Humans of New York inspires Humans of Saratoga High

Stanton’s well-known blog about people in New York has encouraged and brought together five students, who have decided to adopt this his method to document SHS culture.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This saying holds especially true to New York photographer, Brandon Stanton. Creator of the photography blog called Humans of New York (HONY), 29-year-old Brandon Stanton goes around New York capturing a “photographic census” of the city.

It all started in August 2010 when Stanton arrived in New York. He began posting pictures of the people in the streets on Facebook with a small quote from the people. Along the way, Stanton began collecting short stories and bits of advice from his subjects, which provided his followers on Tumblr and Facebook an insight into the lives of strangers living in The Big Apple.

Over three years of work have shaped his blog into an artistic sensation appreciated by many photographers and followers. HONY has inspired other blogs such as Humans of Singapore, Humans of London, Humans of Vancouver and many more.

In fact, Stanton’s blog has encouraged and brought together five students, who have decided to adopt this his method to document SHS culture. These students plan on keeping themselves anonymous to prevent others from requesting photoshoots.

“The focus of the blog should be on the people we photograph, not the photographers,” one of the creators said.

The idea was brought up by assistant principal Kerry Mohnike, and the five students thought it would be a great way for peers to learn new things about each other.

“We were all fans of the HONY page, so when the idea for a Humans of Saratoga High (HOSH) page came up, we jumped on it,” another creator said. “So we became a group voluntarily.”

According to the second source, the group has made a Facebook page with short quotes, similar to that of HONY, in hopes of recognizing talents, struggles and interests of students around campus.

“We're hoping to show a more human and personal aspect of [school] by revealing sides of people that you wouldn't expect just seeing them around campus,” this source said. “There's a lot of diversity that goes unrecognized, and we think this page can help the students recognize and celebrate that diversity.”

The group launched the Facebook page on Oct. 21 and have already begun posting regularly after gathering enough photos and interviews. In the first night, the page received 300 likes.