For the first time in Grand Central Station\u2019s history, there are no ads, just art. <\/p>\n
Photographer Brandon Stanton has turned the transit hub into \u201cDear New York,\u201d an ambitious, two-week art installation. He\u2019s replaced all of the 112-year-old terminal\u2019s commercial signage with portraits of fellow New Yorkers and their personal stories, and projected 50-foot-high images of his subjects onto the station\u2019s marble walls.<\/p>\n
Brandon Stanton\u2019s \u2018Dear New York\u2019 exhibit transformed Grand Central into a sweeping portrait of the city \u2014 replacing ads with the faces, and stories, of New Yorkers from all walks of life. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the largest use of physical space for a single installation in the history of the New York subway system,\u201d Stanton told The Post of the project, which runs through Oct. 19. \u201cThis was an attempt to recreate the city and its people in a single building. This is what I\u2019m trying to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old is also the man behind the phenomenally popular Humans of New York (@humansofny) Instagram account, which the exhibition draws from.<\/p>\n
After losing his job as a bond trader in Chicago, Brandon Stanton moved to New York with a camera and an idea \u2014 to tell the city\u2019s story, one stranger at a time. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
In 2010, he lost his job as a bond trader in Chicago and moved to NYC to begin an inherently simple documentary project: He would take photos of locals, interview them, then share their pictures and stories with the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first came to New York City, my impression was that the entire world was here \u2014 all of these beliefs and ethnicities and cultures and viewpoints, crammed together on the same sidewalks, the same subways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Dear New York\u2019 exhibit was inspired \u2014 and partially funded \u2014 by Stanton\u2019s book of the same name. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
Fifteen years later, he\u2019s captured more than 10,000 people across the five boroughs \u2014 everyone from go-go dancers and hedge funders to crossing guards and homeless fathers. Along the way, he\u2019s racked up more than 12 million Instagram followers and published four best-selling books.<\/p>\n
The most recent, also named \u201cDear New York,\u201d was released earlier this month and serves as a record of sorts for the massive exhibition, which includes over 150 digital screens around the station.<\/p>\n
The subway level alone accounts for 20% of the exhibit \u2014 and marks the largest use of physical space for a single art installation in MTA history. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
In a children\u2019s gallery, located in one of the terminal\u2019s wings, Stanton originally planned to feature portraits taken by 300 NYC school kids. But, when more than 600 submissions came in, he refused to cut anyone \u2014 instead adding digital frames so everyone could be included.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Multiple kids came up to take photos of their photos during The Post\u2019s interview, and Stanton couldn\u2019t hide his joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this moment so long,\u201d said the artist, who funded the installation using his book advance and personal savings.\u00a0\u201cI was just a crazy guy with this crazy dream to transform the entire building into a piece of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucked within the installation is a dedicated gallery showcasing portraits by NYC schoolchildren. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
For Stanton, who has toiled away in solitude for years, the undertaking marks the first time he\u2019s worked so collaboratively.<\/p>\n
Over 100 people were involved in bringing the project to life.\u00a0Chief among them were co-creative directors David Korins, a Broadway designer who has worked on \u201cHamilton\u201d and \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d and Andrea A. Trabucco-Campos, a partner at Pentagram Design, the world\u2019s largest design consultancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Stanton and his team, it was important that the portraits not bare his moniker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MTA has a rule that you have to write your brand name [on any display] to identify who paid for it,\u201d Stanton said. \u201cThat was a huge sticking point because [I believed it should] only be the people and their stories. When you walk through here, it can\u2019t feel like you\u2019re being sold to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanton anchored the project at Grand Central because of what runs beneath it: the 7 train, which he believes is the most densely-packed human space on earth. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
Both \u2018Humans of New York\u2019 and \u2018Dear New York\u2019 share the same simple premise: photograph a stranger, ask a few questions, let their story speak for itself. EMMY PARK<\/p>\n
That sentiment reflects the larger thesis behind Humans of New York: Stanton has never taken a sponsored post, never altered his approach to fit the algorithm, never chased virality at the expense of authenticity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved to New York to be an artist \u2014 not to have a lot of followers, not to have a lot of money,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been 15 years but I\u2019m doing the same thing I\u2019ve always done. Stories are powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in Grand Central Station\u2019s history, there are no ads, just art. Photographer Brandon Stanton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1149,157,1965,3955,3956,57,141,9,56,63,65,64,3419],"class_list":{"0":"post-3563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-grand-central-station","11":"tag-grand-central-terminal","12":"tag-instagram","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-mta","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-headlines","19":"tag-nyc-news","20":"tag-photography"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}