polar regions

This book started as a commission from the Los Angeles Public Library for Marissa Roth to take photographs of Los Angeles' downtown. In this completed form, it combines her photographs with D.J. Waldie's words in a clear-eyed and/yet loving paean to the city.

Roth presents startlingly beautiful, stark black and white photographs of underground parking garages and murals, freeway underpasses and Chinatown neon, barbershops and street scenes. Waldie's passages are elegant and sparely poetic, from explanations of why downtown streets are 36 degrees off the true grid which rules most US cities (including much of the rest of this one) to the legend of La Llorona, with detours into the Church of Our City of The Angels and musings on the nature of downtown(s).

Throughout the book, there is an awareness in both images and text of the special quality of the light that shines over Los Angeles and the shadows it casts. It's an aspect of life here that I have not seen addressed elsewhere, which I find surprising as it ensures that L.A. can not be mistaken for any other city, especially on an autumn afternoon when the sun is low.

Altogether, the combination of beauty and information makes this book a wonderful addition to any collection of books on Los Angeles, American cities, or photography.