Photographer Désirée van Hoek captures the historic core of downtown Los Angeles in her third book, Talking About LA. Following Skid Row (2015) and Notes on Downtown (2022), Van Hoek turns her lens to the typography, architecture, and streetscapes along Broadway, the city’s vibrant thoroughfare that has shaped Los Angeles’ east-west divide and undergone countless transformations over the decades.
Accompanying the photographs is an essay by local writer and historian Norman M. Klein, who reflects on memory, erasure, and urban change in downtown Los Angeles, drawing on noir films, literature, and personal experiences. Together, the book offers a visual and literary exploration of LA’s evolving urban identity.
