Yet another series of blogs I would like to start here. Over the past couple of years I’ve began reading quite frequently…well, at least frequently for me.

Too many times photographers get so focused on the gear that they forget to keep searching for different types of information. I find myself constantly reading books from photographers (obviously), but also marketers, artists, motivational speakers, and random others. It’s about gaining a different perspective outside of your own, which is why I love this book.

I’ll admit, Humans of New York is a little bit of a cheat. It’s not a traditional book, but that doesn’t make it any less fascinating.

Brandon Stanton is a fabulous street photographer and this is his opus to the city of New York.

Brandon has done an unbelievable job capturing a massive cross-section of New York’s characters, personalities, beauties, standouts, reclusive, and so many other people. I can’t imagine anyone could ever capture all the different views of the people of New York, but I have to think this is the closest anyone will every come.

Humans of New York

Obviously the primary focus of each image is the person…but these aren’t your standard posed portraits. These are people in their element. These are photographs of there hands, something they’re carrying, or anything the identifies them.

What you see makes you feel like you know them. Each image is accompanied by a few words or a line of text. Things like “Seen in Washington Square Park” or “Her name is Reign” or “Despite being homeless he was very concerned about my ability to ‘make it’ as a photographer” or one of my favorites “I’m a time traveler.”

It’s very easy to make this book a quick read by burning through the photographs. That’s what I did, but I decided to go back and slowly take my time with them on a second pass. His work as a photographer is very good. To me though, the draw is his introspection into the human soul.