I’m a believer in the ordinary person, that the ordinary person is just as important and has an equally unique perspective on the world as someone who is famous or perhaps more privileged. – Brandon Stanton
Each time I arrived in a new city, I’d get lost in the streets and photograph everything that looked interesting, taking nearly a thousand photographs every day. After each day of shooting, I’d select 30 or 40 of my favorite photographs and post them on Facebook. I named the albums after my first impression of each city. – Brandon Stanton
I don’t think there’s any better education than learning the intimate details of the lives of people who you most admire. – Brandon Stanton
If I had sat around and waited until I had an idea to be a successful photographer, I would still be in finance. – Brandon Stanton
It seems that everywhere I go, people want the same things – security, education, family. It’s just that so many people have no avenues through which to obtain these things. – Brandon Stanton
I am interviewing people with a spirit of genuine interest and compassion, and therefore, the general tone of the site is one of genuine interest and compassion. The moment that culture changes, ‘Humans of New York’ is no longer viable. – Brandon Stanton
At some point during my travels, I had a slight change of focus which would end up defining the rest of my career. I began taking pictures of people. In addition to all the buildings, street signs and fire hydrants, I started photographing some of the interesting humans that passed by me on the street. – Brandon Stanton
The media chooses to portray the most extreme and violent aspects of a place. I do the opposite and portray the normality. – Brandon Stanton
Interviewing someone is a very proactive process and requires taking a lot of agency into your own hands to get past people’s general normal self-preservation mode. – Brandon Stanton
Everybody asks, ‘What does ‘Humans of New York’ mean?’ and I always say that I try to avoid putting any kind of message in the work even if it is a positive or optimistic message. The moment you do that, you’re looking for certain people and words that fit into the world view you are trying to show, and it becomes preachy. – Brandon Stanton
I am a huge fan of biographies. What I’m always looking for is a story. I want a story I have never heard from anyone else. – Brandon Stanton
In July of 2010, I lost my finance job in Chicago. Instead of updating my resume and looking for a similar job, I decided to forget about money and have a go at something I truly enjoyed. I’d purchased a semi-professional camera earlier that year and spent my free time taking photos in downtown Chicago. – Brandon Stanton
‘Humans of New York’ wasn’t the result of a fully finished idea that I thought of and then executed; it was an evolution. There were hundreds of tiny evolutions that came from me loving photography. – Brandon Stanton
I never buy plane tickets out of a country until I’m in the country, so I get on the ground, figure out what I need, where I’m going, how much time I need, and schedule as I go along. – Brandon Stanton
I think everyone feels alone in their sadness, and there’s a certain value to hearing other people’s sad stories. – Brandon Stanton
I’ve done commercial work for Amtrak. However, that was branded as Stanton. I stipulated at the very beginning that it was not going to involve ‘Humans of New York,’ that I wasn’t going to promote it on ‘Humans of New York.’ So nobody who follows me really even knows that I did it. – Brandon Stanton
I didn’t actually begin photographing, or even visit New York, for the first time until I was 26. – Brandon Stanton
‘Humans of New York’ did not result from a flash on inspiration. It grew from five years of experimenting, tinkering, and messing up. – Brandon Stanton
I’m not even really attempting to brand myself outside of ‘Humans of New York.’ I think part of the reason for my success is that I’ve put my ego aside and said I’m not going to put all of my effort into trying to promote myself. I’m going to try to promote my work and am going to try to promote my project. – Brandon Stanton
I know I have a caption that I’m going to use when somebody tells me something I’ve never heard before. It’s very rarely a thought, a philosophy, when somebody says, ‘Oh, I don’t like cheese’ or ‘Oh, I think the government should be overthrown,’ because so many people share these thoughts. But what people don’t share is stories. – Brandon Stanton
The interviews have gotten much longer with ‘Humans of New York.’ When I was first starting, I was just photographing people. And then I went to just kind of including a quote or two. Now when I’m approaching somebody on the street, I’m spending about 30 to 45 minutes with them often. – Brandon Stanton
Being a doctor, lawyer in war-torn countries isn’t easy when the infrastructure isn’t there. The money, the food and education is not always accessible to achieve those dreams. – Brandon Stanton
Wherever I go, I just try to show normal life. If the work helps to dispel stereotypes, it’s because I seek not to portray the extremities of a place, but the vast majority of people who are quite normal and are having normal life experiences. – Brandon Stanton
I’ve taken pictures in at least 14 countries, and nowhere have people told me ‘no’ more than New York City. – Brandon Stanton
