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Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton

Concept: A visual cross-section of people in New York City.

Author: Brandon Stanton - He got his first camera about six months before loosing his job as a bond trader. After that loss, he planned a trip to visit and photograph several different cities. New York was the third stop on his trip and he has intended to only stay a week. He ended up staying there all summer and eventually moving there. At first he envisioned this project to be a "photographic census of New York City." He was going to make an interactive map where you could click on an area and see portraits of people who lived there. Later, once he started interviewing his subjects it turned more into a human interest blog.

Monologue score/Review: 8 - Humans of New York is a fantastic photo survey of people in New York City. I'll say upfront that there were a fair share of colorful and, let's just say somewhat "unsavory" characters pictured here. I mean, with it taking place in NYC, and a photographer looking for "interesting subjects," it was bound to happen. There are a few scantily clad women, people talking about drugs, or bad language. However, most of the time even those were done as tastefully as one might handle those types of things. 

My favorite pictures were of the kids. Here is my top favorite: 
http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/32541717067/a-head-full-of-dreams.  

And here is another:
http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/24977178723/the-early-bird-gets-the-worm

I really enjoyed the ones that had a story with them. A little more than a third of the pictures just say "Seen in..." and then names an area of NYC. Another generous third have a single line quote or saying from that person. And the last few have a short paragraph story about or from the person who was photographed. It's amazing how much pictures can and can't say about a person. 

Difficulty level: Very easy, mostly pictures.

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