Submissions tell a story. Often, however, what is not submitted is more telling. For example, there were no photos showing children taken to foster homes, battered or abandoned women in shelters, AIDS victims, the homeless or unemployed, or the Arab man making a living at the gas pump. What we have in the archives mostly reflects a distilled picture without blemishesan idealized community full of dreams, hopes, aspirations, accomplishments, history, art. Others projected dreams and hopes in the new homeland.
Most portraits reflect pride and memory from the homeland.
This raises the question of the inclusion and exclusion of groups within the project s definition of Middle Eastern. Less obvious, but equally integral, are Middle Eastern Christians, a uniquely significant religious group representing the oldest and most original forms of the Christian church. Middle Eastern Jews, Muslims and Christians all can be defined by faith and identity. These questions are raised because the Los Angeles Public Library photo project has launched a successful project. Subjectivity now submits to objective analysis and ethnic memory has joined the national treasure.