By Debora Almeida, News Correspondent 

Brandon Stanton, photographer of the blog Humans of New York (HONY), told a crowd of students in the Blackman Auditorium that he hates his high-pitched voice, but that voice was the key to unraveling thousands of New Yorkers’ stories.

On Jan. 23, Northeastern’s National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) concluded their annual Give5 Week of Action with a presentation and book signing by Stanton. The week consisted of several programs like trivia night, a health awareness fair, a volunteering opportunity at the Greater Boston Food Bank, a dance-a-thon and more.

According to NRHH’s Facebook, the week is dedicated to encouraging students to Give5 seconds, minutes, hours, cents, dollars and more to a worthy cause. Each year, the week has a theme – this year’s was urban diversity.

“When we settled on the theme last fall, only one name came to mind and that was Brandon Stanton,” Nick Viviano, a sophomore political science

major and member of the NRHH executive board, said.

Viviano said that the NRHH appreciated the array of diversity on Stanton’s blog. The people featured are an accurate depiction of a city, whether it be New York or Boston.

When Stanton realized selling bonds in Chicago was not what he wanted for his life, he bought a camera and moved around from city to city taking pictures. Stanton joked that he was so bad at selling bonds that he only managed to afford the camera because he won a football bet. He said he had a hard time supporting himself while he pursued his photography hobby. Once he arrived in New York, he decided to stay and center his blog on the city.

Stanton described the progression of the blog only featuring pictures to focusing on each individual’s story. He interviews his subject to pinpoint their perspective and places their quotes below their picture. In three-and-a-half years, Stanton has not missed one day of uploads and averages six blog posts per day, he said.

He revealed that short videos might be appearing soon on the blog. For the first time, Stanton told the crowd that he hopes to take his blog to other cities, mainly international ones. He also disclosed that he would then remove the “of New York” and rename his blog Humans.

During the event, Stanton asked for two volunteers from the crowd to demonstrate his photography approach. He claimed his rejection rate decreased as he made his demeanor less intimidating by raising the pitch of his voice and slouching. Stanton demonstrated how just by asking a few simple questions he could get something intimate and special from his subject. His first volunteer told a story about how her mother endured through a debilitating disease.

Stanton liked this new idea so much that he invited another volunteer to the stage. The second volunteer shared a story of her anxiety and of her first date with her boyfriend.

“I laid my head on his shoulder, because why not?” the second volunteer said of her boyfriend.

“That’s 75,000 likes on Facebook,” Stanton said.

Students clapped in response to Stanton’s reaction.

“Brandon is so genuine,” Michelle Yang, freshman political science major, said. “He essentially does this all on his own and then comes out here at talks to all of us like we are old friends. His success is definitely deserved.”

Stanton credited the lack of any attached meaning to the blog. He said he simply allows the person to speak with their own words while he provides a neutral platform for them to do so.

At the end of the event, there was a long line students formed to get their copies of “Humans of New York” signed by Stanton. His book  just celebrated its 13th consecutive week on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

“My cousin couldn’t get a ticket,” Tempe Staples, a freshman global studies major at Hofstra University, who came to the event as a plus one, said. “She gave me her book and a letter she wrote for him. She owes me big time for waiting in this line.

Despite having nearly 2.7 million fans on Facebook, Stanton said he is still humbly surprised at his success.

“I didn’t think anyone would come see me in Boston, so I’m glad we sold out,” he said.