los angeles
noir
jim heimann
interview by EMILIEN CRESPO
photos from Dark City: The Real Los Angeles Noir by Jim Heimann, courtesy of TASCHEN
Jim Heimann is one of the most prominent archivist of Southern California, writing about everything from surfing culture to LA noir [Dark City, his most recent book, was published by Taschen]. A born-and-raised Angeleno, he has been going to the flea markets every week for the past four decades at 5:30 AM and has come back empty-handed only twice. He obsessively sorts the newspapers, pictures, and printed matter he collects and reassembles them into fascinating compilations.
EMILIEN CRESPO — Is Los Angeles a difficult city to understand?
JIM HEIMANN — It’s really hard for people to get to know because it is just so fragmented. There are way too many things very spread out, making it really hard to get an idea. It…