‘Humans Of New York’ Just Landed In The Middle East, Is Even Better Now
What started as New York-based street photography has since expanded to a United Nations-backed world tour, as Brandon Stanton has quickly become an unlikely war photographer.
Every now and then, from the internet’s snarky cesspit of ignorant squabbling and anonymous abuse, rises something so poignantly beautiful it has the power to change your world view and restore your faith in humanity.
Humans of New York is one of those things.
American photographer Brandon Stanton started roaming NYC’s streets armed with a camera four years ago, after a short-lived career as a bond trader fell flat. Almost each day since, he has published street portraits of strangers with short snippets of conversations that somehow seem to illuminate both their lives, and ours.
And Stanton, 30, has just become an unlikely war reporter.
“Probably the most tragic stories I’ve ever encountered”
Last week, on his first stop of a 50-day, United Nations-backed world tour, Stanton found himself landing in Iraq just as Islamist militants advanced in the north, seizing towns and becoming the target of US air strikes following the persecution of the Christian and Yazidi populations.
Stanton told The Independent that the unfolding situation presented him with “probably the most tragic stories I’ve ever encountered”.
“What’s struck me the most is how much a humanitarian tragedy is magnified when you break it into individual stories,” he told America’s ABC News. “Everyone who is suffering from the turmoil in Iraq, or from war in general, has been deeply hurt in a very individual way. Hearing these stories, one at a time, in unforgiving detail, has been quite sobering.”
They are ordinary people, just like us
Stanton, who was included in TIME magazine’s list of 30 People Under 30 Changing the World last year, manages to mix the meaningful with more mundane aspects of life, in a way that connects us to other people as watch from afar.
His work shows us that these inhabitants of far away and foreign lands are actually ordinary people just like us, but forced to live against the extraordinary backdrop of war, which has robbed them of their homes, livelihoods and dreams.
Gabo Arora, a senior UN advisor coordinating the world trip, told ABC News that, while Stanton’s travelling schedule is subject to change, he is planning to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, the Ukraine, India, Vietnam, Ecuador and the Amazon. He may stop in El Salvador if there’s time, and will finish up in Haiti. He’s currently in Jordan.
The tour, which is being watched by more than 9 million fans on Facebook, aims to raise awareness for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
“In addition to telling stories of individuals, we hope this trip may in some way help to inspire a global perspective, while bringing awareness to the challenges that we all need to tackle together,” Stanton writes on his Facebook page. The comments his photos attract there read like missives from a kinder, more rational and understanding alternate universe. “We forget that in other nations there are people,” one says. “People who feel, laugh, cry, dream, hope, love. Not everyone is a terrorist. Most are just people.”
Follow Humans of New York on Facebook, or on Tumblr.
—
Koren Helbig is an Australian freelance writer living in Spain. Koren blogs at The Little Green House, tweets at @KorenHelbig and lurks on Google+.
–
Feature image of Anman, in Jordan, via Humans of New York.