In 2010, Brandon Stanton moved to New York City with two suitcases and a goal of taking 10,000 photos. Nearly four years later, his work has produced a bestselling book and one of the most active followings on social media, with a single photo garnering anywhere from 30,000 to 280,000 Facebook "likes" in a matter of minutes.
Unfamiliar with Stanton's photography? Chances are you do know "Humans of New York," the name of his wildly successful blog and Facebook page. Stanton was among users profiled in Facebook-produced videos celebrating the site's 10th anniversary.
And with more people growing tired of loud oversharers on the social networking site, "Humans of New York" provides a breath of fresh air with its intimate glimpses into the lives of everyday New Yorkers.
Stanton, who has no professional or academic background in photography, credits much of his success to using the social networking site as his key platform to post his work.
"I had thousands of photos and I had been doing it for months," Stanton says. "Nobody was paying attention. And one day I started a page called Humans of New York. We started getting one new fan a day, two new fans a day. And I said 'Forget everything else. This is what's working for me. I started uploading my pictures directly to Facebook and all of a sudden it just -- " Here, he made the only noise that could adequately capture the site's meteoric success.
Watch above.
Unfamiliar with Stanton's photography? Chances are you do know "Humans of New York," the name of his wildly successful blog and Facebook page. Stanton was among users profiled in Facebook-produced videos celebrating the site's 10th anniversary.
And with more people growing tired of loud oversharers on the social networking site, "Humans of New York" provides a breath of fresh air with its intimate glimpses into the lives of everyday New Yorkers.
Stanton, who has no professional or academic background in photography, credits much of his success to using the social networking site as his key platform to post his work.
"I had thousands of photos and I had been doing it for months," Stanton says. "Nobody was paying attention. And one day I started a page called Humans of New York. We started getting one new fan a day, two new fans a day. And I said 'Forget everything else. This is what's working for me. I started uploading my pictures directly to Facebook and all of a sudden it just -- " Here, he made the only noise that could adequately capture the site's meteoric success.
Watch above.