People almost always focus on the subject of photographer and creator of Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton's, photos and not him, which is exactly what he wants.

HONY was created only 6 years ago and started off as a small dream that grew into a magnificent reality. Creator 32-year-old Brandon Stanton, a Georgian native, had a dream: to photograph random people on the street of New York City.

Any follower of HONY from the beginning will know that what you see today is very different from the HONY that first started. As it grew, Stanton began to shift the way he conducted his interviews—from questions and answers, to just their stories or quotes from their conversation.

Stanton’s way of talking to people he encounters on the street allows people to gain insight into the lives of random people in the streets of New York City. Stanton prides himself on the organic flow of his interviews and the organic conversations that begin in the comments sections of his posts.

I recently had the privilege of meeting with Brandon before a talk he gave at University at Albany. Brandon is the type of person to make everyone in the room feel comfortable, which is a skill that is necessary when approaching random people on the streets of New York. Brandon has evolved his blog and his approaches to asking people for their pictures and stories throughout the past six years that he has been doing this. He really emphasizes his love of an organic conversation and organic meetings. He doesn't like to force it and he especially doesn't photograph or interview someone who asks to be photographed or approaches him.

One of my personal favorite stories that he has posted was that of a young boy, Vidal Chastanet, at the Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville located in New York City. The post started by Brandon asking the young boy who influenced him the most and his answer was his principal. He gave the reason why and that sparked interest in both Brandon and his followers all around the world. Stanton later met with this inspiring principal and together created a fundraising page that raised over $1.2 million.

The money was then used to fund trips for students to visit Harvard and the remaining was used to give those in need scholarships and to plan other trips as well. The story was so inspiring to so many people that it landed both Stanton, Vidal and the principal of Mott Hall that was and is Vidal’s inspiration, Nadia Lopez, on the Ellen Degenerous show and even in the White House to meet President Barrack Obama. When I asked him if he ever thought that this one picture would start a reaction this large he said that he never saw this coming. He said that the whole process was very step by step and that the end result was amazing.

This is just one of the many cases where Stanton’s work has spread across the world and touched so many different people. His various series touching on various sensitive subjects has brought people together and fundraised thousands of dollars for various charities and organizations. He has partnered with the United Nations multiple times and brought light to causes that the UN has been advocating for.

When he was asked about new and upcoming projects he has been working on or will be working on he said nothing was exactly planned out yet. However he did briefly talk about how he is planning a new book where he will travel to over 100 different countries and photograph different people. He also talked about how over the past few years he has compiled hours upon hours worth of video interviews that he is hoping to create a TV show out of. Either way, I can’t wait to see what he will do!

Be sure to check out Humans of New York on Facebook (Humans of New York) and Instagram (@humansofny)

I would like to thank Brandon for taking the time to talk with me and for being an amazing influence on the lives of so many people