Humans of New York Stories

Summary:

In the summer of 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton began an ambitious project -to single-handedly create a photographic census of New York City. The photos he took and the accompanying interviews became the blog Humans of New York. His audience steadily grew from a few hundred followers to, at present count, over twelve million. In 2013, his book Humans of New York, based on that blog, was published and immediately catapulted to the top of the NY Times Bestseller List where it has appeared for over forty-five weeks. Now, Brandon is back with the Humans of New York book that his loyal followers have been waiting for: Humans of New York: Stories. Ever since Brandon began interviewing people on the streets of New York, the dialogue he's had with them has increasingly become as in-depth, intriguing and moving as the photos themselves. Humans of New York: Stories presents a whole new group of people in stunning photographs, with a rich design and, most importantly, longer stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candor. Let Brandon Stanton and the Humans of New York he's photographed astonish you all over again next fall.  (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)

Review:

I really like this blog and absolutely adored reading the first incarnation “Humans of New York”.  This second book has a deeper dive in the stories of the people, which I enjoyed, but for some reason didn’t find quite as powerful.

When reading the shorter clips, it forces you to fill in some of the blanks yourself and question the situation.  With additional information from the interview included, I occasionally found the full story depressing.  I know the book is supposed to be inspirational (and many parts are!), but I also found the situation that folks found themselves in sad.  I often wanted to find out what was the follow up to the story.  Did you get help?  Do you want help?  Where are you going to go now?  I’d still highly recommend giving this book a check out if you have the chance, but probably a better format to read a few at a time rather than all at once.

Warning: Contains topics for mature audiences

Rating: 4 stars!

Who should read it? Fans of the Humans of New York website.