Author: Lexi

Give me more.

I’ve always viewed photography as a way to see. Looking at an image, I imagine the setting, the place in time, the moments leading up to, and after, the image. Photography is more than just clicking a button to me; it is truly capturing a moment.

My first camera was a polaroid. My family was travelling to Disney World over Christmas when I was 5 and my parents had bought us a small (and inexpensive) polaroid at the time to take photos with the characters to immediately print and put into the infamous Disney books. However contrary to my parent’s expectations, I had taken photos not of characters, but of everything. The photos I took were sporadic and, to the normal eye, would seem irrelevant. But they were important to me.

Photography initially grew within me as a form of self-expression. Photography was a way to solidify my memories, my perspectives, my experiences. At first I was content with this use of photography in my life, but as the years went on I started wondering what photography could be.

In every other aspect of my life, I’m an over-achiever. An A- gets me worked up, completing an assignment less than 24 hours in advance gives me extreme anxiety, and not going above-and-beyond is being just plain lazy. Why should photography be any different?

My first dabble with photography of others began in high school, when I joined our student yearbook. I was handed a Canon Rebel, and asked to take photos of a sporting event that was happening that night. I was paralyzed. The way that the camera captured what I was seeing through the lens, the control that I was given, the fluidity between myself and the button, it was mesmerizing.  Four years later I would be the editor and chief of this very yearbook, and I would be in control of choosing the images which would grace the pages.

When I came to college my freshman year I was introduced to Humans Of New York, a Facebook page that at the time was fairly new. I enjoyed the lightheartedness and individuality that the page brought to my life, and so I followed the progression of the photographer and the concept.

It was this page and the maturity of my mind in college that afforded me the ability to see the diversity apparent in photography. I saw myself leaning towards photos that were just more. Photos that were over-achieving. Photos that went beyond the photographer, beyond the moment, photos that in themselves told a story.

Writing 200 handed me the platform that I had been wanting and needing but hadn’t done. As a writing minor, words are my tools. Essays are my niche. Stories are my weakness.

“The Art of the Photo Essay” seemed intriguing enough, but the combination of the words “photo” and “essay” overlapping in one space seemed impossible. I had to find out for myself. The first photo assignment was difficult; how was I to describe myself and my personality through a collection of 8-10 photos? 8-10 photos to capture an infinite person? No way. But I did, and although it was difficult narrowing down photos (and feeling as though I was eliminating an aspect of myself), it was refreshing to have to portray my ideas and thoughts and personality through a series of photos.

As the semester moved on, the prompts that enabled adding purpose to our photo essays also enabled a spark in the potential I saw of my photos. The community photo essay turned into an expose of the realities of Greek Life, the problem photo essay aimed to target the occurrence of mental health at Michigan, the journey essay revealed the costs of beauty in foreign countries, and the profile essay confessed my admiration of a person in my life.

Throughout these essays, although all guided by differing central themes and questions, was an inherent aspect of my photography that I didn’t even realize I was doing. These essays made a call for realization, a call for change, a call for society to realize a problem through photos.

I had used photography to initiate social change, and this was inevitably shaped by my admiration for Humans of New York and my constant need to over-achieve. Writing 200 had given me a space to make this realization that all along I had wanted my photos to mean more, but had never been given the opportunity.

“Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference.” – Robert Frank.

The Photographer: Brandon Stanton

Brandon Stanton is a 32 year old photographer who is famous for his blog and Facebook page titled Humans of New York.

After majoring in history at the University of Georgia Brandon took out a loan for $3000 and bet on Barack Obama winning in his first election. After hearing this, a friend of his got him job trading stocks in Chicago, which he did for 3 years. After a huge loss Brandon lost his job and decided to move to New York to take portraits of strangers on the street. What started as a goal of taking 10,000 portraits of New Yorkers broken down by neighborhood turned into a way of getting to know the people of New York. Brandon started collecting quotes and short stories from the people he met on the street, and this collection is most notable, and has come to be known as the Humans of New York.

With over 17 million likes on Facebook, Brandon has created an empire that brings spontaneity and interest into the lives of individuals across the world. What is so interesting about his work is that it is seemingly just average photos of average people on the streets. The subject is whoever Brandon is taking the photo of, the method is a close up photo or side photo, and the style has become unique in that there is nothing special about it whatsoever. What is so unique about Brandon’s work is the accompanying quotes and short stories about the subjects of the photos. Although many would be quick to say that the photos themselves should tell the story, Brandon’s work aims to show that there is more to a person and to art than what is simply on the outside. I admire that Brandon does not edit his photos and his only curation goes into choosing quotes and stories to share about his subjects.

