In a grand gesture, Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind Humans of New York—has transformed Grand Central station into an immersive gallery titled Dear New York. Earlier this month, the installation replaced all commercial signage with gigantic portraits, stories, and projections drawn from Stanton’s archive of city life.
Stanton, who has collected over 10,000 portraits and narratives since launching Humans of New York in 2010, describes the project as “a love letter to the people of this city.” The takeover is total: 50-foot projections dominate the Main Concourse, while smaller portraits and quotes fill underground corridors in place of ads and transit boards. Remarkably, it marks the first time in recent memory that Grand Central is completely free of ads, a feat Stanton personally funded using earnings from his decade-long project.
Creative direction came from David Korins and Andrea A. Trabucco-Campos, who helped translate the heartfelt archive into a spatially resonant experience. Complementing the portraits, the installation includes a gallery featuring works from 600 New York City public school students, installed in Vanderbilt Hall to foreground youth voices.
As about 750,000 commuters pass through the terminal daily, they now traverse a space reoriented not around branding, but around shared humanity.
