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AP: What's your biggest struggle right now?
STANTON: I'm a single content producer of a blog seen by millions of people. I don't want to mess it up and I don't want to lose it. So it's always on my mind. My greatest struggle is hanging out with friends, family and my girlfriend, and being present.
AP: What advice would you give a large group of people?
STANTON: Don't wait for the perfect moment. Humans of New York, when I started it, was nothing like it is now. ... It didn't emerge from me thinking a fully formed idea and executing it. It emerged from me tinkering and working and evolving. So many people wait until the pieces are in place to start, and often that moment never comes.
AP: In 2011, the AP wrote a story about your plan to take a visual census of 10,000 New Yorkers. What happened to that project?
STANTON: HONY's evolved so much. It's so different from when you guys wrote that first article. It used to be a photography blog. I can't call it that any more. It's a storytelling blog. Before, I was visually responding to the street. I wasn't looking for anything in particular. Now I look for someone sitting alone. I look for people who are approachable.
AP: What was your happiest moment?
STANTON: That (AP) story was written after six months of obsessively doing this all day, every day, walking thousands of miles and taking thousands of portraits and I really hadn't been able to get any traction or develop an audience. After that article was written, my Facebook fans jumped from 220 to 770. ... I remember going to sleep that night the happiest man in the world. After all that struggle, I finally thought it was going to work.
AP: As HONY grew, so did comments mocking or insulting the people you photographed. You finally told readers "the right to free speech does not apply here." What happens to negative comments now?
STANTON: My assistants delete, ban, delete, ban.
AP: You often photograph homeless people and people with disabilities. Does anyone complain about being a poster child?
STANTON: I've gotten some great portraits. I've also been cussed out. I just have to approach everybody the same way and keep my intentions clear. ... If somebody asks me to take their picture down, I do it.
AP: What's the most shocking thing that's happened to you?
STANTON: My fans trend young and they trend female, but one night I was in Bryant Park and there was this man, about 70, sitting alone on a computer. I took his photo and said I run a site called Humans of New York. Then he flipped his computer around. He'd been looking at it.
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