The images are mostly found images. Image 2 is an illustration of Los Angeles, with Biddy Mason's face superimposed over a large portion of the city. I am particularly intriguied by the use of scale here, and the difference between mediums. They underline your argument that our imagination of early Los Angeles is partly an imaginary, given that historical archives have erased histories such as Biddy's.
Image #1 is a found image. It is centered and its perspective provides a sense of depth and excess, discipline and power. I think it is a terrific starting point to discussing absence.
Image #2: Is a created image, a composite and editing of two photos into one. I am uncertain if it successfully conveys what the author is intending. When I look at this image I question the scale and placement of Biddy Mason's portrait within the frame. Not that Biddy Mason should not be front and center, but I do not know how presence impacts my reading of the other photo. There is a foreground/background play at work that I struggle to process. The photo of the white pioneers is presented as a typical archived photograph. Biddy Mason's portrait is the spectral visualization that haunts the archive collection. The family may be represented archive, but their names, hopes, lives, impact on Los Angeles, are also seemingly absent from the archive. These are my questions provoked by my reading of this image.