Brandon Stetton: Humans Of New York

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Brandon Stetton the photographer of Humans Of New York started his panel by admitting he isn’t the best speaker. Telling a story of a speech he gave in front of 800 kids where his nervousness spiraled out of control and he ended up getting a round of what he called “pity applause”

Brandon says after four years of running he’s gotten pretty good at stopping strangers on the street. To demonstrate his process of how he stops people and asks them for what will become the quote he uses he invites a person to the stage

In the beginning Brandon was so worried about how to approach people he couldn’t decide what language to use to describe if he was taking portraits or photographs.

HONY engages in his traditional Q & A format for how he gets his quotes for his portraits. He says he’s learned two things. Never approach people from behind and when he asks if he can take their photo he askes in the most feminine way possible.

“Is there any way I can take your photograph?”

The hurdles have been removed to achieve success in short amount of time HONY says. Social media has removed the barriers to achieve a high amount of success in a short amount of time.

January of this year was just 4 years of photography – his book is on it’s way to being on of the most widely sold photography books of all time.

“Ten years ago HONY wasn’t possible”

Brandon acknowledges that his success was on luck and that people were sharing and liking his content. He was a product. He says that he didn’t focus on marketing product, instead he focused on his work. He said he came to New York with two suitcases and the goal of taking 10,000 photos. He didn’t get his first AP press release until he had taken 2,000 photos.

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