“I started a blog because I wanted to communicate my feelings with people—the good and the bad.”
While this quote comes from a brightly dressed, middle-aged man on the streets of New York in the new video series “Humans of New York: The Series,” the sentiment could just as easily come from Brandon Stanton, creator of the series itself. Although the video version of HONY doesn’t always pack the same emotional change as its photograph-only counterpart, the first two episodes do set a promising tone and prove worth watching.
Humans of New York began in 2010 as a blog—Stanton’s pictures combined with a short but meaningful quote from the subject—and soon amassed a huge following on Facebook. Two books followed, as well as special series featuring subjects from the Middle East, Russia, a pediatric cancer ward and more. Part of what made HONY so captivating and inherently readable was its brevity—in getting just a few lines and a photo of a participant, the reader was left with no choice but to fill in certain blanks about them and their story. In a sense, Humans of New York functions more like humans of everywhere, as readers rely on their own experiences and judgment to tell them what they need to know. As you watch “The Series” you can almost fill in what a Facebook comment section might say about a particular person—debating the mental health and wisdom of the first man who is profiled, for example, who claims that sanity is “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.” Perhaps if I had watched his portion when it aired, when a comment section was present, his remarks would have resonated more as I got a feel for the reactions of others. Watching alone, though, his words seemed without context and I felt weirdly voyeuristic, almost as though I’d approached a stranger myself and was now unsure whether he was in a condition to speak with me.
In some instances, the subjects have the potential to be memorable and effective, but the series moves away from them too quickly. One prime example of this is a woman who sits by herself in a black dress and a huge black hat and remarks that “I can never remember not being noticed with who I am and what I do…. I have always been noticed. Whether it was admired or not, but that is not the point. I’ve never been ignored.” We can see from her choice of fashion and her overall demeanor that this is true, but the only other information we get is that this stems from childhood, and that tends to leave more questions than answers: what happened in your childhood? Why are you noticed negatively? Do you see this as a good thing?” Obviously the series would not hold interest if it tied up every loose end, but it seems that the individual stories may be more effective overall if there were fewer participants and more said about each one—more like a POV short than a random collection of stories. Of the dozen or so people featured across the first two episodes, I found myself remembering maybe 5 or 6. I wanted to know more about all of them.
Although it is true that the series seems to move too quickly through stories, when one does resonate it does so deeply. The stories seem to hit home deepest when they seem to play off each other, as with the middle-aged struggling actor who admits that “If I don’t achieve my goal [of acting success] I don’t want to be remembered,” and the aging, struggling musician who says that his plan is to try for five more years and then “leave it to the hip hop generation,” but that the only thing he needs for success is to get in contact with “someone who moves mountains.” What’s interesting here is that the first man’s view of his life and career seems to be one of failure and shame, while the second man’s view seems to be one of hope and perseverance. Their tones certainly differ, but their honesty strikes a chord nonetheless and the viewer is left rooting for both of them. One of the hallmarks of HONY is the way it inspires whole swaths of people to cheer for the same underdog, and it’s clear that those feelings can translate to video if the subject is profiled in enough depth.
“Humans of New York: The Series” has two episodes available now on Facebook; new episodes premiere weekly.