Brandon Stanton’s Natural Lighting Portraiture

Humans of New York is probably the most popular and viral photo series out there, especially in the social media space (18 million followers in facebook). The photographer behind the series is Brandon Stanton. He used to be a bond trader, but after losing his job, he decided to pursue his passion for photography. He moved to New Yor kand went out to take portraits of 10,000 strangers all over the city. He also began interviewing and getting quotes from them which he eventually posted in his facebook page.

As you can tell from most of his photographs, Brandon is a natural light photographer. He knows where to position his subject to get the most flattering light no matter what time of the day or what kind of weather conditions he’s in. I’ve seen some behind-the-scene videos of him taking portraits and he just carries one camera with no lighting equipment at all. Not even an assistant to carry a reflector. That’s why I love his style so much. He makes the photography part simple and focuses his energy on connecting with his subject and getting them to tell their stories. This aspect of photography is what I’m still working on because at the end of the day, photographers are storytellers.