What I’m Reading
April 26, 2022
What I’m Reading returns with findings from my recent readings. I’ll start with a conversation about the life and work of a photographer who can fuel your inspiration. Then, it’s time to consider a story about the Ukraine war that covers an angle I’ve not seen covered before; climate change. I’ll send you on your way with a short media literacy article that provides ample food for thought.
Remembering the life and work of Stanley Greene
I recently had a chance to watch a conversation I had saved to my reading list for a while. “Remembering Stanley Greene” is an almost two-hour-long video published by the NOOR photo agency.
Greene, a founding member of NOOR, covered some of the most memorable events of the late 20th and early 21st century. From the fall of the Berlin wall and the 1993 coup attempt against then Russian president Boris Yeltsin to the famine in Sudan, the war in Chechnya, and a project dedicated to the lasting impact of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
If you decide to watch — or skim through this special online event at least — you’ll be greeted by the late Mr. Greene (he died in 2017). The audio might be a bit poorly, but you’ll still find value and inspiration in his words on photography, his roots in music and painting, and being guided into the world of photojournalism by W. Eugene Smith.
Teun Van der Heijden, a graphic designer who worked with Greene on several book projects, follows up with a more extensive introduction of the photographer and person Stanley Greene.
After that, there’s an extensive discussion with friends and colleagues, who share impressions of their friend and the work that remains.
At times, it’s a bit challenging putting names to faces because that info is not presented in the video and there’s a great variety in voices. But I found immense value in this video nonetheless.
Even if you don’t want to follow along for the full two hours, I highly recommend you spend some time with it and get to know a fascinating photographer through the words of his friends and the pictures connected to their memories. And there’s another brief sequence at the 45:40 mark, where Greene speaks personally on a project about the effects of climate change on life in Greenland.
Climate Change & the war in Ukraine
“Ukraine is a climate story. Because everything is a climate story” is a Los Angeles Times story I stumbled upon. Writer Sammy Roth picked a unique angle for the Ukraine conflict. It immediately grabbed my attention, and I believe it’s a read worth your time, even if you feel overwhelmed by the news about this conflict already.
After a curious movie analogy as an opener that makes an interesting point about how to approach climate change, Roth outlines the Russian gas and oil dependencies and the chance to “advance clean energy while combating Putin.”
He discusses various paths out of said dependencies and ends with the strong message that “climate change touches every aspect of modern life.”
It’s a very important read that I highly recommend. You’ll also find a list of current impacts of climate change at the end, a list that leaves you with further reading material as well as thinking material.
Journalism & Society
Nieman Lab’s “Conservatives’ mistrust of media is rooted in the feeling journalists want to ostracize them” is a fascinating read for anyone interested in quality journalism.
Anthony Nadler and Doron Taussig conducted interviews to understand the origins of mistrust and hostility toward the press among American conservatives. They ventured into this research project despite objections against such work because they identified a problem with implications for our way of life and wanted to understand it.
That problem is that a part of society (conservatives) feels alienated from journalism. A problem indeed, “in a society where people are supposed to govern themselves using shared information,” as they put it.
The authors link to the research paper that stands at the end of the project. For their project, they interviewed 25 self-identified conservatives from around Philadelphia about the coverage of the pandemic.
The findings are cause for concern. It’s not the anger and animosity that made me stop (that did not come as much of a surprise), it’s the cause of such feelings that did. Their interviewees felt the American press excluded them from the conversation.
A critical look at how justified those views are seems to be in order, especially since they “appeared deeply felt,” as the writers put it.
A highly important read, because it suggests that high journalistic work standards, such as a focus on accuracy and fairness, might not be sufficient to make people trust. The skepticism is simply too great. Change is needed, the authors conclude, but it needs new approaches to win people’s trust.
Whether the situation is the media’s fault or not, journalism can only serve its purpose if people have trust in the institution. That’s the bottom line that we all should take to heart. It’s a read that delivers food for thought, and it’s a great way to end today’s list of recommendations.
Next week, I’ll have more reading recommendations from the world of journalism. And I’ll finally start that series on all things journalism, photography, and writing I mentioned in previous posts.
