HONY

When you're out around town do you ever people watch? Doing your own thing but looking around at the people passing by and sometimes wonder who they are, what they're doing or what their story is. Humans of New York deals with that basic concept. I first came across HONY when my friend shared random posts from the Humans of New York facebook page. I would see these photos of random people outside in New York followed by a short quote from the person.

Seeing these posts was intriguing enough for me to learn more. I found out that this project wasn't strictly a facebook page but there was also a tumblr and twitter page. On top of blowing up over social media websites HONY was made into a book in October of 2013. The book became a best seller and soon after the social media websites grew in followers. The person behind all of this is Brandon Stanton. A 29 year old street photographer. He started street photography when taking a tour of American cities, along the way taking countless amounts of photos.

After taking so many photos and not getting noticed for it he began including the conversation being him and the subject as a caption. You get the first impression of the person from the photo and then when you read the caption you get slight insight on who the person is. The quotes vary between deep and full of wisdom, humorous, simple statements and personal views.

Reading these little snip-its of conversation you realize the diversity of humans. Everyone has a story and something different to say based on a simple conversation.
Here is a couple direct quotes from HONY to give you an idea of the diversity of the caption conversations. I will also leave the link to the website for you go to explore for yourself. It's worth the look and is a small thing to look forward to everyday since it's updated often.

"We were talking every day. Then her replies strted taking longer. Then she stopped replying all together."

"What's the most frightened you've ever been?"
"The first time I smoked weed, I thought a homeless guy was the Grim Reaper. So I started praying."

"Had cancer six times. Beat cancer six times."

"I pretty much only read fantasy because I've had more than enough of reality."

"Se cheated on me."
"Did you know the guy?"
"I introduced them. I invested in the guy's business. He lost my life savings, then he took my wife."

"Put this on Instagram."

www.humansofnewyork.com