Watch: Humans of New York series gives sound and motion to iconic Facebook blog

Little did photographer and blogger Brandon Stanton know, back in 2010, that his experimental venture of documenting the lives and words of 10,000 random people from New York would take such a leap — from visuals to motion picture. [caption id=“attachment_4003511” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Still from Humans of New York: The Series. Screen grab via Facebook[/caption] The format of the Facebook blog has been revamped to create a documentary series comprising 12 episodes which stream on Facebook’s video-streaming platform Watch. The first two episodes — Everyday Matters and I’m Here — of the Humans of New York: The Series premiered on 29 August. Each episode in the series is a video collage of many stories, filmed over four years and includes almost 1200 interviews that Stanton took over these years. The visuals are stunning with shots ranging from the trademark New York high-rises, people on streets, Central Park, kids playing near a leaking fire hydrant, folks at the subway — in short, every thing that the Big Apple is known for. Stanton does an effortless job of letting the featured people pour their hearts out and narrate stories that would have otherwise remained unheard. Like his blog, this series gives a sneak peek into the lives of so many New York dwellers, belonging from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, races, genders and age groups. That is undoubtedly one of the hallmarks of Stanton’s endeavours. But in spite of all this, the whole package doesn’t seem to come together, especially since there is no background narration to hold the piece together. By the time one is immersed in a particular story, the other story starts which (at most times) has no direct relevance to the previous one. This reduces the effect of the episode in totality, regardless of how moving each account is. Humans of New York has been one of the most appreciated works of photojournalism in recent years. Especially with the advent of social media platforms like Facebook, the reach of such works have magnified. Humans of New York’s official Facebook page has more than 18 million followers. Watch the premiere episode here:

Watch the second episode here: