Humans of New York‘s Brandon Stanton has published his first interview from his time in Australia earlier this year, and it’s with a lil’ Bondi nipper.
“I do lifesaving training every weekend,” says the girl, published on the HONY Instagram / Facebook pages. “Sometimes we have races where we have to paddle out to buoys in the middle of the ocean. There was one really tough race a few weeks ago. The ocean was messy like today but the waves were even bigger. And there were lots of bluebottles. Those are like jellyfish but worse.”
You have to wonder just how baffled Brandon was by the entire first half of this conversation.
The interview continues: “My dad said that I didn’t have to race, and half of the competitors dropped out, but I chose to do it anyway because I wanted to prove that I could be a lifeguard. On the outside I was ready to go but on the inside I was really nervous. Once the race started, some of the girls turned back because the waves were so big, and others were nose-diving and falling off their boards. But I made it all the way to the end and got fourth place. Everyone was congratulating me because fourth place is huge for me.”
It’s Brandon’s first published interview with an Aussie since he came out in February to give a talk at the Sydney Opera House, so who knows where his travels and his camera took him. It would be absolutely wild if his trademark interview style shined a light on the darker underbellies of this country to the world, but TBD.
His work has taken him all around the world, from the front lines of the global refugee crisis to the Oval Office and inside the glitzy Met Gala.
Most recently, he’s been publishing interviews from his time in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and – perhaps most importantly – with Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar.
