Los Angeles, this is your life. This book tells how LA came to be what it is today. From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sprawling vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels is first of its kind to survey in depth the full range of the city's photographic history. Exploring the cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history via the work of myriad photographers, the book examines the city's critical developments ranging from the real estate booms of the 1880s to the uncontrolled urban sprawl of the late 20th century. With over 600 images, the city is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to a horticultural Eden courtesy of imported water. Poignant events that captured the attention of the world, notably two Olympics, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, and the Rodney King riots, reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with notable Los Angeles personalities, architects, artists, and events. Many of the pop cultural movements which started in Los Angeles, such as surfing, health food fads, and hot rods, are included, as are the cities notorious crimes and criminals. Focusing on one of the most photographed and familiar cities of the world, this book unveils a new dimension of its visual history with hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Claxton, Weegee, and many more. Culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities, the images are bolstered by insightful texts by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David Ulin.
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Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America in Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous books on architecture, popular culture, and the history of the West Coast, in particular, Los Angeles and the Hollywood dream factory. For over 30 years he has built an unrivaled private collection of ephemera, which has been featured museum exhibitions around the world and in dozens of his books. Kevin Starr holds a PhD from Harvard University and is currently University Professor and Professor of History at the University of Southern California. His many articles and books, including his Americans and the California Dream series, have won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Gold and Silver Medals of the Commonwealth Club, membership in the Society of American Historians, the Presidential Medallion from USC, the Centennial Medal from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, and the Humanities Medal from the National Endowment of the Humanities. David L. Ulin is book editor of the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of "The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith," selected as a Best Book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune, and the editor of "Another City: Writing from Los Angeles" and the Library of America's "Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology," which won a 2002 California Book Award. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered; his essay "The Half-Birthday of the Apocalypse" was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize. For the 2008-2009 academic year, he is a visiting professor in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at the California Institute of the Arts.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
At last, the city at the end of the rainbow gets the Taschen treatment: a large, chunky, 570 page, visual history. This is more than just an ordinary picture book though, because so many of the photos, after the Thirties, have been taken by named photographers (there are biographies of thirty-nine of them at the back of the book) and it's the mixing of their work and anonymous photos that I thought gave the book a special feel. Another interesting theme reflects the creativity of the city with the use of quotes from well-known historical books and movies that appear throughout the pages, nicely with a graphic of the jacket or poster.
Having looked through the pages it does seem amazingly comprehensive. The seven chapters run from 1862 to the last photo in 2005. Each starts with a several hundred word overview followed by a spread with a period map then by captioned photos. Cultural, political and sports personalities, architecture (including street scenes plus industry) and historic news photos are the dominant themes and I thought the selection was rather impressive, there doesn't seem to be any image that would make me say "Just why is that one included".
What I really love about the book is its big page size. Pin-sharp photos from before 1940 are frequently run over a spread and look terrific as do news photos from later decades (all printed with a 175 screen). Tying in with the historical book and movie links throughout the book the back pages carry a recommended list of viewing, listening and reading material that sum up this intriguing city.
A slightly similar photo book of Los Angeles but with images selected from the last few decades which might be worth checking out is Looking at Los Angeles, with many of the same well-known photographers as Jim Heimann's book.
Having looked through the pages it does seem amazingly comprehensive. The seven chapters run from 1862 to the last photo in 2005. Each starts with a several hundred word overview followed by a spread with a period map then by captioned photos. Cultural, political and sports personalities, architecture (including street scenes plus industry) and historic news photos are the dominant themes and I thought the selection was rather impressive, there doesn't seem to be any image that would make me say "Just why is that one included".
What I really love about the book is its big page size. Pin-sharp photos from before 1940 are frequently run over a spread and look terrific as do news photos from later decades (all printed with a 175 screen). Tying in with the historical book and movie links throughout the book the back pages carry a recommended list of viewing, listening and reading material that sum up this intriguing city.
A slightly similar photo book of Los Angeles but with images selected from the last few decades which might be worth checking out is Looking at Los Angeles, with many of the same well-known photographers as Jim Heimann's book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars
19 reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sun and neon
13 Nov 2009
By Robin Benson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
At last, the city at the end of the rainbow gets the Taschen treatment: a large, chunky, 570 page, visual history. This is more than just an ordinary picture book though because so many of the photos, after the Thirties, have been taken by named photographers (there are biographies of thirty-nine of them at the back of the book) and it's the mixing of their work and anonymous photos that I thought gave the book a special feel. Another interesting theme reflects the creativity of the city with the use of quotes from well-known historical books and movies that appear throughout the pages, nicely with a graphic of the jacket or poster.
