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Humans of New York Hardcover – October 15, 2013
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Based on the blog with more than four million loyal fans, a beautiful, heartfelt, funny, and inspiring collection of photographs and stories capturing the spirit of a city
Now an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, Humans of New York began in the summer of 2010, when photographer Brandon Stanton set out to create a photographic census of New York City. Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers and their stories. The result of these efforts was a vibrant blog he called "Humans of New York," in which his photos were featured alongside quotes and anecdotes.
The blog has steadily grown, now boasting millions of devoted followers. Humans of New York is the book inspired by the blog. With four hundred color photos, including exclusive portraits and all-new stories, Humans of New York is a stunning collection of images that showcases the outsized personalities of New York.
Surprising and moving, printed in a beautiful full-color, hardbound edition, Humans of New York is a celebration of individuality and a tribute to the spirit of the city.
With 400 full-color photos and a distinctive vellum jacket
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSt. Martin's Press
- Publication dateOctober 15, 2013
- Dimensions7.28 x 0.95 x 9.14 inches
- ISBN-109781250038821
- ISBN-13978-1250038821
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The Top 5 Humans of New York
Brandon Stanton's thousands of not-quite-candid street portraits of New Yorkers (and accompanying captions, usually from the subjects themselves) have made his Humans of New York blog both poignant and extremely popular--as well as garnering him recognition as one of Time magazine's "30 People Under 30 Changing the World." This book of the same title collects 400 of his best portraits, telling small stories that are outsized in their humor, candor, and humanity. It was also our number one pick for the best books of the year in Photography.
Here are Stanton's own top five favorite images, accompanied by his own words. Click on the images to see larger versions, and learn more about Humans of New York. It also makes a wonderful gift for any of the humans in your life.
-- Jon Foro
1) Ironically, some of the best quotes come from the people who have the least amount of time to talk to me. She told me: "I can't talk, because these shadows are changing every second." Normally I'm a bit downtrodden if I'm unable to interview a subject, but I thought her 'brush-off' was the perfect complement to the photo.
Click here for a larger image2) I always cite this photo as representing the most emotional interaction that I've ever had on the street. I came across this 100 year old woman just south of Central Park. She was walking in a rainstorm with a very bright umbrella. After I took her photo, I got under the umbrella with her, and asked her for one piece of advice. She said: "I'll tell you what my husband told me when he was dying. I asked him: 'Mo, how am I supposed to live without you?' And he told me: 'Take the love you have for me and spread it around.'"
Click here for a larger image3) I was walking through Chelsea one morning when I noticed someone rolling around in the middle of the street. Of course I started running toward the scene, and when I arrived, I found this drag queen. Apparently she had been performing a song at a nearby bar, and at the climax of her performance, ran into the street and threw her tips into the air. I joke that this photo captures more elements of New York than any other I've taken.
Click here for a larger image4) I love this photo because of the variety of expressions that I managed to capture. I found these kids in the Lower East Side, making the most of a hot summer day. Right before I took the photo, one of the kids leaned a little too far forwards and started spilling water from the pool. This created a variety of different responses from his fellow swimmers.
Click here for a larger image5) The young boy seemed so unwilling to participate in the portrait, that at first it seemed like a photo would be impossible. But his shyness ended up coming through beautifully, creating a portrait of the relationship between mother and son.
