Photo Stories Archives - Maureen Taylor https://maureentaylor.com/category/photo-stories/ The Photo Detective Wed, 29 Jan 2025 21:55:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://maureentaylor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/cropped-site-icon-32x32.png Photo Stories Archives - Maureen Taylor https://maureentaylor.com/category/photo-stories/ 32 32 99869351 Episode 258: Exploring Project Kin: Barbara Tien’s Community for Storytellers and Genealogists https://maureentaylor.com/episode-258-exploring-project-kin-barbara-tiens-community-for-storytellers-and-genealogists/ Sun, 02 Feb 2025 05:05:29 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=83043     Barbara Tien discusses her role as the “ringleader” of Project Kin on the Photo Detective podcast. After her startup, Ponga, shut down, Tien decided to keep her team together and transitioned to creating Project Kin, a community focused on storytelling and family history without any financial gain. She emphasizes the platform’s global reach, […]

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Barbara Tien discusses her role as the “ringleader” of Project Kin on the Photo Detective podcast. After her startup, Ponga, shut down, Tien decided to keep her team together and transitioned to creating Project Kin, a community focused on storytelling and family history without any financial gain. She emphasizes the platform’s global reach, privacy importance, and its emphasis on story preservation and sharing. The platform is built on a foundation of helping members tell their own family stories, with tools and support provided for free. Tien also touches on her previous use of Substack to enhance community engagement.

  • Project Kin fosters a community centered on storytelling and family history.
  • It’s a non-profit initiative with a global outreach, particularly across English-speaking countries.
  • Tien emphasizes privacy and the preservation of family stories in digital and physical forms.
  • Project Kin offers regular events and resources to help members document and share their stories effectively.

Episode 237: How Storied.com Transforms Family HIstory into Captivating Stories

Episode 240: The Hidden Stories of Tattooing: Dr. Matt Lodder on Tattoos in Photography and Society

About My Guest:

Barbara is the “ringleader” at Projectkin, a community of family historians hooked on stories. After a career in technology startups, she turned her long-time love of family history into a free, platform-independent community that encourages families to tell their stories. Through free events, tools, and articles, community members share creative inspiration, tips, and proven “recipes” for storytelling projects.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others.   Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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]]> 83043 Episode 218:The Encyclopedia of Things with Creator Elisabeth Smolarz https://maureentaylor.com/episode-218the-encyclopedia-of-things-with-creator-elisabeth-smolarz/ Sun, 22 Oct 2023 14:36:47 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=74542     This week on the podcast, Maureen is joined by Elisabeth Smolarz, who created the Encyclopedia of Things. They discuss the items that define our lives and why we keep them.  Related Episodes: Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App Episode 180: Photos, Memories, and English Genealogy with Emma Jolly   Links: […]

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This week on the podcast, Maureen is joined by Elisabeth Smolarz, who created the Encyclopedia of Things. They discuss the items that define our lives and why we keep them. 

Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App

Episode 180: Photos, Memories, and English Genealogy with Emma Jolly

 

Links:

About My Guest:

Elisabeth Smolarz was born in Poland and emigrated to Germany as a teenager. She creates photography, video, and social interactions investigating how consciousness, perception, identity, and value are formed by one’s cultural milieu.

Smolarz has exhibited her work nationally and internationally for two decades. Her most recent solo exhibition, the “Encyclopedia of Things,” was presented at the Morgan Lehman Gallery resulting from a multi-year project supported by National Endowment for the Arts; the Queens Council on the Arts; and the City Artist Corps Grants program, and featured on PBS on 03/14/20. The German publisher Spector Books published a monograph with a selection of 120 portraits from the “Encyclopedia of Things” in the summer of 2022. The monograph was reviewed by Brooklyn Rail this Spring. Additionally, her work has been presented in venues including The Bronx Museum of Art, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, EYEBEAM Center for Art + Technology, Lesley Heller Gallery, NARS Foundation, The Sculpture Center, Smack Mellon, The Queens Museum of Art, and Wave Hill, all New York City; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland; Oberwelt e.V Stuttgart, Germany; Baden Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany; Photography Triennial Esslingen, Germany; Independent Museum of Contemporary Art, Cyprus; Reykjavik Photography Museum, Iceland; Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló, Spain; the Moscow Biennale, and others.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others.   Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