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/about

Brandon’s subject matter has shifted over the years – what started as solely Humans of New York has grown into humans of the world. When I started following HONY he was posting photos solely of average people in New York, with the occasional famous person or politician. However as of late, HONY has grown into so much more. Brandon has started traveling to areas of the world that many dare not to, and he has photographed and shown the stories of individuals whose lives shift dramatically from our own. His recent work showcases Syria, prisoners in the US, and India, all through photographs and short stories and quotes.

Critics of HONY exist due to his extreme popularity and honest realism. One quote from an open letter posted about Brandon Stanton, states that:

“One of the most glaring threats that HONY makes to humanity lies in its pretension of representing all of its diversity through the lens of a single individual. While claiming to define the population of New York, it presents a whitewashed image of an earnest, vibrant city that takes place predominantly in Manhattan, during the day. The individuals featured are only those Stanton feels comfortable approaching, those he deems interesting enough to photograph, who do not take offense to an intrusive white man’s request to commodify their images.”

Another claims that:

“In the world of Humans of New York, however, humans are actually caricatures. The people Stanton photographs are reduced to whatever decontextualized sentence or three he chooses to use along with their photo. And so the nattily dressed Klein, cigar in hand, lectures us about how we should all follow our dreams, while the woman whose photo was posted near his tells us that she wants things at work, where she’s under the boss’s thumb, done “my way.” But both photographs and “stories,” as Stanton calls them, even if they are a mere sentence, exist to fulfill stereotypes; the evidently rich fellow gets to brag about his achievements, the nonwhite woman gets to complain about her lot in life.”

Most of the critics of Brandon Stanton ascertain that he portrays a blurred or dramatized version of the average New Yorker, or that he chooses to solely focus on subjects he believes will be interesting or have a story to share. I disagree, and believe that it is clear through Brandon’s recent work in the prisons of New York, Syria, and India that he chooses to leave the comfort of New York in order to show the real lives and stories of individuals across the globe. I also believe that although he holds the power to choose the quotes and stories of those he interviews, he has a wide range of uplifting and positive along with realistic and negative stories that are based solely on the individual, and not on the number of “likes” that Brandon believes he will receive.

An acclaim of Stanton states this positive perspective well:

“For all its critiques, a project like HONY at least gives us a chance to see how minority cultures exist and thrive within the collective American experience. And it brings social awareness all the more closer to recognizing and eventually dismantling the structures of institutional racism that have held power for so long. The students of Mott Hall Bridges Academy have been given a chance through HONY to demonstrate why they are as inspiring and motivated as any other community in New York and beyond.

By generating and contributing to constructive and revolutionary movements (even if on the tiniest scale), we exhibit faith in the best each of us have to offer, and a collective power in achieving viable social change.”

In my own work, traces of Brandon Stanton’s style shines through.

“As a student from a low-income background, many of my experiences have looked different than many of my friends. When I was a freshman, I was embarrassed to tell people that I receive full financial aid. I was nervous people would judge me or my family. As a freshman, I felt lost and alone, like my identity as a self-supporting student was invisible. In the past three years, I have met professors who have encouraged me to explore this piece of my identity. Today, I am proud of how hard I’ve worked and I am thankful for the blessing it has been to receive such an incredible education. Now I dream of being an advocate for students from low-income communities and transforming higher education to be an inclusive and welcoming space for all students.”
“My favorite quote is ‘she believed she could, so she did'”
“My biggest fear is not being respected. I, like many women I think, struggle to find the balance between being assertive and being well liked and kind. When I was younger, I was often called ‘bossy’ and a ‘know it all’ and it definitely had a negative effect on my confidence of speaking my mind in certain situations. I never want to come off as not nice but I also want my peers to respect me and my ideas. It is something I am conscious of and am working on creating a balance in my life.”
“The most interesting case I ever worked on was a civil case – I represented a community health center that had delivered a baby who turned out to have a genetic defect causing developmental delays – and I had to defend against the claim that there was negligence. It was a very emotionally taxing case, because the family was so nice and the child was so well cared for yet had extremely delayed development… the case went to trial and the court found that there was no negligence during delivery or anything that happened during delivery that could have caused the child’s comprised development.”

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“As one of the University of Michigan’s most recognizable landmarks, the Michigan Union also boasts an interesting history of significant events. In addition, with its location at the heart of Central Campus and a multitude of student services and resources, the Union remains a constant hub of activity.”

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Michigan Union, 2016

IMG_9328Beautiful January day at the Michigan Union