Click here for a larger imageAmazon.com Review
Review
“An instant publishing phenomenon.” ―The New York Times
“Visually arresting and disarmingly deep... The photographs in this volume, some of which have never been published before, capture the city's inhabitants with a commendable eye for demographic diversity and everyday street fashion. But it's Stanton's interviews with his subjects, usually excerpted from their rawest moments, that are the most captivating as they highlight both the hardship and the little victories of an often-unforgiving city.” ―The Atlantic
“[A] lovely collection of photos and essays... The images are gorgeous, and the effect is like walking through a version of our city where startlingly honest thought bubbles appear over everyone's heads.” ―New York Magazine
“There's no judgment, just observation and in many cases reverence, making for an inspiring reading and visual experience.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Some street photographers hide behind phone booths like paparazzi so their subject won't be aware of their presence, but for Stanton it's precisely that awkward interaction, the tearing down of the wall between strangers, that he covets.” ―The Huffington Post
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 1250038820
- Publisher : St. Martin's Press; First Edition (October 15, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781250038821
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250038821
- Item Weight : 2.16 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.28 x 0.95 x 9.14 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #24,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in City Photography
- #11 in Travel Photography (Books)
- #200 in U.S. State & Local History
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
BRANDON STANTON is the creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Humans of New York as well as the children's book, Little Humans. He was a 2013 Time Magazine "30 people under 30 changing the world," an ABC News Person of the Week, told stories from around the world in collaboration with the United Nations, and was invited to photograph President Obama in the Oval Office. His photography and storytelling blog, also called Humans of New York is followed by over fifteen million people on several social media platforms. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and lives in New York City.
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But New York City is really about one other thing: people.
Photographer Brandon Stanton has captured this in Humans of New York , his debut book... and it has skyrocketed on the various book charts since its publication in October 2013, and for good reason. Based on his HONY blog, which now has over two million followers and fans, this book is a visual delight of about 400 photos of the people that he has encountered in his travels across the five boroughs that make up New York City. His people images make a gorgeous, sometimes funny, truly genuine, and often moving compilation of photos that capture the spirit of the city through its diverse people in often inspiring ways.
Brandon Stanton did not start his career with the goal of becoming a photographer, as he explains in the introduction of this book. He noted that while working as a bond trader in Chicago, he spent his weekends with a camera that he had acquired in 2010, and that photography "felt like a treasure hunt." After losing his job as a trader, he traveled to various American cities, but his first impressions of NYC were unforgettable, as he notes in the intro:
"I remember the moment my bus emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel and I saw the city for the first time. The sidewalks were covered with people. The buildings were impressive, but what struck me most were the people. There were tons of them. And they all seemed to be in a hurry. That night, I created a photo album for my New York photos. I called it `People of New York.'"
From that simple beginning, the rest became photographic history; from his early attempts at a Web page, he discovered social media in the form of Facebook and Tumbler. Fans of his images reacted, and soon became regular followers. At first it was hundreds, then thousands, and zooming forwards to today, his Facebook page has over two million loyal followers, and hundreds commenting on his images daily, with many of those sharing his people photos to their own pages. Each of these is a capsule of a moment in time.
On these pages we see everyday people as encountered by many of us on the New York streets; subway images, people in Central Park, in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, by the Strand Book Store in Downtown Manhattan, at the Brooklyn Museum and at Manhattan's iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art. We see a young well-dressed girl in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel, a well-dressed older woman at the Waldorf-Astoria, people carrying boxes of pizza as gifts for the firefighters (the owner refused payment), people at Union Square on 14th Street, and a Marine recruiter in uniform on the street in Downtown Manhattan. Some are camera shy, while others are striking a pose.
And there are some that stand out, strikingly so. We see the full-page view of the model in her black and white striped evening gown at Lincoln Center, the chess players at Washington Square Park, people with their pets, the Sikh gentleman whose gentle smile is hidden behind his iconic mustache and beard, and the two page image of two ballet students captured in a lunchtime pose, standing in front of a steam grate in Tribeca. It is this same image that has served as the iconic avatar on HONY's Facebook page.
There are people at play, at work, sleeping on benches in parks, dancing, eating, kissing, hugging, and frolicking in the water gushing from fire hydrants. We find people of all ethnic backgrounds, and of all ages, from teenagers to folks in their nineties, to children. There are many superb images of children here, and they must captivate Stanton, as it is said that he will be publishing a children's book, "Little Humans" in 2014.
