Humans of New York’s Brandon Stanton visits Rutgers

On Tuesday, RUPA presented the one and only Brandon Stanton, founder of one of the most popular blogs and Facebook pages on the internet, Humans of New York. The event at Trayes Hall in the DCC was part of the university’s Leadership Week, and It. Was. Packed.

There were two presentations. One was at 7pm and the other at 9pm to accommodate Stanton’s popularity and students’ schedules. Those interested in attending were supposed to get their tickets online, but RUPA announced on the event page there were more online tickets than there were seats in the venue, so there was a chance not everyone with a ticket could actually get in.

The anxiety was in the air when people started lining up for wristbanding at 5pm. The line stretched from the NJC lounge inside the Douglass Campus Center all the way to the corner of Nichol Ave. and Lipman Drive. My own place in line was so far back that I, along with other students, expressed the fear that there weren’t going to be any wristbands left.

With 15.8 million followers on Facebook, Brandon Stanton has shared the stories and struggles of thousands of people, and has even gone beyond the boundaries of the Five Boroughs to take his project global. Most recently, Stanton went around Europe documenting the victims of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Additionally, he’s released three books of collections of his work, and they have all shot to the the top of the New York Times Best Sellers List.

Students were buzzing with excitement to see the face behind the photographs. In the line, people were constantly talking about how Stanton’s work had inspired them and the millions of dollars he’s managed to Crowdfund in order to help end bonded labor in Pakistan and help a struggling school in Brooklyn, among others.

HONY, as it is known, has also sparked other versions of the page in different cities around the world, and even on a more local level with Humans of Rutgers University.

Once inside the venue, the crowd couldn’t keep it together. Every time a side door opened, everyone held their breaths and then collectively let it go when it turned out the person coming through was just a RUPA or Department of Student Affairs member.

Finally the event began.

Moderating the event was Keywuan Caulk, Assistant Director of RU’s Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities. As he introduced Stanton, everyone had their phones out, ready to capture the moment THE Brandon Stanton would be breathing the same air as us.

When Stanton finally walked out, Trayes Hall went wild. Dressed in jeans and a simple black shirt, he looked like a regular guy on the street.

Caulk went straight into the Q&A session, interviewing Stanton about his experiences and how he ended up creating Humans of New York. A big one was how he got random people on the street to open up and reveal such personal information to him.

Stanton said: “Gradually, I had done it so much that I got comfortable beating off that track and that layer of artificiality was removed and the person was there.”

In each of his answers, Stanton left nuggets of wisdom and humor with the audience.

“When I graduated from college, my interest was in documentaries. My major was history, so I wanted to create these independent documentaries – not really good ones – on different subjects. I had never touched a camera before and I had no background in film.

“You can see roots of Humans of New York in there, since a lot of it was just me going up to random people on the street and asking questions. Those films are probably somewhere in the back of my closet now.

“Everything so far that has happened to me in my adult life has been an accident. When I graduated, I got a job in bond trading through a friend. That was an accident. Then when I lost my job, I packed up everything and moved to New York City. That was all an accident.

“By the time I started Humans of New York, I had fucked up so many times – no, seriously – after that, I wasn’t scared anymore. I said, ‘I love doing this, I don’t have any photography experience, I’m gonna go to New York City and all my friends are gonna watch me try to be a photographer, snickering behind my back, and just take pictures of people on the street.’ No one was telling me, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea. No photography experience? You’re gonna succeed – do it.’

“At the very best, it’s whatever. At the very worst, they’re laughing at me behind my back. But I figured I had messed up so many times that the worst thing that could happen was that I mess up again. But that was nowhere near worth trading for spending my time exactly how I wanted to spend it.”

He continued with some more rich advice.

“At a certain point, I had experienced everything. There were no more unknowns. I had no more fear, because I had thrown myself into what I wanted to do.

“Learn how to fail. You have got to get used to putting yourself out there and throwing yourself into uncomfortable situations so you learn. Start failing now while you’re still in college because once you have a mortgage and kids – that’s when you’re stuck.”

By that point, you could hear sniffles and silent sobs from the audience. Stanton spoke so eloquently and so passionately about his experiences. He was so willing to share from the heart and it was clear he had gotten his point across.

After his interview with Caulk, Stanton took questions from students that had been tweeted with the hashtag #RUasksHONY. Even though many of them were questions that he had been asked frequently before, he answered all of them graciously and with the same fire and passion in his voice.

Stanton was so down to earth in spite of all the success he’s seen with his work over the past five years, and I think that is something we as Scarlet Knights should definitely aspire to be.