Humans of New York to Become a Facebook TV Series

Following the recent announcement that Facebook is launching its own original TV shows, the social media giant officially revealed it has closed a deal with Brandon Stanton, creator of the famous Humans of New York blog, to make his inspiring work a docuseries.

The 12-part project, product of 12,000 interviews and 4 years of filming, will take the famous website’s approach from photography to video using the exact same concept that made Humans of New York so popular in the first place through 30-minute episodes.

“Early on I realized that video would add a deeper layer to Humans of New York,” wrote Stanton on Humans of New York‘s Facebook page to break the news. 

“At the heart of all these posts are the conversations themselves. I’m often deeply moved by the people I meet. Or they make me laugh. Or they make me think. And I always do my best to recreate the experience through photos and words. But I always knew that video would provide the closest thing to ‘actually being there.’ So for the last four years, I’ve filmed 1200 interviews on the streets of New York. (With the help of an extremely talented cinematographer named Michael Crommett.) Instead of posting these videos one day at a time, I held onto them so that one day I could combine them into something special. My goal was not to make a television show based on Humans of New York. I wanted the television show to *be* Humans of New York. I think I came pretty close. And I think/hope you will love it.”

Stanton, 33, started Humans of New York as a photography project in 2010 with the initial goal to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street. The portraits, posted along with captions from the subjects themselves, quickly became part of a colorful and pioneering blog – and later on, book series – with a worldwide audience made of over 20 million followers, providing daily glimpses into the lives of strangers on the streets of New York City.

“I’ve finally learned that helping others is the most important thing in life,” says a man in the trailer for the upcoming series, at the same time conveying the essence of Humans of New York‘s true meaning for millions of people around the world. “Stop and look at the people around you and say: “Can I help that person?” It’s so important.”

The Humans of New York series is expected to debut on Facebook Watch this week.