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Humans of New York: Medium, Technology, Message
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A description of the tools of communication that are used in the book Humans of New York
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Berge, van den 1Maud van den Berge
Sarah Dellmann
Media & Communication
27th of September
Response Paper 1: Medium, Technology, Message
‘’Humans of New York’’ is a book by Brandon Stanton. It was published in October
2015 by St. Martin’s Press. The book displays photographs of random people in New York with
their stories. The project by Stanton was initially a blog, where he displayed his photographs and
the stories that came with them, but due to the popularity he attained he turned his work into a
book. Brandon Stanton is a 34-year-old American, who graduated form the University of
Georgia. He moved to New York in 2010 without having experience in journalism or
photography. He did not know anyone but had the ambition to photograph 10.000 people and
mapping where they were. While he was doing this, he started doing something slightly
different. In the introduction of ‘’Humans of New York’’ Stanton says that after cataloguing
thousands of people, he stumbled upon the idea of including quotes form his subjects alongside
their photographs. His work became dedicated to telling the stories of strangers on the street, so
that literally everyone who can read and has access to the book could get to know their story
while they stayed anonymous. The stories are relatable for some people, therefore there is a
connection between the reader and the people in the photographs. Especially because the humans
are captured in their daily lives and nothing is staged.
Stanton has ‘’disarming folksiness and passable – though admittedly inexpert – photography
skills’’ (Bosman) that make his work seem natural and realistic.
, Berge, van den 2
Stanton’s work is a combination of two mediums, namely photography and printed content. The
photographs are mostly (not always) portraits and caption just one particular moment of that
person’s life. This one moment, though, tells the reader/examiner of the book what this person
looks like and his/her facial expression or sometimes posture shows the emotional state of the
person in that exact point in time. A photograph of a person can tell a lot about them and the
anecdotal text beneath the picture tells us even more. The combination of picture and printed text
is what makes this book a kind of rollercoaster of emotions.
Figure 1 A page of ‘’Humans of New York: Stories’’. Source: Google Search
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