Spotlight on Photography: Arabs In America

March/April 1975

In 1975 AramcoWorld dedicated an entire issue to celebrating the lives of Arab Americans and their impact—from renowned heart surgeon Michael DeBakey to White House correspondent Helen Thomas to entertainer and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital founder Danny Thomas. 

AramcoWorld deployed Robert Azzi, an Arab American himself, to tell the story through his photography.

“There were so many existing stereotypes over what Arabs and Muslims and Middle Easterners look like, how they lived, how they educated their children, what their lifestyles are,” Azzi said. 

In this picture, Azzi simply posed George Coury and his wife, Amelia, by the side of their pool in Coral Gables, Florida. George had worked up from brokerage assistant to the first Arab American member of the New York Stock Exchange.

“I think what I’m saying in this picture [is] these people are just like you and me—the same ambitions, the same considerations, the same courtesy, the same hospitality,” Azzi said. 

“It reflected who they were, I thought, as people. It’s easy to show people behind a desk as being a successful businessman, but it doesn’t show about how they perceive themselves as being part of a community or part of a society.

“And here they have the American dream.”