Humans of New York founder to speak on campus as Poynter Fellow

Brandon Stanton, acclaimed photographer and founder of Humans of New York, will speak at Yale on Tuesday, Feb. 9 as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.

“A Conversation with Brandon Stanton” will take place at 4 p.m. in Battell Chapel, 400 College St. The event is free and open to the public. Doors to the chapel will open at 3:30 p.m.

Stanton, a former bonds trader, began Humans of New York in 2010 with the goal of photographing 10,000 New Yorkers and plotting their portraits on a map. Several months into the project, he began collecting quotes and short stories from the people he met, and published these anecdotes as photo captions on his blog. HONY has since amassed a worldwide audience of more than 16 million. In 2013, Stanton released a print compilation of his work, which quickly became a #1 New York Times Bestseller. He has also published “Little Humans of New York”(2014) and “Humans of New York: Stories” (2015). Time Magazine named him as one of 30 People Under 30 Changing the World in 2013.

In August 2014, Stanton partnered with the United Nations for a 50-day trip to 10 countries, including Iraq, Jordan, South Sudan, and Ukraine. He continued to post stories and photos of the people he met, hoping to provide his viewers with a humanizing glimpse into their lives. Stanton traveled to Pakistan and Iran in July 2015, and used his blog posts to raise more than $2 million to free bonded workers in Pakistan. In September 2015, he returned to Europe with the U.N. Human Refugee Agency to document the lives of Syrian refugees.  

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degree in 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus journalists from a wide variety of media outlets who have made significant contributions to their field. Among recent Poynter fellows are Sheryl WuDunn, Sewell Chan, and Paweł Pieniążek.