Gente de New York

por 14 Jun, 2018CULTURA, NOS GUSTA

«Realmente no tengo tiempo para hablar. La luz está cambiando cada segundo».
Foto © Brandon Stanton

Uno de los descubrimientos, navegando por internet, que más me ha llegado ha sido Humans of New York  (HONY). Comenzó siendo un espacio de fotos callejeras tomadas todos los días, aderezadas con pequeñas y grandes historias de gente corriente (algunos no tanto) que vive y saborea la ciudad de Nueva York, individuos que sienten la ciudad como parte de su ADN. Allí se han enamorado, se sienten acompañados entre la multitud, han forjado sus sueños, han construido sus familias, han sentido momentos de felicidad y también han llorado, pasado miedo y se han superado o tratan de hacerlo. La ciudad es su casa. El repertorio de historias incluye también grupos vulnerables que viven en la ciudad: refugiados, niños con cáncer en centros pediátricos, voluntarios y militares con experiencias en zonas de conflicto o gente encarcelada. Y la colección de historias se ha ido ampliando por mundos tan diferentes a la Gran Manzana como México, Vietnam, India, Pakistán, Irán, Tailandia e Iraq.

El proyecto es obra de una sola persona, Brandon Stanton, un fotógrafo amateur sin bagaje periodístico. Se mudó de Chicago a Nueva York en 2010 con 26 años, sin conocer a nadie y con los justo para ir tirando, pero le rondaba un plan en la cabeza: ilustrar una especie de mapa antropológico de Manhattan. Su intención original fue crear un archivo fotográfico, pero como su interés por la gente que retrataba le llevaba de forma natural a involucrarse y charlar con ellos -tiene tacto para acercarse a extraños, hacerles una foto, y disparar preguntas personales-, añadió a cada retrato unos relatos intimistas que han conseguido conmover a millones de personas.

Tras conseguir un archivo de 10.000 retratos, dejó la fotografía y comenzó a experimentar con el vídeo, junto al director de fotografía Michael Crommett. Grabó cada día, durante otros 4 años, a gente que se encontraba por la calle, y ese arsenal de grabaciones lo ha organizado en 13 series temáticas, que va exponiendo en la cuenta de Facebook Humans of New York:The Series. Este último proyecto, dice Stanton «es el final de un largo viaje. Pero lo hermoso de tener este programa en Facebook es que los trece episodios estarán por siempre a un clic de distancia. Estarán allí para ti en cualquier noche lluviosa. Fue un trabajo de cuatro años de amor, y no podría estar más orgulloso del resultado. Gracias a todos los que lo vean. Y lo más importante, gracias a todos los que compartieron su historia.»

Gran parte de las historias aparecen recopiladas en dos libros Humans of New York y Humans of New York: Stories, para que nunca desaparezcan. Su cuenta de Instagram cuenta con más de siete millones y medio de seguidores, y crece día a día.

El resultado de todos estos años de trabajo es un repaso cultural y humano de vidas cotidianas que cuentan sus protagonistas desde las entrañas. Es emocionante.

“He had a heart attack at the office. He was only forty years old. We’d left the house together that morning, but he never came home. I was in shock. They told me to cry but I couldn’t. I lost so much weight. My children were still so young and I knew I’d have to fight alone. I’d let my husband pamper me for my entire life. We were always together. There were so many things I didn’t understand because he’d taken care of everything. He’d always driven us everywhere. I’d fall asleep in the car the moment we got on the highway. So I had to learn to read maps, and figure out directions, and how to wait for the bus. It made me so nervous when the crowd started pushing, but I learned to push too. I learned to go to the pharmacy and wait in line. It seems so simple, but my husband had always been the one who went to the pharmacy. I had to teach myself all these things. But God made it easy for me. The time has passed so fast. I supported us by working as a teacher and I’ve educated both my children. Now they’re teachers themselves. And my daughter is getting married this Saturday. My son is going to walk her down the aisle.” (Jakarta, Indonesia)

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“For the last eight years I’ve been the head of communications for the UN Refugee Agency. My job is to make people care about the sixty million displaced people in the world. I wish I could tell every single one of their stories. Because if people knew their stories, I don’t think there would be so many walls. And there wouldn’t be so many people drowning in the seas. But I don’t think I anticipated how difficult it would be to make people care. It’s not that people are selfish. I just think that people have a hard time caring when they feel insecure. When the world is unstable, people feel vulnerable. And vulnerable people focus on protecting what they have. They focus on their own families. They focus on their own communities. It can be very hard to welcome strangers when you’re made to feel threatened. Even if those strangers are more vulnerable than you.” ——————————————————–This is my friend Melissa Fleming, who I think is one of the most important people in the world, and who was so instrumental in helping organize the HONY refugee series. Tomorrow at 7pm we will be in conversation at the Union Square Barnes and Noble, to celebrate the launch of her new book: A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea, which tells the powerful story of a young woman who survived a shipwreck while fleeing the war in Syria. If you can’t make the signing, you can get the book through link in bio.

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“I first ran for Congress in 1999, and I got beat. I just got whooped. I had been in the state legislature for a long time, I was in the minority party, I wasn’t getting a lot done, and I was away from my family and putting a lot of strain on Michelle. Then for me to run and lose that bad, I was thinking maybe this isn’t what I was cut out to do. I was forty years old, and I’d invested a lot of time and effort into something that didn’t seem to be working. But the thing that got me through that moment, and any other time that I’ve felt stuck, is to remind myself that it’s about the work. Because if you’re worrying about yourself—if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’ – then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.”

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“I’m not Barack Obama. I’m not Bill Clinton. Both of them carry themselves with a naturalness that is very appealing to audiences. But I’m married to one and I’ve worked for the other, so I know how hard they work at being natural. It’s not something they just dial in. They work and they practice what they’re going to say. It’s not that they’re trying to be somebody else. But it’s hard work to present yourself in the best possible way. You have to communicate in a way that people say: ‘OK, I get her.’ And that can be more difficult for a woman. Because who are your models? If you want to run for the Senate, or run for the Presidency, most of your role models are going to be men. And what works for them won’t work for you. Women are seen through a different lens. It’s not bad. It’s just a fact. It’s really quite funny. I’ll go to these events and there will be men speaking before me, and they’ll be pounding the message, and screaming about how we need to win the election. And people will love it. And I want to do the same thing. Because I care about this stuff. But I’ve learned that I can’t be quite so passionate in my presentation. I love to wave my arms, but apparently that’s a little bit scary to people. And I can’t yell too much. It comes across as ‘too loud’ or ‘too shrill’ or ‘too this’ or ‘too that.’ Which is funny, because I’m always convinced that the people in the front row are loving it.”

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