30 Aragon photography students attended a presentation given by Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton at Nourse Theater in San Francisco on Feb. 27.
During Stanton’s presentation, he elaborated on his methods of interviewing and his journey to success with Humans of New York.
Stanton’s path to success originated from a love for photographing people. Beginning in 2010 as a simple passion, the connection he felt after meeting strangers fueled his mission to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and gather stories about their lives. Humans of New York has gained a worldwide audience with over 12.1 million followers on Facebook. In October of 2013, Stanton released “Humans of New York,” a book that quickly became a No. 1 NYT Bestseller.
One of the defining aspects of Stanton’s blog is that each photo is paired with a personal story as a caption. “I think the biggest takeaway from this was the unique perspective of not only taking photographs to tell a story, but interacting with people to really give a slice of real true life,” says photography teacher Nicholas Carrillo. “He takes that extra step, and really has perfected the art of interviewing to get interesting components out of these people’s lives that you wouldn’t think would be shared with strangers.”
Sophomore Arya Natarajan says, “The thing that stood out to me the most that he said was even if you are nervous, do it. I feel like a lot of the times I stop myself from doing things because I’m too scared to. Sometimes, the best things happen if you stop worrying about what might go wrong and just do it.”
But what Carrillo ultimately wanted his students to take away from the presentation was the importance of the emotion that underlies Stanton’s photos. “He focuses on people’s challenges. It shows everyday, normal people with really interesting challenges that makes people think, maybe I need to be more empathetic to people in general. Be nice to people. You have no idea what they are going through regardless of who they are or what they look like. I hope my students took that away from the presentation,” he says.
originated from a love for photographing people. Beginning in 2010 as a simple passion, the connection he felt after meeting strangers fueled his mission to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and gather stories about their lives. Humans of New York has gained a worldwide audience with over 12.1 million followers on Facebook. In October of 2013, Stanton released “Humans of New York,” a book that quickly became a No. 1 NYT Bestseller.
One of the defining aspects of Stanton’s blog is that each photo is paired with a personal story as a caption. “I think the biggest takeaway from this was the unique perspective of not only taking photographs to tell a story, but interacting with people to really give a slice of real true life,” says photography teacher Nicholas Carrillo. “He takes that extra step, and really has perfected the art of interviewing to get interesting components out of these people’s lives that you wouldn’t think would be shared with strangers.”
Sophomore Arya Natarajan says, “The thing that stood out to me the most that he said was even if you are nervous, do it. I feel like a lot of the times I stop myself from doing things because I’m too scared to. Sometimes, the best things happen if you stop worrying about what might go wrong and just do it.”
But what Carrillo ultimately wanted his students to take away from the presentation was the importance of the emotion that underlies Stanton’s photos. “He focuses on people’s challenges. It shows everyday, normal people with really interesting challenges that makes people think, maybe I need to be more empathetic to people in general. Be nice to people. You have no idea what they are going through regardless of who they are or what they look like. I hope my students took that away from the presentation,” he says.
