. HONY has inspired a number of photographers based elsewhere to begin chronicling the lives of their city’s residents as well. Humans of Kingston, Humans of Toronto and Humans of Paris, are just a few of the many that come up following a quick google search. Stanton’s work has become so influential that he teamed up with the United Nations to do a compellling, and vibrant global photo series to raise awareness for the Millenium Development Goals – it is at once heartbreaking, heartwarming and beautiful. 

Scrolling through the HONY archives has become my go to method of procrastination. I am simultaneously proud and embarrassed to say I have scrolled as far back at the posts from 2011. I’m not prepared for what happens once I’ve made it to the end of the blog. The photos below provide a taste of what HONY is all about. I strongly suggest you check it out.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”“Can I go down the hill now?”

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