Photographer Tops Bestseller List

Photo: St. Martin's Press

Brandon Stanton

In what must be a great rarity, photographer Brandon Stanton's new book, Humans of New York: Stories (which could be titled "More Humans of New York"), will top the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list when the lists are officially published this week in the Sunday Book Review.

It's interesting to compare Stanton's ambition to, say, August Sander's, or Edward S. Curtis's. Here he is from an interview on NPR.org: "I was working in finance in Chicago, and I lost my job. I just kind of made the decision that I was going to spend the next period of my life thinking not about money, but about how I spent my time. I loved taking photographs at the time, and I struck upon this kind of crazy idea that I was going to go to New York and stop 10,000 people on the streets and take their portrait, and create kind of a photographic census of the city."

The rest, as they say, is history: both blog and book became phenomena.

The original book was a huge bestseller. Most photobooks have press runs between 1,000 and 5,000 copies and are doing well to reach the midpoint of that range in sales, but occasional bestsellers, some of them "evergreen," meaning they continually sell strongly (for example, The Family of Man, which is being reprinted in a deluxe 60th Anniversary Edition next month), have long been characteristic of the category.

Brandon will be appearing at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, on November 4th at 7:30 if you'd like to meet him. Expect a crowd!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Sven Erikson: "If you follow Brandon on Facebook, you may notice from the comments that it's the stories more than the photos that make his work so immensely popular. He has an amazing knack for getting people to open up to him and tell him interesting and emotional life events."

Mike replies: I once described him (thumbnail version) as "Studs Terkel illustrated."

(If you don't know the name, Studs was an author and broadcaster known for taking oral histories of common Americans in books and on the radio.)

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Good for him! The popularity of this project mystifies me but I congratulate him on his success.

[brian]

Stanton a humanitarian as well as a photographer. Through his storytelling, he has, for example, raised more than a million dollars to support a small middle school in an under-served area in Brooklyn.

Recently he's extended his reach beyond our borders. You might be interesting in visiting his blog and it's archives (http://www.humansofnewyork.com/archive) and in both viewing and reading posts like these:

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/126945021306/my-sisters-kidneys-were-failing-we-tried-to

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/127011880676/yesterday-40000-people-donated-over-1000000-in

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/109412141556/i-have-something-to-admit-to-all-of-you-before

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/130275162236/a-friend-called-me-at-work-and-told-me-that-a

[Rob]

Just more proof that New Yorkers rule the world. If the project were "Humans of Minneapolis," it would soon be in the remainders bin. This is not meant as a comment on the quality of the work, but rather on the overwhelming presence of New York City in the publishing and entertainment industries. Personally, I am finding it a bit tiresome, if not oppressive, to see NYC as the location of so many films, TV shows and books.

OTOH, if Stanton's book knocks Bill O'Reilly and Ben Carson out of the top two spots on the bestseller list, I guess that's a good thing.

[Matthew Miller]

Part of the genius of HONY is the stories -- the quotes from the subject. They range from funny to deeply moving, but always add something. This makes it very much the opposite of anonymous street photography. Each portrait genuinely feels to be about the person, not capturing the moment -- and more, not person-as-archetype, but actually that individual.

I'm certainly not at all opposed to the capture-the-moment ideal of street, but I think this distinction is one of the things which sets HONY apart (and, if popularity is a reasonable judge, above).

[Stan B.]

Studs could paint a fairly in depth picture of people's lives and travails in his writing- he made us feel. Brandon gives us feel good snapshots all around. Even when his stories involve loss or hardship, they never go deep enough to seriously affect us. So we feel as if we somehow "connected" with those "less fortunate," even though we learn and experience nothing of consequence, making every vignette seem a feel good experience- there's little mystery to his popularity.

[marcin wuu]

Much as I love Humans of New York project, I much more adore Curtis' poignant portraits of Native Americans.

[Peter Wright]

I have just received my new, (15 year old), shrink wrapped copy of "Crosstown" by Helen Levitt, and my copy of the Harry Gruyaert book (both ordered via your links btw) on the same day. Both books are wonderful, and will afford many hours of perusal for a very long time to come.

Now "The Family of Man" and one or two others, are on the Christmas wish list that I have given to my wife!

Thanks for your recommendations. They are always spot on. Please keep it up!

[John]

It's the combo of the stories and the pictures. Photos by themselves wouldn't have done it, no matter how many words a picture is worth.

[Stan B.]

I also meant to state that Studs helped us to understand how and why people arrived where they were in their lives. Of course, it's easier for a skillful writer to do just that, and I'm not saying Mr. Stanton is not sincere in his intent. I just hope he continues to create until his work reaches a revelatory significance that equals its current adulation.

[Rob L.]

With a nod to your next post, work like Brandon's is what made me realize that I wasn't cut out to be a photojournalist. Talking to people, pulling out their story - which is such a big part of a good photojournalist - is emotionally draining, and I just wasn't great at that.
I love his work, it's a great example of how to use your voice to amplify the voice of others.

[Matt]

I was really excited about getting this book after reading your post, but back it goes.

The idea that Mr. Stanton's photographs can be compared to those of Curtis or Atget is lost on me, and to suggest that his 'stories' might carry the same weight and depth of Studs Terkel makes me kind of chuckle. Division Street it ain't.

That being said, I'm still happy to know that a well meaning photographer is getting some traction.