Humans of Paris

Summary

The third most visited city in the world, Paris is, for tourists, more than ever the capital of romance. But what do we really know of its inhabitants? Three years ago, a young Parisian, Marco Hazan, went with some friends in search of their hundreds of thousands neighbors they encounter every day. On their Facebook page they have posted every day the portrait of unknown Parisians, photographed after meeting them at random in the city. Pensioners, students, workers, couples and singles, each agreed to share with Marco a story or an anecdote about his city. Touching, surprising, curious, strong, singular and, when everything is said and done, familiar, the 450 portraits of Parisians gathered in this edition reveal a city unique and diverse at the same time, warm, awake, sensitive and dynamic, more welcoming, lively and seductive that can be read elsewhere.

The author’s word

“At 16, I discovered the concept of “Humans of New York”, created by Brandon Stanton, and I loved the idea. In turn, I began to do a Parisian version of the portraits of the inhabitants of my city and posted them daily on Facebook. Gradually, more than 250,000 people around the world connected to “Humans of Paris” to view my pictures and read the short stories that accompany them. Three years later, I wanted to make this a concrete reality by editing a book. With it, I would like to share in a more intense and lasting way my discovery of unexpected and wonderful destinies. “

The publisher’s word

Marco’s project is at the crossroads of two worlds: the classical world, that of a well-known Paris, already explored, comforting, rich and proud of its secular history, and the digital world which shows a Paris that is before anything human, multiple, alive, amazing, new, that evolves because it looks to the future with gusto. With Humans of Paris, we take the best of both worlds : benefit from the digital to publish with short runs a beautiful book supported by a caring and active international community through crowdfunding; and showcase a classic city with its residents, happy to live or work there. Paris makes people dream worldwide with its lifestyle, its history and its beautiful places. It was time to know those who wander it, animate and improve it, day after day. What if we made several volumes out of it ?

You can also visit the Facebook page of the project and the dedicated Humans of Paris website.