Everybody’s life is a film worth watching. Welcome to the Humans of the world phenomenon.
Last February I went to New York and it’s hard to get it off my mind. Such a vast city, with so many contradictions and diverse people. Most of the time I was walking or taking the metro and its urban landscape still resonates with me. But besides monuments and museums I also paid attention to people. Individuals make places special with their creativity and energy.
Out there in the streets of New York there is one photographer capturing their stories. His name is Brandon Stanton and he’s rolling out the city, one story at a time. The database he has built is impressive. His idea is incredibly strong and universal. He walks all day up and down the city of New York, he kindly asks if he can take pictures of the people he sees around him. There is great diversity in his portraits, Black, White, Asian, men, women, young, old and children.
Some people say no, many pose and share something personal about themselves. Brandon asks triggering questions and he is really good at making the person feel at ease, a space of intimacy with a stranger is thus created in a very short time. He shows them the pictures, tells them about his popular website and social media pages, enjoys a conversation. He moves on to the next.
Unlike search engines, social media help us discover things we don’t want to discover, people scroll down their feeds and are flooded with photos, videos, comments, articles, emoticons and increasingly advertising they don’t want to see. However it also happens that one finds interesting and intriguing content straight from the source. The best gets clicked and since 2010 Humans of New York has built a Facebook following of almost 18 million people and copy cats websites sprinkled around the world. He has published two photo books that became New York Times bestselling titles.
For years I had heard about Humans of New York and noticed it in bookstores, but only after my recent Manhattan trip I actually bothered to look. I like urban environments and its humanity and feeling the post trip blue I soon clicked on to Humans of Dublin, London, Paris, Milan and Amsterdam.
At the click of a mouse the streets are real time museums. These are real people and true stories that open a new perspective on the simple action of walking. Compelling human stories of your next door or faraway stranger, heightening perception, offering new readings of normal people living their lives now. Some of those personal stories are really touching.
Some others are really uplifting.
But it is the simplicity of the idea, executed obsessively by Brandon when he lost his job in Chicago and moved to New York, that catapulted him to global fame. He is not the only one, Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist, became a global star in the world of fashion for taking pictures of street fashionistas.
A self-made Humans of New York (HONY)
I took thousands of photos in New York, some of me and my friends. For two weeks we also belonged to HONY, we just did not bump into Brandon. It’s funny to see what happens if I apply his idea. Here are some photos with captions.



The result may not be as good as HONY, Brandon skilfully selects the most revealing shots and compelling stories, but you get the point. At times people reveal more of themselves to total strangers than friends.
Self-publishing tools brought about by the internet revolution such as WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr allow more people to unleash creativity, the canvas has expanded pretty much everywhere. Sifting through the material we are bombarded with is challenging, but at least space and identity are guiding categories that still apply. The medium is the message, but it’s the stories that have value.
Photos: Marco Ciavaglioli, Beppe Simone CC BY-SA