Há um projeto, Humans of New York, que no imediato, nos obriga a seguir. Pela simplicidade das histórias de todos nós, humanos, estes de Nova Iorque. Corriqueiras, dramáticas, únicas, partilhadas. Num destes dias, na SXSW, Brandon Stanton, autor do blogue, deixou estas dicas úteis para quem quer descobrir a vida dos estranhos com quem nos cruzamos.

©Humans of New York

(versão traduzida no Goolge translate :) )

• How to approach a stranger: “Getting a stranger to feel comfortable has nothing to do with the words that you use but the energy that you have,” he said. When he first started, he had a wordy pitch, with a high voice and lots of explanation. He still has the high voice, but he he eventually, he whittled it down to, “Can I take your picture?” He offers a follow-up explanation of the blog, for those who need more. When he started, two out of every three people turned him down.

• Everyone has a story. Most of the time Stanton starts with a general question like, “What advice would give?” But he uses that to get to a personal story. He knows he has enough for his extended caption when he’s heard something that no one has ever told him before.

• Work on the work, not the promotion. Stanton was focused to the point of tunnel vision on publishing 10,000 photos, not promotion. “I can’t tell you how many musicians I know who have two or three songs and all they do is promote those songs,” he said.

• Once you have one true fan of your work, you’re on your way. Stanton still remembers the first letters from people describing how Humans of New York had emotionally impacted them.

• Figure out what you do that’s different from everybody else. “I know I’m not going to be the best photographer out there,” he said. “It’s about doing the one thing I can do better than anybody else and that’s talk to strangers.”

• It’s the story, stupid. Once Stanton had a little success, he tried to break into fashion photography. But soon he realized that it wasn’t the photography, it was the storytelling that was drawing in his audience.

• Publish, then refine. “Humans of New York today is very different from what I set out to do,” Stanton said. But until you publish, you can’t get a lot of feedback. He’s skeptical of people with great ideas, who won’t share a rough cut of their work.