Internet Phenomenon Brandon Stanton to Speak at U of A

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Brandon Stanton.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Brandon Stanton was an out-of-work bond trader and part-time photographer in 2010 when he moved to New York City and decided to put his photography skills to work in a blog: Humans of New York, popularly known as HONY.

His first idea was to take photos of 10,000 New Yorkers and plot them on a map. But then he began telling short stories about each person he photographed. The result was an internet phenomenon: to date Humans of New York, has more than 22.5 million followers on Facebook and Instagram. He discovered that people who used the technology of the internet still had a huge appetite for stories about other people.

Stanton will tell his own story as part of the student Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Arkansas at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, in Bud Walton Arena. The event is free and open to the public and no tickets are required.

Stanton has published two best-selling books, Humans of New York, which stayed on top of the New York Times bestseller list for 45 weeks, and HONY: Stories, another number one on that list.

In 2015 he posted the story of a boy from an underprivileged Brooklyn middle school in a crime-plagued neighborhood, which inspired him to start an online crowd-funding campaign to raise money to send the students on field trips to Harvard to expand their idea of their potential. HONY's followers raised more than $1 million for Mott Hall Bridges Academy, drawing international media attention and earning Stanton a meeting with President Obama.

The Distinguished Lecture Series is a student-sponsored program. Speakers are chosen by a committee of students, faculty and staff, and the events are funded by a student-approved fee, appropriated by the Programs Allocation Board. Recent speakers have included Bill Nye, Daymond John and Abby Wambach.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.