Humans of New York

I stumbled upon the lovely blog Humans of New York (HONY) a couple of weeks ago and I am addicted. HONY is the project of photographer Brandon Stanton that he started after he stopped being a stock trader. Stanton approaches people in the streets of New York that he finds interesting and asks for their photograph. In the process he asks them simple, conversational questions, and often comes away with answers that may be complicated, funny, sweet, fascinating, or poignant. What he produces is what he describes as "A photographic census of New York. One street portrait at a time." 

I love projects like this because a) I love to people watch, b) I'm not extroverted enough to approach strangers in this way, and c) I feel that in a small way I'm learning things about different walks of life in a thoughtful, well-crafted way. 

On his Tumblr he posts a single shot that may or may not include a caption of some sort. And on his blog he posts more photos and often writes stories about the people or public events that he photographs. I truly hope that you enjoy what you find here, because it is beautiful. *Update May 22, 2012: He's also on Pinterest.

“Everyone’s gonna love you.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’ve got aura.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.”

“I’m a special victims prosecutor.”
“What does that mean?”
“I represent children, the elderly, and rape victims.”

This guy was huge, mohawked, and tattooed.
A real intimidating character— then he smiled.