'Humans of New York' at Harvard

In the wake of Monday's Boston Marathon bombings, Brandon Stanton, photographer and creator of the popular "Humans of New York" blog, has brought his camera and his humanistic approach to Boston for the week.

Today, Stanton crossed the river and came to Cambridge, where he spent time taking photographs in and around Harvard Square (including this one featuring John Harvard's foot).

"With all the news centering around the bombing, I thought I'd focus on portraying normal life in Boston," Stanton wrote in an email. "Obviously Harvard is a big part of that. I very much enjoyed my visit to Cambridge today. [I] had some great conversations and met a lot of great people."

One photo from today's visit, which already has more Facebook "likes" than there are Harvard undergraduates, features Paul Lisker '16 looking down at Harvard Yard from the deck of the Science Center Observatory.

When Lisker—who hails from St. Louis, Mo. but is a longtime fan of the "HONY" blog—heard that Stanton was heading to Boston, he emailed him, inviting the photographer to Harvard's campus and volunteering himself as a tour guide. The two met up Wednesday morning and walked around Harvard Square while Stanton worked.

"The way that he sees people—which is that everyone has a story and everyone has secrets, if you're willing to approach [them] and willing to learn about their past—there's always the potential to find something unique," Lisker said of Stanton. "Ultimately that is what makes him such a popular photographer."

As for the experience of being featured in one of Stanton's iconic photographs, Lisker said, "It's very much my Warhol-type 15 minutes of fame."