No matter what kind of day I'm having, it gets better when a post from Humans of New York pops up. (For what it's worth, I "liked" the HONY Facebook page, so that's where I get my fix.)
The fascinating thing to me? Photographer Brandon Stanton started his blog with just photos. It became an international sensation when he added quotes. The words, the stories, added power to the pictures. My photography buddies might want to weigh in on why.
HONY touches my heart by giving me an intimate glimpse* into the lives of real people. I don't need to know all about them -- I don't want to follow them on Twitter or be their friends on Facebook. I trust Stanton to see the shot, hear the quote and share the story. I don't know if his greatest skill is photography or listening. But I love his work and think you will too!
*Can a glimpse be intimate? Ah, if you have to ask, you've never flirted.
1 comment:
Jan,
The quotes help break through the "image callus" that we have all grown over the past five or seven years. Since everyone on the planet now carries a camera with them at all times, individual images are cheap and easy to produce. The Instagram effect - instant "art" - further devalues images in general. The "decisive moment" has been eroded to include any moment, anywhere.
Words, however, can't be mass-produced and are still a valued commodity that require some level of effort to create, curate and publish. Intelligent words, describing a place in time, a feeling or a reason to be are so rare that combined with a photograph of the creator, they have the heft and value of gold.
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