More Information
Collection Context
Between 1945 and 1997, Studio Photo Jack, located in Tripoli and owned by Agop Kouyoumjian (1921-2002), documented the Tal Square’s belle epoque. The Photo Jack collection, acquired in 2003 by the Arab Image Foundation (AIF) is made up of 1225 uncut 35mm negative film rolls in 5 wooden drawers and 98 negative sheet film albums. The rolls of 35 mm negative film were preserved uncut by the Studio, each carefully placed in a cardboard package made for a 120 mm roll that was halved to accommodate the 35mm film. Studio Photo Jack covered various social, cultural and religious occasions but were mostly deployed in Tal Square to do “Photo Surprise”, a practice that was common in the Middle East between the 1940s and 1960s. They walked around the public square photographing pedestrians, some posing and others caught candidly in their stride. They then invite their subjects to return to the studio to purchase and collect their photographs.
Browse The Photo Surprise Archive of Photo Jack digital collection(opens in a new tab). The collection was digitized by the AIF with a grant from MEAP.
Classroom Activity
Activity: Annotate primary source photographs. We used the Storiiies viewer to demonstrate an easy annotation exercise using photographs like those in the Photo Jack Collection [during the Academic tech Expo '23 at UCLA]. Follow this link to see our sample image(opens in a new tab) and read the annotations workshop participants added. Zoom in by yourself to view details.
Tip: you can click the eyeball to remove captions, click again to return them. As annotations are added, you can refresh this screen to view them.
Objective: Use annotations to facilitate close visual analysis of photographic material.
Create your own assignment:
- To create your own Storiiies activity, go to https://storiiies-editor.cogap...
- Choose a photograph or other visual object from the MEAP collection to use in class. We recommend selecting an image with both visual interest and contextual import.
- Upload a photograph by first downloading the image from the MEAP site or by using the IIIF link found on each MEAP item level record. (Click on the IIIF logo to the right side underneath the object. Copy the URL and paste into the IIIF Manifest field.)
- Click the Edit story button
Instructions: Help students engage with primary sources by asking them to do the following
- Ask students to look at the object closely and consider one interesting detail.
- They should ask themselves: How does this object relate to (or change your thinking about) X course topic/theme/reading?
- Then, zoom to any detail of the image you would like to annotate
- Click Add new (+)
- Type in your annotation in the following format [with ALL of these elements]:
- Title [make sure to capitalize]
- [hit return twice for a line space]
- observation [describe what you see]
- interpretation [what do you think it means?]
- [hit return once for a line break]
- -Your Name [use a dash, and add your name as you would like it to appear]
Interested in using MEAP collections in your classroom?
If you'd like to use MEAP collections for your current or future courses but aren't sure what to do next, please write to us. We're always happy to discuss possibilities and to share information with prospective users. The MEAP team is available at meap@library.ucla.edu.