By Shen Gao
Contributing Writer

Most of you are probably familiar with the popular photo blogs “Portraits of Boston” and “Humans of New York” (and probably follow them on their various social networks). Well, for those of you who are unfamiliar, I’m sure you’ll grow to like them as much as the rest of us do after reading this.

“Portraits of Boston” features photographs of random Bostonians on the streets of Boston. These photographs typically go along with short quotes or stories of the subjects who are in the pictures.

Similarly, Humans of New York (otherwise known as HONY) creates portraits depicting individual New Yorkers who go about their daily lives in the city. Accompanying these photographs and also snippets of quotes or stories that the photographer found interesting about the lives of his subjects.

Recently, the photographers of both photo blogs have taken on various journeys outside of their typical geographical areas of interest.

The creator of “Portraits of Boston,” Ivan Velinov, decided to spend time traveling in order to expand his horizons as well as to better manage his blog. Since, September, he has traveled all across the country. Velinov has set foot in various states such as Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Maine.

The photographer has also changed the name of his photo blog to “Portraits of America” in order to accommodate for the diverse population from which his portraits are taken.

Like Velinov, the creator of “Humans of New York,” Brandon Stanton, has also taken on a bigger project–one that would prove to be global.

Stanton traveled for 50 days across the globe on a tour sponsored by the U.N. He visited the dangerous streets and war zones of many countries, collecting quotes of individuals who shared the most unique, saddening, and/or eye-opening stories.

He has also visited countries that are relatively more peaceful. The countries including: Iraq, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ukraine, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Mexico, and Jerusalem.

Go to facebook.com/PortraitsofAmerica and facebook.com/HumansofNewYork to check them out if you haven’t already!