Humans of New York: Season 2 on Blu-ray - An Intimate Look at the People of the Big Apple

Amazon Customer: Great book. Amazing pictures and explanations!
Loved it!

United States on May 29, 2023

Debra: Was recommended by a friend; did not disappoint.

Canada on Aug 10, 2022

sbonic: I was expecting the stories to be included in this book, but there were only pictures. I absolutely love the Instagram stories and I wanted to share them with my dad who doesn't use social media, but when I opened the book it was only pictures. They are beautiful but I was disappointed without the stories.

Canada on Mar 24, 2022

EBBEBB: This review applies to all the HONY books, especially the one entitled "Humans":

A perspective check on all our lives, especially on your own hardships.

Definitive evidence of our common humanity across borders and identities.

An important exercise in empathy and humility.

A global treasure.

Your life will be poorer without these books, but enriched by having it.

You know what to do now - go and get a copy of all of them as soon as possible and support Brandon's important work chronicling lives, loves and losses <3

Australia on Jan 10, 2022

Armalite: En 2010, Brandon Stanton s'installe à New York avec une idée en tête: photographier les habitants de chaque quartier afin de dresser une sorte de carte humaine de la ville. Son site peine d'abord à trouver une audience; c'est la création d'une page Facebook associée qui le fera exploser jusqu'à atteindre actuellement près de 3 millions de fans enregistrés. Ses sujets, il les choisit de tous les âges, de tous les genres, de toutes les races et de toutes les classes sociales. Certains sont vêtus de façon très banale; d'autres portent des tenues extravagantes ou auraient pu retenir l'attention du Sartorialist. De quelques minutes de conversation avec eux, Brandon tire des citations drôles ou surprenantes, des anecdotes poignantes ou inspirantes.

Ici, un aspirant candidat à la présidentielle coiffé d'une botte en caoutchouc promet un poney gratuit à chaque Américain. Là, une fillette en pelisse grise très chic pose dans le hall du Plaza où elle passe son week-end d'anniversaire. Un vieil homme coiffé d'un béret et fumant un énorme barreau de chaise explique ce que c'est d'être adulte. Un anonyme brandit deux chichuahuas en tenue de gala complète,...

France on Mar 23, 2014

John Williamson: New York City is many special things to different people. For some it's museums, for others the New York Public Library. For some it's performances at Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theater or any number of Broadway plays and musicals. For others it is the world-famous landmarks: Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building or thousands of other places, too many to mention here.

But New York City is really about one other thing: people.

Photographer Brandon Stanton has captured this in  Humans of New York , his debut book... and it has skyrocketed on the various book charts since its publication in October 2013, and for good reason. Based on his HONY blog, which now has over two million followers and fans, this book is a visual delight of about 400 photos of the people that he has encountered in his travels across the five boroughs that make up New York City. His people images make a gorgeous, sometimes funny, truly genuine, and often moving compilation of photos that capture the spirit of the city through its diverse people in often inspiring ways.

Brandon Stanton did not start his career with the goal...

United States on Jan 02, 2014

JoAnn Turner: This book arrived this week, and today I sat down and went through the whole thing, from cover to cover. It's a wonderful book. Great photography, and the captions make windows into someone's world. Sometimes heart-felt and touching, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, often bringing a smile or a chuckle or a nod.

When I closed the book and came back to reality, I felt like I'd been on a vacation. This book is a gem.

At times, I wished for more information or a longer story or interview. But most of the time, what's here is just enough. Often, the images speak for themselves and nothing further needs to be added.

I've been following HONY on Facebook for a while, and ordered the book the day it was published. I'm very glad I did. Brandon Stanton and St. Martin's Press have given us all a gift by creating this book! I just wish I had lots of people I could give it to!

Canada on Oct 27, 2013

Siavash A.: Summary of motivation behind 4 stars:
Disrating: Lower print quality than expected (I have very high expectation); Limited number of photographs (many many more photos on Brandon's online blog)
Promoting: A laudable first effort (neat (yet small) selection of Brandon's work with a number of unseen photographs); Very valuable price-tag-to-content ratio

I pre-ordered this and got it on the day of release in good order. I've been following Brandon's blog on Facebook for almost a year now and have been impressed by his unique ideas about "a photographic census of New York City." Indeed, the purpose is to illustrate life in NYC via visually enchanting portraits and depicting the interaction among the people, but the mini interviews Brandon does add to the tangibility of these photographs.

The first thing I noticed after opening the book was its low(er than expected) print quality. I understand that given the price tag of $17.99 (Amazon later refunded me some 35 cents following a pre-release discount) for a 304-page color print, it would be unreasonable to expect the best print quality out there, but as part of my review I thought I should mention this. The paper...

United States on Oct 17, 2013

Aline: I hate to break the 5-star roll, but the honest truth is that the blog is better. I was super excited to have a curated set of Brandon's absolute best photos and quotes, but most do not include anecdotes and just say "Seen in _____". As a native New Yorker, I would also add that several neighborhoods were labeled incorrectly: a hot dog shop in Gowanus was wrongly labeled as Red Hook; a corner in Gramercy was labeled "Lower Midtown" (a term Brandon or his editor invented-- it is used neither on maps nor colloquially).

Furthermore, there are too many similar photos; there is a limit to how many times I can be captivated by women with half-shaven heads. He's also included a lot of low-quality photos that don't tell a story and are trying too hard to be aesthetic: a plain woman in a red coat against a red and white background for instance. These seem like earlier amateur works. They would be interesting to see on the blog as evidence of how the project has matured, but in a book where each page is precious real estate, these photos lack depth and feel like filler.

In the blog, oftentimes the quotes speak louder than the photos, and that is why I follow HONY. So I can...

United States on Oct 16, 2013