Stories That Knocked Me Out

Video by Barry Schwartz

Here’s another set in my occasional series of online stories that knocked me out. A little photo-centric, but not always.

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A photograph is not evidence of the truth, rather, an interpretation, even though over time that interpretation becomes so embedded it seems indistinguishable from the truth. It helps to hve more than one photographer document the scene to know what really happened. By Michael Shaw in The New York Times Magazine.

The True Story Behind an Iconic Vietnam War Photo
Was Nearly Erased — Until Now
A celebrated book and a major museum exhibition revealed the harrowing tale behind the image of a wounded Marine. Their version was wrong.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/19/magazine/vietnam-war-photo-wounded-marine.html

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In a long and beautiful remembrance, as much about the South as art, “Michael Adno admired no artist’s work more than Alabama’s William Christenberry. And after Christenberry died in late 2016 at 80, Adno retraced his footsteps through west-central Alabama. Today, read through a two-year journey with Christenberry’s family and friends, recounting how he made a record of his native Hale County and what that ultimately meant outside the South.” By Michael Adno in the Bitter Southerner.

William Christenberry – Once It Comes Time

https://bittersoutherner.com/once-it-comes-time-william-christenberry-southern-photography

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Asking questions in professional contexts is never easy, but it can be more like a conversation than an interrogation, becoming a better experience on both sides. Journalists do this all the time, and there are a range of techniques that work for anyone. By Solutions Journalism in The Whole Story.

22 Questions that ‘Complicate the Narrative’

https://thewholestory.solutionsjournalism.org/22-questions-that-complicate-the-narrative-47f2649efa0e

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Freelancers all face the same challenges, including learning first hand about the myths of freelancing. “You can find plenty of positive things online about being your own boss, and we all know someone who says going freelance was the best decision they’ve ever made. With this article, we want to give you a more realistic view of this often glorified way of living.” By Rosa Koolhoven from Vanchneider.com.

The Downsides of Freelancing

https://www.vanschneider.com/the-downsides-of-freelancing

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Hugh Magnum was a traveling photographer during the early 20th Century whose photos, while forgotten and buried in a barn and chicken coop for almost a century, are remarkably contemporary. From the article: “’Through Mangum’s eyes, we see a diverse citizenry, and we see them depicted with democratic equanimity on the same glass plate negative in side-by-side portraits, which suggests that they waited their turn together, in the same studio at the same time,’ Margaret Sartor, an instructor at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, told Hyperallergic.” By Allison Meier in Hyperallergic.

An Itinerant Photographer’s Diverse Portraits
of the Turn-of-the-Century American South

www.hyperallergic.com/480842/an-itinerant-photographers-diverse-portraits-of-the-turn-of-the-century-american-south

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The world of art galleries looks like a cloistered clubhouse, closed to outsiders. It may well be cloistered, but it is also, and mostly, a business, easier to understand than to enter. Two writers have authored a book that explains it all, and have published a condensed version as a brief article. By Edward Winkelman and Patton Hindle in Artsy.

A Brief History of Art Dealing

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-history-art-dealing

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Sarah Meister is a curator in the New York Museum of Modern Art Photography Department. In an audio interview, Meister pulls back the curtain on what curators actually do, the culture of museums, and the relations they have with collectors, photographers, and other institutions. Interview by Jordan Weissmann

How Does a Museum Curator Do Her Job?
Meet Sarah Meister, a curator in MoMA’s
department of photography.

https://slate.com/business/2018/11/sarah-meister-curator-momas-department-photography.html

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a constant concern, worry, and obsession for anyone who wants to be found on the internet. How does Google rank us? How easily can we be found? What are the dangers of doing it wrong? What is Google thinking? HubSpot examines 22 SEO myths about what’s true and what’s not. By HubSpot, as a downloadable PDF.

22 SEO MYTHS You Should Leave Behind in 2019

https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/22%20SEO%20Myths%20to%20Leave%20Behind%20in%202019.pdf

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What does the music industry have in common with other creative endeavors? The music industry recently had a major victory in Congress in the quest for musicians to be fairly paid in the form of the Music Modernization Act. That victory was the result of all kinds of stakeholders working together for a single goal, and it worked. Those results could be replicated by others, if they work together. Michael Huppe, the president and CEO of SoundExchange wrote a piece about the power of working together in Variety.

Music Modernization Act Was Verse One,
the Rest of the Song Is Yet to Be Written

www.variety.com/2018/biz/news/music-modernization-act-verse-one-guest-post-1203006780/

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Along these same lines, the passage of the Music Modernization Act has put into law the ability to set up a rights clearinghouse for music creators – an endeavor that other creators could also benefit from, as a proof-of-concept for managing licensing and rights payments. Billboard magazine has an Op-Ed by The Open Music Initiative, launched by the Berklee School of Music and the MIT Media Lab, who have already begun work on a non-profit, open-source project to manage all that information, potentially unlocking trillions of dollars of fees to go to creators.

Why Success of the Music Modernization Act
Depends on Open Standards

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8482056/mma-op-ed-open-music-initiative-open-standards