CityLab Daily: A Dutch Photographer’s Fascination with Los Angeles
Also today: Hong Kong’s tiniest apartments take a big hit, and what it’s like to bike at 20 degrees below zero.
In her second book of photography, van Hoek finds texture and abstraction in downtown Los Angeles.
Photographer: Désirée van Hoek
Dutch photographer Désirée van Hoek calls Amsterdam home, but has focused much of her career thousands of miles away in Los Angeles. Her first book, Skid Row, documented the city’s homelessness crisis, and her latest one, Notes on Downtown, zeroes in on the transformation of the city’s downtown over the last 15 years.
The collection of photographs and interviews focuses on the residents and architecture of LA, and reflects her concerns about how gentrification is affecting the city’s vitality. CityLab’s Kriston Capps spoke with the photographer about what draws her to Los Angeles again and again, and how her intimacy with California has shaped how she views her hometown in the Netherlands. Today on CityLab: When a Dutch Photographer Turns Her Camera on Los Angeles