The real charm of anonymous street photography account Humans of New York is the way it gets followers talking.
Photographer Brandon Stanton presents audiences with a face and a few details about his or her life, leaving viewers to make a judgement about what they see.
Case in point: Yesterday, Humans of New York uploaded a photo of a young woman smiling in full graduation regalia.
The caption simply reads,
I'm an illegal immigrant.
On both Instagram and Facebook, commenters turned out in support of the young woman's achievements.
Some took the statement at face value, assuming she put herself through college purely on her own dime.
Others interpreted the photo's caption as a joke, inferring the woman's student visa ran out.
Stanton's photo clearly hit a nerve with viewers, prompting more than 350,000 likes on Facebook and 208,000 on Instagram.
To be sure, the post had plenty of negative reactions.
Many thought the post was a misinterpreted joke.
But overwhelmingly, Humans of New York fans sent support and goodwill to the young woman in the picture.
Citations: Humans Of New York Posted An Undocumented Teen At Graduation And The Responses Were Amazing (BuzzFeed)
