New York City is populated with millions of people that each serve as an essential piece of the city's eclectic pie. The Big Apple's offering of unique and diverse individuals is arguably unmatched. We always hear about what a melting pot this immense metropolis is with its endless supply of quirky characters and the ongoing photo series known as Humans of New York proves it.

Photographer Brandon Stanton, who originally hails from Georgia, first began HONY in 2010 as a personal project to capture portraits of 10,000 faces; a sort of photographic census of the city that never sleeps. After losing his job as a bonds trader in Chicago, he up and set out for New York City, settling in Brooklyn. He's been taking pictures of people on the streets ever since. The diversity in race, religion, socioeconomic background, and fashion is immeasurable and entirely fascinating. Looking through the thousands upon thousands of photos from the ever-growing collection gives the impression of a world-traveling photographer, but it's just Stanton in New York City.