Humans of New York SOAPSTone

It's funny- my roommate was just telling me about Humans of New York and their Instagram account a few days ago, and now I analyzing HONY as an assignment for English! In all seriousness though, after spending some time looking through the Instagram and the website, I discovered that I had grown fond of Brandon Stanton's awe-inspiring photographs and the heart-touching stories that follow along with them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabienne/11046266555

Brandon Stanton (speaker) is a photographer that takes photos of various individuals that he encounters around the world (subjects). Brandon began this project after a previous career did not work in his favor; his once hobby has now turned into a career (or rather, national phenomenon) of sorts (occasion). Basically, Stanton gets to travel the world and tell the stories of the people that he photographs. Typically, but not always, Stanton takes portraits of his subjects, and along with the photo he provides a caption that helps to illuminate the individual's essence and/or story. Sometimes their stories are joyous, and sometimes, such as in the case with his Iran subjects, the stories are terrifying. In presenting both sides of life, Stanton hopes to reach out to his audience of individuals that follow his blog and HONY social media accounts to show them that no matter what, there is a beauty in life (purpose). By addressing both the beautiful as well as the haunting and not-so enjoyable parts of existing, Stanton manages to create an alternating sort of tone in his work. While yes, there may be hardships in life, there are also the little aspects that sometimes get overlooked or are forgotten. All  he wants to do is capture those special little moments, and in doing so, he is able to weave an inspiring tone throughout his work and photographs.