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.

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.