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Within months of incorporating in 1990, Photo Friends sponsored
the Library's “Shades of L. A.: A Search for Visual Ethnic
History.” During the six-year project, with the help of
library staff and hundreds of volunteers, Photo Friends copied
10,000 photographs from family albums in Los Angeles to broaden
the Photograph Collection’s representation of ethnicities
in the city. Exhibits were displayed in the Los Angeles Public
Library's Central Library and many branch libraries throughout
the city. A book, entitled Shades of L. A.: Pictures from
Ethnic Family Albums, was published by The New Press.
The "Shades of L. A." archive at the Los Angeles Public
Library represents a wide range of Los Angeles families--including
African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans and other
Latinos, urban American Indians, Jews, Armenians, families of
Middle Eastern descent (including Arabs, Israelis, Turks, and
Iranians), families of European descent, people of mixed race
and ethnicity, and people who do not identify with any ethnic
group.
In 1997, "Shades of California" was created. It was
modeled on the Los Angeles Public Library's "Shades of L.
A." Sponsored by the California State Library and with assistance
from the L.A.P.L. Photo Friends, "Shades of California"
held photo days at public libraries throughout the state where
people were invited to share their family albums. The host libraries
archived the images copied from the albums and sent an additional
set to the California State Library. This project model is still
being used today by libraries throughout the nation!
The "Shades" projects have also been featured on L.
A.'s public television station, KCET. In 2003, Huell Howser, who
originally suggested that "Shades of L. A." be expanded
throughout the state, produced an hour-long
"Shades of California" program, based on a photo
day in the L. A. neighborhood of Cypress Park. The KCET Web site
also includes "Shades of L. A." in their Web stories
on rites of passage.
For additional information about the "Shades of L. A."
or "Shades of California" projects, or to view more
images:
View over 7,000 images from the Shades of L. A. project on the
Library's Web site: www.lapl.org.
Shades of L. A.: Pictures From Ethnic Family Albums
Carolyn Kozo Cole and Kathy Kobayashi
New York: The New Press: Distributed by W. W. Norton, c1996
Shades
of California: The Hidden Beauty of Ordinary Life: California's
Family Album
Edited by Kimi Kodani Hill; introduction by Robert Daseler;
afterword by Carolyn Kozo Cole and Kathy Kobayashi
Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, c2001
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