The project soon evolved, however, when Stanton started having conversations with his subjects and including small quotes and stories alongside his photographs.
In a matter of months, HONY became so popular that when Stanton accidentally updated his Facebook status with just the letter "Q", his post garnered 73 likes within a minute.
In August 2014, Stanton began a 50-day "World Tour" in partnership with the United Nations collecting portraits and stories in twelve countries: Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ukraine, India, Nepal, Vietnam, and Mexico.
[18] During the COVID-19 pandemic Stanton accepted submissions from anyone in the world for the first time, asking his followers for "their most amazing, uplifting stories" to inspire people during the crisis.
[20] Stanton was interviewed ahead of release by Bill Weir for an ABC News Nightline story titled "'Humans of New York': Photo Gone Viral".
Following Hurricane Sandy, Stanton traveled to the hardest-hit neighborhoods in New York City to photograph the residents, volunteers, and first responders who had lived through the destruction.
All of the proceeds went to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a family-run charity that played a major role in the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
[26][27] In 2013, HONY launched another Indiegogo campaign to help news cameraman Duane Watkins and his wife adopt a child from Ethiopia.
[30] In January 2015, Stanton photographed and interviewed a 14-year-old boy from Brownsville, Brooklyn, Vidal Chastanet, who said his greatest influence was his school principal at Mott Hall Bridges Academy, Nadia Lopez.
Stanton used Indiegogo to raise over $1,419,509 in donations from 51,476 contributors that provided Mott Hall students opportunities such as college campus visits, summer programs, and a scholarship fund.
[36] In August 2016, in a photograph series titled, "Invisible Wounds," Stanton featured interviews with American veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[42][43] After learning of the infringement, Stanton publicly asked DKNY to donate US$100,000 in his name to the YMCA chapter in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of New York City.
[43] On August 29, 2017, the documentary Humans of New York: The Series, based on the blog, premiered on Facebook Watch as part of that premium content platform's launch.
[45] Season one included thirteen episodes which ranged from fifteen and twenty-five minutes in length and touched on common themes across the interviews.