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In the realm of photojournalism, there are a lot of hungry fish.
In New York City, the hungry far outweigh the fed, and photographers roam the concrete jungle in search of sustenance and meaning.
So how did it come to be then, that one man in New York City, armed with only a camera and a Facebook page, has initiated a revolutionary concept in photojournalism, and truly revealed the power of online sharing.
As of this morning, the Facebook page for Humans of New York boasts a staggering 5.4 million likes, and about 2 million people “talking” about it on any given day. This data is grabbed from the amount of users actively engaging with the Humans of New York page – whether that be sharing, commenting, tagging, or liking anything. This sort of action is what Facebook labels a “story”, and stories are what show up within our news feeds.
To give you an idea of that astounding spread of information, the international Latin singer Shakira has 94.7 million likes on Facebook, and only 3.6 million people “talking” about her on any given day. (pagedatapro.com)
In 2010 Brandon started Humans of New York on a whim, after losing his job as a trader working in Chicago. He flew to New York, and set a goal of photographing 10,000 strangers, hoping to showcase the unique yet intrinsically common thread that categorizes us all as definitively human.
He began to photograph and collect these portraits, and initially wanted to place them all on a map. Instead, he began posting them on Facebook, a platform which previously, didn’t seem to lend itself well to the idea of a blog, especially one concentrated in photography.
On a daily basis, Facebook is used by people like you and I to keep our peers abreast of what we are doing. We share pictures of our food and daily activities, comment about recent news, and keep people updated of major life occurrences.
Up until a few years ago, your Facebook wall was a live scrapbook of your thoughts and pictures; a concentrated venue of items that were succinctly you. Now Facebook has morphed itself into a collage of sorts, where you can not only let viewers know who you are, but what you identify with, and things that you find to be interesting.
Brandon began posting these portraits, and slowly, people started to notice.
At first, it came in the form of a few likes here and there, a few comments or shares. As the visibility increased, he began to add captions to the photographs, typically just a line or two of something said while in conversation.
Suddenly, the connection was made, and the audience rapidly began to identify with Brandon and his humans of New York.
As part of his case study, Brandon would ask his subjects a series of questions. Some were prepared in advance, the most typical being about advice or struggles, most were off the cuff remarks spontaneously made in the moment. He made sure to maintain an air of conversation, as it was more important that he make them feel comfortable than it was to seek a specific answer.
He carefully navigates the ebbs and flows of the dialogue until he feels that he has captured something representative of the speaker, the photograph, and the even us – the viewer.
It is in this inimitable assessment of human nature where Brandon’s real talent lies, and the cultivation of all parts of humanity to be shared through a non-descript photograph and one line of text.
His page has garnered him recognition throughout the world. He has photographed humans in Iran, Africa, and cities across America. He has been featured by every major news network and publication including CNN, The Wall Street Journal, a prime time interview with Diane Sawyer, and Brandon has even published two books that have both been in the top ten of The New York Best Seller’s list.
If there is one thing that Humans of New York has revealed, it is the perpetuation of the human condition within newer platforms; our constant search to identify and connect with one another. It is a photograph, a word, a feeling… a thread of data like our own DNA.
Check out Brandon’s Humans of New York Page here, and Join the Conversation!
