Downtown Public Library

A sweater dries on a fence in a homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles, 2000 © Marissa Roth

Marissa has 72 photographs in the archive of the Los Angeles Public Library, from a project which she completed in 2000. The LAPL published the work in a book titled 'Real City: 'Downtown Los Angeles Inside/Out'.

"Until now, no book has explored Downtown's inner workings, no writer has devoted his every word to it, and no photographer has done what photojournalist Roth has done in the pages of REAL CITY. Commissioned to document Downtown L.A. by the Los Angeles Public Library, Roth has ventured into the soul of the City of Angels and recorded images that at once point to its bright sides and its dark sides, its insides and its outsides. More than iconic palm trees and sunsets, these black-and-white photographs define Downtown Los Angeles, as only the work of an artistic genius can."