Humansofny

Humans of New York was created by Brandon Stanton, an American photographer and author based in New York City. He built the project by approaching strangers on the street, photographing them, and sharing short but deeply personal accounts of their lives on social media.

Yes — before launching Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton worked as a bond trader in Chicago. After losing that job around 2010, he moved to New York City and began what would become one of the most followed storytelling accounts in the world.

Brandon Stanton's original plan was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and map their locations across the city. The project quickly evolved beyond photography into intimate street interviews, and the combination of portraits with candid personal stories is what drove the account to a global audience of over 12 million followers.

Tanqueray is the stage name of Stephanie Johnson, a former New York burlesque dancer whose remarkable life story was documented by Brandon Stanton in a long-form series on the account. The series went massively viral and was later expanded into a standalone book.

Yes, Humans of New York has launched several high-profile crowdfunding campaigns on behalf of subjects featured in its stories, collectively raising millions of dollars. One of the most famous involved Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where a fundraiser to send students on a Harvard University trip raised over one million dollars after the story went viral.

Brandon Stanton featured a young student named Vidal Chastanet from Brownsville, Brooklyn, who credited his school principal, Nadia Lopez, as the most influential person in his life. The post went viral almost instantly, and HONY launched a fundraiser that raised millions to give the school's students educational opportunities, including a trip to Harvard.

Yes — Brandon Stanton has taken the Humans of New York format on extensive international reporting trips, covering communities in countries including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and India, among others. These international series often focused on conflict zones and underreported populations, generating enormous engagement and critical attention.

Brandon Stanton has published multiple books through the Humans of New York project, including Humans of New York, Humans of New York: Stories, Tanqueray, and most recently Dear New York, which is listed in the account's bio as available wherever books are sold.

Dear New York is Brandon Stanton's most recent book released under the Humans of New York project, noted directly in the account's official bio. It continues the project's tradition of capturing the voices and stories of everyday New Yorkers in a format that bridges social media storytelling and long-form publishing.

Instagram is the primary platform for Humans of New York, where the account has built its largest and most engaged following — running well above the category average for engagement. The single-portrait-plus-story format that defines the project fits naturally with how Instagram surfaces content, even though the account is listed as having YouTube as a platform as well.