Humans of New York : Stories

A mesmerizing collection of photographs of the many New Yorkers Brandon Stanton has interviewed for his blog, demonstrating that although not all of us have lived a life worthy of a riveting biopic, there is something interesting and compelling to be found in everyone. The photos, presented alongside quotes from each individual, reveal our shared humanity; everyone one we pass on the street has a unique story, a history, thoughts and memories, just as we do. I applaud those unafraid to express their individuality, and I admire Stanton for having the courage to approach complete strangers in pursuit of this project -- the results are simultaneously inspiring, heartbreaking and adorable.

[please scroll down for English]

Aki ismeri a blogot/Facebook oldalt, annak nem is kell ajánlgatni. Igaz, a híresen elfogadó HONY közösség támogatása, szinte csupa pozitív hozzászólása nincs benne, de a fantasztikus portrék, a pár szóba, mondatba sűrített életek igen. (A következő könyv HONY Stories and Top Comments lesz, fogadok.)

A szerkesztés is mesteri, ahogy szemben lévő oldalakon találkozhatunk a rendőrségre megjegyzést tevő fiatalokkal és egy rendőrrel, az anyáskodó barátnőkre panaszkodó férfival és egy nővel, akit az zavart, hogy a kapcsolatában már a partnere anyjának érezte magát. Némelyik tekintet egészen beszippantja az embert. Máshol a képaláírás üt akkorát, hogy show more képtelenség továbblapozni.

Őszintén ajánlom azoknak is, akik nem ismerik a blogot, és azoknak is, akik igen. Hiába ismerjük már a történetek jó részét, jó újraolvasni őket. Sok újjal is találkoztam, pedig már néhány éve követem az oldalt. Több száz világba pillanthatunk be. Ráadásul most végre lehet anélkül élvezni a HONY posztokat, hogy Facebook- vagy telefonfüggőnek bélyegeznék az embert.

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Yes, I pre-ordered this one, too! (Just like the new Shopaholic novel.) I had to wait for the delivery though, since this is a book book.

It is a much loved hard copy, which is a strange experience for me, as I read most books on kindle these days. It is easier that way with sleeping kids around. I don’t need both hands and proper lighting for it. Humans of New York is a blog I follow on Facebook mainly and now I can enjoy it without looking like a Facebook-/smartphone-addict. Yay!

Wow, how this book can be so much more than the blog or the facebook page!

What power lies in editing! (Look at pages 198-199!) I just love how the photos are placed next to each other. A group of youngsters saying something about the police on one page, a policeman on the opposite page. A man complaining about women starting to act like his mother, facing a woman telling how she felt like a nagging mother with her partner, on the next page. Some statements that make you raise your eyebrows, and the last person on the page telling it plainly: I have mental illnesses.

Some eyes I found hard to wrench myself away from. The man on page 209 gripped me with the pure pain and loneliness screaming from his eyes. His mouth shut. Such a powerful gaze. His story only supporting it. It’s like he is trapped in that body, silently screaming for help.

Then there are the ones that make you smile. My favourite rebel on pages 130-131: “Sometimes I stay up late without asking.”. You have to see that face, too! I remembered him from the Facebook page. And my all-time favourite on pages 310-311: that’s what I call imagination – and innovation!

I was really surprised to see how well I remembered some of these faces and their stories. Their lives touched me so deeply in just a few words that I look at a face and remember their lines. We are all in this together, right? “No man is an island” (John Donne).

It was great to see Vidal again, remembering and re-reading his story, seeing his photo with the President. So many of the stories inspire a wave of generosity from the HONY community, I sometimes wonder whether it will reach its limits one day.

Sometimes I wanted to comment on the photo, other times I wanted to see what others have commented. Out of curiosity or for some advice if the caption hit close to home. The community is such a vital part of the HONY experience, the next book will probably be HONY: Stories and top comments. Or HONY Fractions (you know what I’m talking about).

These days, Brandon is sharing the stories of Syrian families cleared for resettlement in the United States. When he goes global, commenters like to call it HOPE – Humans of Planet Earth. Indeed, he teaches us about the people he meets wherever he goes. He crushes our prejudices and teaches us to be accepting, kind and nonjudgmental. As Lori Duron of Raising my Rainbow said so many times, “to have an open heart and an open mind”. Lori’s was another blog-turned-book I read this year and I felt I shouldn’t have bought it. It was a bit wearing to read as I constantly felt I read those stories before and was just hoping to finish the book as soon as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I love that blog but I didn’t enjoy the book. However, with Humans of New York – Stories, it was just the opposite. It was nice to recognize so many of the stories and really enjoyable to re-read them. Great, sometimes funny, other times heavy stories, whole lives, sometimes in a single sentence. It is intense like Hemingway. Many mini-Hemingways. You have to stop after about ten pages, to give yourself time to process it. (Have you heard there was an app called Hemingway? It promises to make your writing bold and clear. I should test it in another post.)

