All images © Ayda Gragossian
North North South is the Iranian American’s first photo book, published by Gost Books, showing a less glamorous side of the sprawling metropolis
The word ‘urgent’ gets thrown around a lot when describing new books, but North North South does truly befit the word. Shot across Los Angeles over a period of four years between 2019 and 2023, Iranian American photographer Ayda Gragossian captures the city’s quieter spaces, published at a time when LA feels anything but.
Demonstrations were sparked earlier in June following immigration raids ordered by the current US administration; the city became headline news for weeks. Gragosian’s images, however, offer us calm and respite in meditative black and white despite the turbulence of the city that is always simmering either overhead or under the surface.
“In Los Angeles, what do you see when you are not moving at 60 mph?” This is a question that underpins North North South, which takes its title from a photograph of a broken freeway sign that features in the book. The title is a nod to the ‘quintessential American condition’, says the publishers, Gost Books, of riding on freeways that perpetuate inequality. Gragossian, based in Los Angeles usually addresses notions of displacement, impermanence and longing in her work.
The book’s design is simple, as are the poetic images. There is relief in this approach; where one might have opted to heighten the layout or design to contrast the photography, this straightforwardness allows Gragossian’s images to speak for themselves.
And these landscapes really do seem to be speaking to us. They marry the natural environments with the built, showing dilapidated buildings being overtaken by ivy or surrounded by overgrowth; other ruined and abandoned places are completely bereft of nature. These views offer a stark contrast to the La La Land depiction of Los Angeles we are more used to seeing in mainstream media.
On first glance, the images are empty of people or politics, but of course, there are subtle signs which suggest otherwise. These spaces tell us about what kind of people inhabit this city, how they shape this city, who governs this city. One photo shows a rudimentary ‘FOR SALE’ sign laying on its side framed by the American flag. Many images, such as a broken old gate hanging off its hinges bordering a beautiful mansion, feel tongue-in-cheek.
There is a world humming above these places that offer illusion – the glitz and glamour and romance we find in vintage Hollywood films – but quite literally underneath these surfaces are places fewer of us see, but more of what truer, local Angelenos encounter.
