This week I was overjoyed when I was the first "like" on a Humans of New York Instagram post. With a screenshot proving that I, in fact, was the first like, I bragged to many of my friends and classmates about this amazing feat. For those of you who haven't heard of Humans of New York, I urge you to check it out, because it is truely amazing.
A few years back a man named Brandon moved to New York as a photographer, without much money and being unemployed, Brandon decided to start taking photos of random people on the streets of New York. As time went on, he began to ask the people simple but provoking questions, and turned their responses into the caption of the photo he took of them. Using these photos and quote captions, he began to publish them to Facebook, Tumbler, and Instagram, and compiling them into a book. Now with over 470,000 followers on Instagram, and 2.8 million likes on Facebook, Humans of New York has really become a trend.
What really attracts me to the page, and what others say attracts them as well, is that the quotes are so intriguing but come from such everyday looking people. A man sipping casually on a coke in a restaurant after he has just been heartbroken. Or an young boy who admits that to him, grown-ups are grumpy. It reminds me, and all Humans of New York followers alike, that everyone has a story. And while you may just pass hundreds of these people on the street, some of the most ordinary people can say the most extraordinary things.
 |
| Humans of New York Photographer, Brandon |
When I read this, it reminded me of the documentary we watched a couple of months ago in class, The Cats of Mirikitani. He was just somebody on the street that hundreds of people passed everyday, but had such an interesting story. And nobody found out about it until one woman came and started documenting him and his life. It definitely does show that everyone has their own story. I think in America people are always interested in reading about things like these and stories about people, but not necessarily interested in going out themselves and learning about them. Otherwise I feel like people would be making conversation with strangers more often. Maybe people are, and I just haven't witnessed it, but it doesn't seem like it to me. So I think this is an interesting topic, because it kind of deals with the idea that people get uncomfortable around people they don't know or when they are in situations they don't know. However, they love to read about people who do actually go out and interact with strangers.
ReplyDelete