In 2010, Brandon Stanton started taking pictures of people on the streets of New York City and posting them on a blog. After thousands of conversations and pictures, Brandon realized he wasn’t a photographer. Rather, he was a believer in connection, in community, and in basic human sweetness. In large part, Brandon’s work has been so influential because he removed himself from the equation and allowed the communities he documents to speak for themselves. Brandon’s blog Humans of New York has accumulated over 20 million followers worldwide and turned into two NYT-bestselling books (Humans of New York and Humans of New York: Stories). It has also spawned an entire genre of similar blogs. Hundreds of aspiring documentarians have followed in HONY’s footsteps, telling the stories of countries, cities, and communities across the world. Brandon is also a dedicated philanthropist. He has spearheaded crowdfunded initiatives that have raised over $2 million for causes including victims of Hurricane Sandy and a scholarship fund for students in Brooklyn. Of course Brandon and I discuss his backstory. How he came to start Humans of New York and how it’s evolved, but we also: * go a layer deeper around his philosophy in sharing the work. He says “the more I disappear, the more influential HONY becomes. * talk about growing and cultivating an audience * following dreams is hard work and much much more. Enjoy! This episode first appeared on CreativeLive as part of the 30 Days of Genius series. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.chasejarvis.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.