Brandon Stanton is a photographer behind a project that took social media by storm this year. The project entitled 'Humans Of New York' is a collection of street portraits taken across New York.
Accompanying the portraits is a snippet of conversation Stanton has shared with the subject, more often than not about their life. Some are humours others are intimate and some are thought provoking. I've been inspired to shoot some street portraits from this project for my personal work and I always turn to the book for inspiration and motivation.
I came across his work on a photo blog last year and I was instantly hooked. New York as a place is very fascinating and almost photographed to the point of death however I felt like HONY was a breathe of fresh air.
"My name is Brandon and I began Humans of New York in the summer of 2010. I thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants, so I set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map. I worked for several months with this goal in mind, but somewhere along the way, HONY began to take on a much different character. I started collecting quotes and short stories from the people I met, and began including these snippets alongside the photographs. Taken together, these portraits and captions became the subject of a vibrant blog. With nearly four million followers on social media, HONY now provides a worldwide audience with daily glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York City. It has also become a #1 NYT bestselling book.. It’s been quite a ride so far. Feel free to follow along."
I was lucky enough to purchase a copy of the book, which compiles hundreds of portraits and really is a roller coaster of emotion. This project certainly fits under the theme of Identity but I'm not sure if it's right for the festival. I'm going to consider my options with some other photographers and then make my decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment