Based on the blog with more than four million loyal fans, a beautiful, heartfelt, funny, and inspiring collection of photographs and stories capturing the spirit of a city

Now an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, Humans of New York began in the summer of 2010, when photographer Brandon Stanton set out to create a photographic census of New York City. Armed with his camera, he began crisscrossing the city, covering thousands of miles on foot, all in an attempt to capture New Yorkers and their stories. The result of these efforts was a vibrant blog he called “Humans of New York,” in which his photos were featured alongside quotes and anecdotes.

The blog has often grown, now boasting millions of devoted followers. Humans of New York is the book inspired by the blog. With four hundred color photos, including exclusive portraits and all-new stories, Humans of New York is a stunning collection of images that showcases the outsized personalities of New York.

Surprising and moving, printed in a beautiful full-color, hardbound edition, Humans of New York is a celebration of individuality and a tribute to the spirit of the city.

With 400 full-color photos and a distinctive vellum jacket

The Top 5 Humans of New York

Brandon Stanton’s thousands of not-quite-candid street portraits of New Yorkers (and accompanying captions, usually from the subjects themselves) have made his Humans of New York blog both poignant and extremely popular–as well as garnering him recognition as one of Time magazine’s “30 People Under 30 Changing the World.” This book of the same title collects 400 of his best portraits, telling small stories that are outsized in their humor, candor, and humanity. It was also our number one pick for the best books of the year in Photography.

Here are Stanton’s own top five favorite images, accompanied by his own words. Click on the images to see larger versions, and learn more about Humans of New York. It also makes a wonderful gift for any of the humans in your life.

— Jon Foro

 

1) Satirically, one of the vital best quotes come from the people who have the least amount of time to talk to me. She told me: “I will be able to’t talk, because these shadows are changing every second.” Normally I’m a bit downtrodden if I’m unable to interview a subject, but I thought her ‘brush-off’ was the perfect complement to the photo.

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2) I all the time cite this photo as representing the most emotional interaction that I’ve ever had on the street. I came across this 100 year old woman just south of Central Park. She was walking in a rainstorm with a very bright umbrella. After I took her photo, I got under the umbrella with her, and asked her for one piece of advice. She said: “I’ll tell you what my husband told me when he was dying. I asked him: ‘Mo, how am I supposed to live without you?’ And he told me: ‘Take the love you have for me and spread it around.'”

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3) I used to be walking through Chelsea one morning when I noticed someone rolling around in the middle of the street. Of course I started running toward the scene, and when I arrived, I found this drag queen. Apparently she had been performing a song at a nearby bar, and at the climax of her performance, ran into the street and threw her tips into the air. I joke that this photo captures more elements of New York than any other I’ve taken.

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4) I love this photo as a result of the variety of expressions that I managed to capture. I found these kids in the Lower East Side, making the most of a hot summer day. Right before I took the photo, some of the kids leaned a little too far forwards and started spilling water from the pool. This created a variety of different responses from his fellow swimmers.

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5) The young boy seemed so unwilling to participate in the portrait, that at first it gave the look of a photo would be impossible. But his shyness ended up coming through beautifully, creating a portrait of the relationship between mother and son.

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An Amazon Best Book of the Month, October 2013: The thing that all the time amazes me about New York is that it works at all: such a lot of people, stacked on top of each other in apartments or wedged side-by-side on the streets, that it once seemed–to my admittedly West Coast eyes–that there could be no room to breathe, to stretch, to be human in such a seemingly inhumane environment. Even the garbage (the literal garbage; no Travis Bickle allusions here) is pushed to the sidewalk–there’s not even space between buildings to hide it. But once I’d been there–admittedly late–I understood that it’s the people themselves that make it work; that diversity and self-expression (not to mention the necessity) create a kind of space on their own. Brandon Stanton gets it. His thousands of not-quite-candid street portraits of New Yorkers (and accompanying captions, usually from the subjects themselves) have made his Humans of New York blog both poignant and extremely popular. And now, his book of the same title collects 400 of his best portraits, telling small stories that are outsized in their humor, candor, and humanity. As it turns out, inner-space is a dimension all its own, and it counts, too. —Jon Foro