Having looked through the pages a few times it does seem amazingly comprehensive. The seven chapters run from 1862 to the last photo in 2005. Each starts with a several hundred word overview followed by a spread with a period map then by captioned photos. Cultural, political and sports personalities, architecture (including street scenes plus industry) and historic news photos are the dominant themes and I thought the selection was rather impressive, there doesn't seem to be any image that would make me say "Just why is that one included".
What I really love about the book is its big page size. Pin-sharp photos from before 1940 are frequently run over a spread and look terrific as do news photos from later decades (all printed with a 175 screen). Tying in with the historical book and movie links throughout the book the back pages carry a recommended list of viewing, listening and reading material that sum up this intriguing city.
A slightly similar photo book of Los Angeles but with images selected from the last few decades which might be worth checking out is Looking At Los Angeles, with many of the same well-known photographers as Jim Heimann's book.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
Having looked through the pages a few times it does seem amazingly comprehensive. The seven chapters run from 1862 to the last photo in 2005. Each starts with a several hundred word overview followed by a spread with a period map then by captioned photos. Cultural, political and sports personalities, architecture (including street scenes plus industry) and historic news photos are the dominant themes and I thought the selection was rather impressive, there doesn't seem to be any image that would make me say "Just why is that one included".
What I really love about the book is its big page size. Pin-sharp photos from before 1940 are frequently run over a spread and look terrific as do news photos from later decades (all printed with a 175 screen). Tying in with the historical book and movie links throughout the book the back pages carry a recommended list of viewing, listening and reading material that sum up this intriguing city.
A slightly similar photo book of Los Angeles but with images selected from the last few decades which might be worth checking out is Looking At Los Angeles, with many of the same well-known photographers as Jim Heimann's book.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wondrous Portrait of a Hard-to-Navigate City
26 Nov 2009
By Eugenie L. Birch
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
To a life-long New Yorker, Los Angeles is a foreign country, filled with vivid impressions -- warm all the time, unseemly pink and tourqouise neon pillars at the airport, lush vegetation, endless freeways, glittering Disney Center, lovely bungalow neighborhoods, downtown that stretches to Santa Monica, Hollywood emblazoned on the hill, Century City sprouting from somewhere, the Getty Center gleaming from its perch, Wilshire Boulevard marching through time and linking it all together, mammouth city hall, nostalgic Union Station, pinata and flower markets, new rapid transit, cars, cars, cars.... Of course, we all have mental images of the place, products of the media -- cops, movie stars, immigrants, water wars -- that shape a superficial understanding of LA. But in many ways it's a hard-to-navigate place -- I am not talking about the famed transportation routes, but about its culture and history. For the discerning visitor, there are visual hints of the past, wonderful surprises in the canyons and a shadow of a long-gone community here and there, but its full imprint is gone. At least it was gone until Los Angeles, Portrait of a City appeared this fall.
Here, the city unfurls in word (Kevin Starr is simply brilliant) and in image (Jim Heimann's selections, extraordinary). We can see who made the city what it is today. We can sense the hopes, drive and ambition of its inhabitants over time and view its developing and ever-changing landscape. This book is a masterpiece.It makes the city no longer hard-to-navigate, no longer a foreign country but a beloved American icon.
Here, the city unfurls in word (Kevin Starr is simply brilliant) and in image (Jim Heimann's selections, extraordinary). We can see who made the city what it is today. We can sense the hopes, drive and ambition of its inhabitants over time and view its developing and ever-changing landscape. This book is a masterpiece.It makes the city no longer hard-to-navigate, no longer a foreign country but a beloved American icon.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm lovin' it
6 Dec 2009
By Ryan
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I am a Northern California native, but moved to Los Angeles 10 years ago. This is a great book for anyone who wants to know more about a city that is often accused, mostly by outsiders, of being shallow, one-dimensional or soulless. It provides a unique glimpse into the real Los Angeles, one that is rich in history, complex and ever-changing. Great book. Highly recommended...
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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