Observations and Inferences from HONY

Observations

Inferences

Speaker is Brandon Stanton Photos are for those who read his blog, social media sites, or books Purpose is to emphasize the uniqueness of every individual and to challenge man’s tendency to overlook such people Tone shifts from somber to lighthearted at intervals, often with juxtaposition First photograph on blog is photo of construction worker Six-month gap between first photo and second photo Subjects initially were about eccentric people in New York before evolving into more personal ones Most pictures are portraits instead of landscapes On Jan. 10, 2011, he begins to write small stories pertaining to pictures There are some pictures that do not feature the person’s face Photographs became extremely frequent by August 2011 Evidence of his hosting fundraisers People photographed range from the poor to the rich, the foot soldiers to the politicians, and from the joyous to the depressed Backgrounds vary from deserts to cities, from classrooms to alleys, and from parks to slums Pictures of Iran appear by Dec. 2012, but still remain on HONY blog site Stories and comments increase in size as time progresses Most recent photographs are of foreigners and refugees with personalized stories

First photograph and subsequent lack of photos for six months suggest that Stanton thought it was a trivial idea that would not proceed with much success. First few months of photographs reveal that the blog was initially a type of eye candy, focusing on the poor and the garish in New York while providing little context. The constant use of portrait format reinforce the purpose to individualize overlooked people in the world and to draw emphasis on the concept that every person is unique; if landscape was used, the focus of the photograph can be diverted to other points on the picture besides the person. The short stories contribute to the tone of the photograph, add personality to the face, and further capitalize on the individuality of people by introducing a short excerpt of their history. The lack of faces on some of the pictures could indicate that those people simply want privacy or desire anonymity to protect themselves from their enemies. The evidence of fundraisers display that the blog has become more than a product of a hobby and instead has become a social statement, exposing people to different ways of life in a new fashion. The various people photographed serve to fulfill particular demographics that may feel unrepresented, especially in today’s Internet-dominated society, but also build on the purpose of increasing the audience’s awareness of these kinds of people. The various backgrounds work in tandem with the photographed people--the location themselves convey a tone to the picture and can even be revealing toward a person’s character traits. The pictures from Iran are interesting--Stanton took those pictures on a little vacation but decided to keep those photos in his blog and other sites, suggesting that (a) he wanted to keep his audience informed about what he was doing, (b) he wanted to avoid making two separate blogs for these pictures, or (c) he wanted to make a statement that those people from Iran are no different from the people in New York and should be treated equally. The evolution of the blog from a hobby to a full-fledged passion project is apparent in the most recent photos, which feature refugees and foreigners, and imply that the speaker himself desires to explore more into humanity and into the lives of the humans not only in New York.

     Based on what I observed and inferred from simply looking through Stanton's blog "Humans of New York," I am really interested to look into how and why he wanted to explore the individual rather than the whole of humanity. He could have showed pictures relating to the concept of people joining hands and working together to make New York--the title "Humans of New York" do convey that sense in one way. However, he must have thought that there was something about every single person in New York (and, eventually, in other countries) that makes society the one we see today. It would be quite an insightful adventure to try to discover his reasons and the lessons he ultimately wants us--his viewers--to draw from his photographs.