Sydney Newton
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Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York, is doing something incredible. The art/humanities website has more than 15 million likes on Facebook. Simply put, this page is just photographs of people with a paragraph or two talking about their lives. Stanton started in New York City by talking to children, couples, elders, and everyone in between. Now, he has taken his talent to Eastern Europe and the Middle East in light of the Syrian crisis. Initially, this doesn’t seem unique. A lot of people take pictures and post them. But this has accomplished amazing things.
His photographs are compelling and most recently, heartbreaking. They show the side of people that the news does not show. These pictures shine light on everyday people who go through unimaginable circumstances. They tell their stories and show the world what is going on behind the scenes. Most of the comments on these pictures go something like, “very thankful for the life I live after seeing this” or “how can I help?”
His pictures have helped a lot of people. Earlier this year, he photographed a young student in Brooklyn who raved about his principal and the things she did to help him. People saw this and wanted to find out the name of the principal and donate to the school. After that, more than $1 million was raised in order to fund the school and take the kids on a field trip to visit Harvard, which is what the principal had long wanted to do.
To some, this all seems insignificant and not worthy of special recognition, but I believe it enlightens people about what is really going on in this world. Humans of New York shows and tells people about people they usually would never see. It’s not easy to want to help people when you don’t know how or know why you need to. When you can put names and faces on people and hear their story from their perspective, it makes it that much more realistic.
You will see photographs of the oppressed people that Stanton shows and have sympathetic feelings. And hopefully, it will humble some people. A quote by author Dennis Lehane helps illustrate the situation: “Sympathy’s easy. You have sympathy for starving children swatting at flies on the late-night commercials. Sympathy is easy because it comes from a position of power. Empathy is getting down on your knees and looking someone else in the eye and realizing you could be them, and that is all that separates you is luck.”
Stanton’s photo series shows people’s empathy. It makes them realize that they are not different from any other human in this world.
The reason this page has done so much good is there are people in this world willing to help. But, they are unable to due to distance or maybe lack of knowledge. People are stronger together than they are apart. Social media are some of the most powerful ways of communicating and sharing information. Sharing the word about what is going on in these countries can help make a difference and open up the world’s eye.