There are captions, though they are limited and to the point. Maybe because Stanton is upbeat and not condescending, so his captions never stereotype, even when he photographs people that close-minded individuals might think of as "sketchy" or strange. His book radiates his own natural curiosity, along with diversity, appreciation and respect for the people that he photographs. For open-minded people watchers, this book is a treasure.
It's difficult to classify this as a traditional coffee table photo book, if just by size alone. My copy is 304-page hardcover first edition printed in the U.S. and published by St. Martin's Press on October 15th, 2013. It measures 9.2 x 7.3 x 1 inches, which is hardly a coffee table book like another favorite, The New York Times Magazine Photographs by Kathleen Ryan. That Aperture edition measures 12.2 x 10.5 x 1.8 inches, a good bit larger.
On a personal basis, I rank Brandon Stanton's book right up there with Robert Frank's The Americans , a powerful book in post-WWII American photography. First published in 1959, his black and white photos were remarkable for their distanced view of both high and low strata of American society of the time. In contrast to Stanton's book, there is an element of sadness, even despair, in some of the images, but there is joy as well.
To many, New Yorkers are standoffish, cold and impersonal. For those of us who have spent time on the streets here, this is generally not so, and as a relative newcomer to the city, Brandon Stanton has proven that to be a myth. I am reminded of this quote that was written down when it was passed on by a friend:
"My favorite thing about New York is the people, because I think they're misunderstood. I don't think people realize how kind New York people are."
~ Bill Murray, Moviefone interview, April 27th, 2010
What makes Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York so different is that it is not about high-profile celebrities. It features people who aren't normally documented, who one might find anywhere on the New York streets if one just looks. It's a book that I have already gifted to some special friends, ones who also enjoy real people in everyday settings. It's not just a personal favorite, but one that may well go down in books of NYC street photography as a landmark chronicle of this era. Time will tell.
JW ▪ 1/2/2014
That's what I got when I bought Humans of New York, which I think is the most exciting and one of the best photography books I've ever seen. I'm not a connoisseur, but I do love photography books and have a cherished, though modest collection that I started acquiring in the 1970s with my first one, The Family of Man.
Photographer Brandon Stanton captures much that is right about New York: the posturing, the beautiful women, kids being kids, fragile senior citizens, hipsters, hairstyles, fashions, kooky antics, faces and especially the smiles. The collection looks like it took a year or more of pounding sidewalks to find worthy material but remarkably, Humans of New York was a 2010 summer project.
His book isn't laden with excess explanation and verbiage. When Stanton labels a photo, he gets it just right with a few words, or he let's the subject explain him or herself, such as the pretty girl with an attitude and fabulous hair, who says: "I'm going to let you take my photo because you seem like a genuine person. But just so you know -- I don't normally let people steal my swag."
Most of the color photos evoke a sense of joy, but when Stanton flirts with the seamy side of New York life, you still feel the humanity. I will never again gaze upon a manic grin, or an elderly man wearing a fairy outfit or hear some crazy talk, without cutting that person a lot of slack. Sugar Hill: Where The Sun Rose Over Harlem
Top reviews from other countries
The quirky , eccentric , terrible & absolutely beautiful people of New York.
Great coffee table book, especially for those interested in human stories & photography.
A perspective check on all our lives, especially on your own hardships.
Definitive evidence of our common humanity across borders and identities.
An important exercise in empathy and humility.
A global treasure.
Your life will be poorer without these books, but enriched by having it.
You know what to do now - go and get a copy of all of them as soon as possible and support Brandon's important work chronicling lives, loves and losses <3
Reviewed in Australia on January 10, 2022
A perspective check on all our lives, especially on your own hardships.
Definitive evidence of our common humanity across borders and identities.
An important exercise in empathy and humility.
A global treasure.
Your life will be poorer without these books, but enriched by having it.
You know what to do now - go and get a copy of all of them as soon as possible and support Brandon's important work chronicling lives, loves and losses <3