Check out this interesting video on how life has changed in the Middle East over the past 58 years. Colbert Held is a former United States Foreign Service officer who has amassed a photo collection spanning 48 years and 17 countries. He did so to have a detailed, photographic record of all the landscapes he visited, a complete geographical archive of his own. What's particular about his collection is that it captured the Middle Eastern history that escaped documentation. Viewed now, photographs from the past reveal an evolution from an "older" way of living to modernity—or a look back to better times pulverized by current wars. Filmed by Jennifer Smart in collaboration with the Middle East Institute, this short documentary was inspired by Baylor University's Oral Memoirs of Colbert Colgate "Cokie" Held.