Brandon Stanton's Blog, page 348

Beginning tomorrow, I’ll be taking a 50 day trip in...

Beginning tomorrow, I’ll be taking a 50 day trip in partnership with the United Nations, supported by the Secretary General’s MDG Advocacy Group. I’ll be posting portraits and stories from the trip on the blog. We’re calling it a ‘World Tour,’ because the trip will span over 25,000 miles and circumnavigate the globe. But since there are only ten countries on the itinerary, it would be rather foolish to claim that these portraits and stories somehow represent ‘the world,’ or humanity as a whole. The point of the trip is not to “say” anything about the world. But rather to visit some faraway places, and listen to as many people as possible. 

In addition to gathering portraits and stories, the purpose of the tour is to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals, which are pictured. The MDG’s are eight international development goals that every member state of the UN agreed we should accomplish by the year 2015. Basically: they’re stuff that everyone can agree the world needs. (More info can be found here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). So in addition to telling stories of individuals, we hope this trip may in some way help to inspire a global perspective, while bringing awareness to the challenges that we all need to tackle together. Hope you enjoy.

“This one is the anxious Mama’s girl, this one is the...

“This one is the anxious Mama’s girl, this one is the independent hippie, and this one is the boss.”

“Up until I was a teenager, I’d been one of his favorites. We...

“Up until I was a teenager, I’d been one of his favorites. We were always playing sports together. But soon after I came to America, we stopped talking. I think there was something missing on both sides. I don’t think I felt loved enough by him. I don’t think he felt that I was grateful enough for all that he’d done for me. A few years ago, I started trying to get in touch. But he’d never return my calls. So one day I just went back to France and knocked on his door. I hadn’t spoken to him in fourteen years. The only reason I knew he still lived there was that his name was on the mailbox. He didn’t even recognize me when he opened the door. He thought I was selling something. He said: ‘Can I help you with something?’ I said: ‘Dad, it’s me. Jimmy.’”
“What were his reasons for not talking to you for fourteen years?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think he was hurt by you?”
“I don’t know. But next time I talk to him, I’m going to say: ‘Some guy in Central Park asked me some questions. And I’m wondering if you could answer them.’”

“I lived in Paris until I was thirteen. Around that age, I began...

“I lived in Paris until I was thirteen. Around that age, I began to fight with my father and stepmom. I’d always tell them that I wished I could move to America to live with my grandmother. One day, my stepmother told me: ‘You always say you want to go live with your grandmother. Well, you’re going to live with her. We bought you a ticket.’ The day I came to America was the most frightening moment of my life. When I landed at the airport, I couldn’t speak any English. I didn’t know how to find my grandmother, and I didn’t know how to get home.”

“I’d like to leave some sort of mark in my field.”“What’s your...

“I’d like to leave some sort of mark in my field.”
“What’s your field?”
“I’m the data manager in the museum bird department. I started in the fish department, then moved to reptiles and amphibians, then just sort of fell into birds.”
“What sort of mark do you hope to leave in the bird data world?”
“Well, in a perfect world, we’d conserve all the lands that needed to be conserved. But as things are, you have to be able to make a really strong argument about what areas are crucial to certain species. I can help the people making those arguments by organizing bird data from the museum’s collection and making it easily accessible to researchers.”

“There has been a lot of evil in the world. But to me, none as...

“There has been a lot of evil in the world. But to me, none as great as slavery. It’s the worst thing that has ever happened. They take you from your home. They take you from your family, your history. They make you work. They tell you when to mate. They chop off your foot if you try to run away. And I’m sorry to say this, but white people did that. And black people are still living with the remnants. For over 200 years, black people built this country and didn’t get a single dollar. And sure, it isn’t happening anymore, but we’re still living with the remnants. We don’t have the same connections, the same powerful friends, the same access to capital. I tell young African Americans that they’ll do just fine, but they’re going to have to work twice as hard. I tell them that they will need to go out of their way to search for their identity. They aren’t going to find much about their heritage in the history books. Even the constitution classifies black people as three-fifths of a man, and that was supposedly written by the most enlightened, glorified white people of that time. I tell young African Americans that they are going to have to dig hard to find out the giant contributions that Africa made to civilization, because they aren’t going to find it on the television. And I tell them that just because it’s a tough road does not excuse them from personal responsibility. I tell them that God put them on earth to build and not destroy. And I tell them that some opportunities cost money, but books are absolutely free.”

“Life is a miracle. It’s not a mystery to me. It’s simple....

“Life is a miracle. It’s not a mystery to me. It’s simple. Humans can shape their environment, but they can’t create anything. All we can do is put together what is here. But I challenge any man to try to make some life. Actually, forget life. I challenge any man to try to conjure up some dirt.”

“Those are my parents. They’ve been married 55 years. They met...

“Those are my parents. They’ve been married 55 years. They met when my dad was visiting Mexico as a young man. He saw my mom at a party, but he couldn’t speak a word of Spanish, so they just sort of looked at each other and giggled. Everything was very formal back then, so he asked a mutual friend to obtain permission for him to contact her. My mom gave my dad her address, and when he went back to America, he would write her a letter every few days. He’d write the entire letter in English, and then get a Spanish dictionary and translate it word by word. My mom says the letters barely made sense. But after he’d written many letters, he went back to Mexico and they went on their first date. There were adult chaperones and everything, they didn’t even kiss or touch. It was all very formal. And after a few dates, they decided to marry. Her family thought she was crazy to marry this weird American who kept writing the letters. But she said she knew he was the one. Get this—- just two years ago, we were all visiting Italy. And I busted the two of them making out in a corner. I snapped a photo. Dad’s got Mom pinned up against a wall and he’s macking her hard.”

“I was driving out into the Mexican desert with a shaman, and we...

“I was driving out into the Mexican desert with a shaman, and we were on our way to a peyote ceremony. We’d just eaten the peyote, and the shaman turned on the radio, and started playing The Talking Heads. He was this little indigenous dude, just banging on the steering wheel and singing along to The Talking Heads at the top of his lungs. I thought we were supposed to be contemplating life, so I said: ‘Are you sure the radio should be on right now? Is that how the ceremony is supposed to work?’ And he said: ‘This is exactly how it’s supposed to work.’ So I just shut up and rolled with it.”

“I’m one of the best tube amplifier technicians in the country.”

“I’m one of the best tube amplifier technicians in the country.”