Seeing the art and photography of various artists from New York and Philadelphia during our class on Wednesday reminded me of this man named Brandon who goes around New York City taking pictures of everyone and everything he finds intriguing. He runs a website under the name ‘Humans of New York’
http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
I first found this project on facebook a few months ago when I saw that my friends kept liking photos from this ‘Humans of New York’ page and decided to check it out. I spent nearly two hours just scrolling through all the photos on the first day.
I feel that this art project accurately portrays New York City the most because it shows that New York is not all ‘broadway, business, and glamour’ but rather a city with an unparalleled culture and the vibrant inhabitants who make New York such a unique place to live in. Furthermore, HONY (Humans of New York abbreviated) does not stick to only Manhattan, but rather explores the whole five boroughs. His pictures not only includes the people who live in New York and their wacky outfits or distinct personalities but also architecture, animals, signs and advertisements, foreign visitors, and just about anything you’d find out on the streets.
HONY changed my perspective and my attitude in many ways for the positive. Being someone who never wanted nor planned to stay at home in NYC for college, discovering HONY opened my eyes to look at this city in a complete different way. I realized how fortunate I am to be from New York and how it is always possible to discover something new and interesting everyday when you step out of your house. These pictures will make you realize that there’s so much ‘life’ around you if you just take the time to look. I’ve definitely become more appreciative of the diversity and culture in New York because of HONY.
I’ve been thinking that maybe art is best when it’s not staged or posed, but rather natural like these candid everyday shots that show the city in its rawest form. Included below are a couple of my favorite HONY pictures of all time. (Tried to make them super small so it wouldn’t take up too much megabite space, but I’m not very good at this media thing so let me know if there are any issues about pictures later on and I can take them down)
What are your opinions on candid street art? Which HONY pictures do you like the best?
Hello!
I have seen my friends like Humans of New York on Facebook, too, but I just ignored it. Now after reading your blog post, I understood what it was. It reminded me of Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis only focused on the people living in tenements whereas Brandon captures everything.
I like the picture of a house with “you can take our house… but you can’t take our hearts.”
I don’t know it is a right way to do though because people probably do not know that Brandon takes photos of them and puts the photos on the internet.
Does it violate the privacy?