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Brandon Stanton's popular photoblog and best-selling book are named "Humans of New York," but he and his camera no longer focus just on the city where he lives.
The independent photographer visited Istanbul, Turkey, and Amman, Jordan, in late 2015 to post profiles of 12 Syrian refugee families heading to America -- including engineer Refaai Hamo, his son and three daughters, who settled in Troy last December.
This month, the 32-year-old former stock trader posts portraits and brief statements from of residents in Macomb, chosen because "the county is largely ‘blue collar’ and its economy is heavily dependent upon the auto industry . . . [and] voted decisively for Donald Trump," he posts on Facebook.
I didn’t ask anyone who they voted for. Very few of the stories even touch on politics.
And while the series cannot presume to be representative of an entire region, hopefully it will introduce you to a few of the people who live there.
Brandon Stanton, 32, has 22 posts so far in a Macomb series that began the week after Election Day.
At his blog, Facebook page (over 18 million followers), Instagram feed (6.2 million) and Twitter timeline (552,000), he shows the faces of all but four interviewees, but doesn't name any with portions of conversations about their lives and concerns. (Five samples from 22 posts are below.)
Stanton. a University of Georgia graduate, started blogging in November 2010 by posting street portraits and snatches of comments by random people in New York City.
He broadened the scope by visiting nearly 20 countries, while keeping the original name. A 2013 book compiling his work , reached No. 1 twice on The New York Times bestsellers list, where it spent 29 weeks. A second book last year also sold well.
Here are excerpts of Macomb voices, with links to see each speaker's photo at Stanton's site:
'We need somebody to say no'
“I don’t want to sound racist, but they’re coming into our country. . . . There’s something going on with the Muslims. There’s something going on there. There’s a lot we don’t know about. They have a game plan. They want all the businesses. They want control. They want my grandchildren to work for them.
"I’m hoping he can do something about it. We need somebody to say no.” -- Blond woman, pictured from neck down
'I don't understand'
“I feel homeless. Like this isn’t the place that I thought it was. I feel like I don’t understand where I am. Where we all are.
"Last week [Nov. 9] students started chanting ‘build the wall’ in the lunchroom of a local middle school. Some of the Hispanic children started crying. . . . It breaks my heart.
"I’ve had friends reach out to me. They’ve told me: ‘I understand the reasons that you’re upset, but those aren’t the reasons I voted for him.’ And I’m just starting to understand that. I’m realizing that a lot of people wanted change more than they wanted kids not to cry.
"We all have our own code of ethics. My bottom line happened to be tolerance. Their bottom line was abortion. Or the Supreme Court. I guess we all have the right to choose our own bottom line.“ -- Woman pictured here
'I've had to work since I was 16'
"People are looking to blame someone else for their problems. They’re worried about the wrong stuff. They’re too fixated on what other people are getting.
"I wasn’t able to go to college. My mom raised five kids on her own. I’ve had to work since I was 16. So I haven’t gotten to do all the things I wanted to do. But I’ve never complained. I’ve never been ‘too good’ for a job.
"I worked at Burger King. I worked at Walmart. Now I work at Chrysler. And I got promoted at all three places. . . . So I don’t complain. I’m 28 now. I have no debt. Chrysler even has a program where they’ll pay for my college."
-- Male autoworker, 28, shown here
'False racial shit they keep pumping'
“This racial stuff to me is BS and I’m tired of hearing it. I have it made because I’m a white male? I’m prejudiced? That shit is long ago. Way long ago. Enough of it.
"It’s all the media. It’s all for ratings. It’s this false racial shit that they keep pumping into everybody’s head. They’re keeping everyone on edge. If there’s a police shooting, it’s white versus black. Always white versus black. Who cares about the facts? Race is more important.
"Watching the news, you’d think there was a race war out there. But then I walk outside and I just don’t see it. I hold the door for the black guy. He holds the door for me. I wouldn’t even know there was a problem if it wasn’t for the television. They need to quit making shit out of nothing.” -- Man holding folded flag (face not shown)
'The borderline of racism'
"A lot of people live on the borderline of racism. I work in a machine shop with about 30 older guys. I don’t think there is one bad guy in the group. You’d like them if you met them. All of them love their families. But I’d say that I’ve heard 80 percent of them make racist comments of some sort.
"A lot of the older guys drop ‘n-bombs.’ But if a black guy walks up, they’ll be friendly. They’ll even go out to lunch with him and share a meal. I honestly don’t think they see themselves as racist. Every one of them will deny it. They’ll point to the black guy that they’re friendly with. They won’t point to the things they say when he’s not around.” -- Young father, posing with wife and infant outside their home
