This Side of Paradise

Los Angeles, a sprawling, multi-ethnic city on the edge of a continent, conjures up imagery as seductive and contradictory as the place itself. Equal parts glamour and cataclysm, sunshine and noir, few cities have provoked visual representation as insistently as LA. "This Side of Paradise" explores the synergistic relationship between the city and photography from the mid-nineteenth century to the present through the key themes of landscape and the body. Eschewing the traditional, chronological approach to the subject, this stunning book encompasses the full spectrum of documentary, commercial and artistic imagery, shedding new light on both LA and the photographic practices within it. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this stimulating and wide-ranging survey includes images by Carleton Watkins, Edward Weston, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Garry Winogrand, Ed Ruscha, Dennis Hopper, Herb Ritts, John Baldessari, Catherine Opie and many others.