Brandon Stanton must have a special gift for gaining the trust of strangers. He is exceptionally sensitive to other people’s lives and presents us with this bunch of case studies without ever judging anybody. (Maybe that is his secret.) And when I say ‘us’, I mean more than 16 million Facebook followers. Yes, really. show less

The second book in Stanton's "Humans of..." series, which I'd somehow missed before, even though I read the first and the third ones. Like the first book, this is a collection of photographs of random people Stanton encountered on the streets and in the parks of NYC, along with some quotes from them talking about their lives. In this collection, the quotes range from just a few words to a page or so of text. These are people of all ages, races, and backgrounds, and they and their stories run the gamut from the cute or funny, to the oddball, to the poignant or downright heatbreaking. There is something about these books that really does make me feel more connected to the rest of humanity, somehow, and I've come away from this one with show more the feeling that I love all of these people right now, including the ones I almost certainly would not get along with if I actually met them. show less

This book is absolutely fabulous! This is people watching with words, and thanks to my friend Dawn for that description because I'm stealing it and running with it! I've always loved people watching when I'm out, it's fascinating, but I found this so much better! It's funnier, quite surprising and at times heart breaking. There's a saying that "Everyone has a Story" well this is so true, in this book, the people of New York have opened up their lives to Brandon Stanton. Their stories are incredibly random and how Brandon gets everyday people, just like you and me, to reveal themselves so spontaneously and with such candor is eye opening. Everyone does have a story, it's true! This book has made me realise, that we really shouldn't judge show more a person too quickly - without knowing their background story, we can so easily get those first impressions very wrong! show less

Summary: Humans of New York started when Brandon Stanton lost his job as a stock trader in Chicago and he began taking portraits of people on the street. Along the way, he started interviewing his subjects, and including their stories as captions to the photographs, often taking multiple pictures to tell someone's story. This book is a collection of 400 of these photographs and their accompanying stories, including many not previously posted on the HONY Tumblr or Facebook page.

Review: When the first HONY book came out, I loved it, but lamented the fact that relatively few of the pictures had captions. In fact, what I said was "Relatively recently [in 2013], Stanton has begun captioning each of the photos on his website with a quote from show more the subject, the result of a conversation, and these quotes (and Stanton’s gift at connecting with strangers in such a way to elicit them) are what really sets the HONY project apart. But since many of the photos in this book are from earlier in the project, I missed the longer and more elaborate captions." Now with his second book, Stanton is pulling from the past few years of the photos with the longer captions, with people telling more of their story, and it's everything you could want. (Except it's missing the value added by the Facebook comments with other people sharing their stories. HONY is the one place on the internet where it's okay - even good! - to read the comments. But I guess that doesn't work so well in book form.)

Of course, a lot of the people featured are familiar from following his Facebook page; I'd estimate about 30% is new material and 70% are stories I'd seen before. (Although it was certainly nice to revisit that 70%... and he put one of my favorites - "You're taking my picture!" - on the second page of the book, which was a pleasant surprise. Seriously, that kid's joy is just so infectious that I grin every time I see it.) And even though this was my second time seeing many of these pictures and reading many of these stories, I still found myself tearing up more than once, with sad and happy tears both.

I also think that in addition to the new photos and their stories, there's some added value to come from approaching Stanton's work in book form. The stories on his blog are largely chronological in terms of the order that he meets these people, but the book isn't constrained in that way, and there was clearly a lot of thought put into the order and layout of the stories in this book, where two facing pages will have some connection between them, some issue in common, even though they may outwardly appear like two very different people. And this juxtaposition of poses and postures and people highlights what's really great about this project: that it makes us more aware of the humanity of the people around us, and reminds us that everyone has their own story to tell. 5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not all blogs make for good books, and not all coffee table books have something of substance to say along with all the pretty pictures, but in both cases, Humans of New York: Stories is the exception to the rule. Highly recommended. show less

I was first introduced to the website Humans of New York through Brandon Stanton's first book. For anyone unfamiliar with his work, Stanton is a photographer who goes around in New York taking pictures of people - it started out with just pictures, but just around the time of the book, he started interviewing people and including more and more of their stories. So, this second book captures even more of those.

I don't have a Tumblr account and I haven't followed the website much even after reading the first book. But I absolutely love the concept. His photographs are really neat at capturing a variety of people, and the quotes he includes show such a variety of experiences. You can read the book in a day or just pick it up at random and show more read one or two stories at a time. As short as they are, they run the gamut from laugh-out-loud funny to break-your-heart sad. As you look at a person, too, sometimes you think "Wow, I never would've guessed that story just by appearances." And some of the kids are just adorable. It's just so... human, and that's what makes it fantastic. show less

Humans of New York: Stories presents an even wider arrangement of people and circumstances than its predecessor. The photographs are beautiful, of course, and I love how stories with similar themes are often juxtaposed. Several sets of lovers relate their stories; parents show pictures of their kids while kids reflect on their parents and childhoods. I could return to this book many more times, I think, and still find something new. Highly recommended.