 

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]]> 74542 Episode 208: The Family Photo Detective https://maureentaylor.com/episode-208-telling-family-history-with-objects/ Sun, 21 May 2023 16:00:54 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=73739   This week on the podcast, Maureen is doing a solo episode! This episode is an intimate look at Maureen’s life and behind-the-scenes of how she became The Photo Detective.  Additionally, Maureen details her journey over the past year as she’s updated her book Family Photo Detective, from getting the publishing rights to going through […]

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This week on the podcast, Maureen is doing a solo episode! This episode is an intimate look at Maureen’s life and behind-the-scenes of how she became The Photo Detective. 

Additionally, Maureen details her journey over the past year as she’s updated her book Family Photo Detective, from getting the publishing rights to going through to update all links and book sources to how the republishing of the updated edition has helped her continue in the work she’s always set out to do: help families understand more about where they come from through photographs and images.

Family Photo Detective, the updated version for 2023, is available now at MaureenTaylor.com, right on the homepage. 

Episode 204: Many Shades of Blue: Cyanotypes  

Episode 195: Imperfect History with Curator Sarah Weatherwax 

 

 

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others.   Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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]]> 73739 Episode 196: Early Color Photos and More: American Museum of Photography™ https://maureentaylor.com/episode-196-early-color-photos-and-more-american-museum-of-photography/ Sun, 13 Nov 2022 05:01:00 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=72778 This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Bill Becker, who is the curator of The American Museum of Photography, as well as an award-winning author, and Emmy-award winner for his writing and production work.  The two discuss the importance of imagery, storytelling, and preservation through images. Related Episodes: Episode 173: Cabinet Cards […]

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This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Bill Becker, who is the curator of The American Museum of Photography, as well as an award-winning author, and Emmy-award winner for his writing and production work. 

The two discuss the importance of imagery, storytelling, and preservation through images.

Episode 173: Cabinet Cards of Broadway and Silver Screen Stars

Episode 167: Victorian Photo Studio Secrets

About My Guest:

Undeterred by a New York Times report confirming an alarming national shortage of Museum Directors, Wm. B. Becker blithely tackled the job of establishing The American Museum of Photography™. A noted historian of photography whose research has been published in American Heritage, History of Photography: An International Quarterly, and other forums, Bill Becker is also a television producer and writer whose work has been honored with four EMMY® awards. He is the author of Brady of Broadway, a one-man play about the photographer Mathew Brady that’s been performed at the Smithsonian Institution and other venues.

The American Museum of Photography™ is “A Museum Without Walls…for an Art Without Boundaries.” Its predecessor, Photography’s Beginnings: A Visual History, made its debut on the World Wide Web on May 25, 1996.

About The Museum

The American Museum of Photography is an award-winning Virtual Museum dedicated to educating, informing, and sharing great photographs with millions of visitors world-wide. Exhibitions are drawn from the Museum’s Collection, started by Wm. B. Becker more than 35 years ago. The Collection includes five thousand individual images, from the earliest daguerreotype portraits to the work of Ansel Adams. Each photograph has been chosen for its visual impact as well as for the importance of its content.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada.   She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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]]> 72778 Episode 194: Biograph: A Facebook Alternative with Co-founder Dr. Aaron Greenberg https://maureentaylor.com/episode-194-biograph-a-facebook-alternative-with-co-founder-dr-aaron-greenberg/ Sun, 23 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=72637 This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Aaron Greenburg, who is the co-founder of Biograph, a platform that reinvents the way we tell stories. The two discuss the art of storytelling, how to share those stories, and how Biograph can help.  Related Episodes: Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com […]

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This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Aaron Greenburg, who is the co-founder of Biograph, a platform that reinvents the way we tell stories. The two discuss the art of storytelling, how to share those stories, and how Biograph can help. 

Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App

Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory

About My Guest:

Dr. Aaron Greenberg co-founded Biograph, a storytelling technology company that has published dozens of books for families and entrepreneurs. He has served on the Core Faculty of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Bioethics Clinical Scholars Program and is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada.  She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira).  She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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