Silver Lake Drive

Alex Prager is one of the truly original image makers of our time. Working fluidly between photography and film, she creates large-scale projects that combine elaborately built sets, highly staged, complex performances and a 'Hollywood' aesthetic to produce still and moving images that are familiar yet strange, utterly compelling and unerringly memorable. In her career she has won both popular acclaim and the recognition of the art establishment - her work can be found in the collections of MoMA and the Whitney Museum in New York as well as institutions worldwide. This book is the first career retrospective of this rising star. In 120 carefully curated photographs, it summarizes Prager's creative trajectory and offers an ideal introduction for the popular 'breakout' audience who may have only recently encountered her work. Structured around her project-orientated approach, Silver Lake Drive presents the very best images from her career to date: from the early Film Stills through her collaborations with the actor Bryce Dallas Howard on Week-end and Despair to the tour de force of Face in the Crowd - shot on a Hollywood sound stage with over 150 performers - and her 2015 commission for the Paris opera La Grande Sortie. Supported by an international exhibition schedule, and including an in-depth interview with Alex Prager by Nathalie Herschdorfer and supplementary essays by the curators of renowned museums and galleries, this book will be an essential addition to the collection of anyone who has followed Prager's career and all with an interest in and appreciation of contemporary art.

Explore Southern California's iconic beaches, Pacific shore, and mountain views without traveling deep into the backcountry. This book features easy-to-follow urban trails that allow hikers of all levels to discover the landmarks that shape the Golden state’s cities and towns. Urban Hikes Southern California provides the latest information to plan a customized trip: Common and lesser-known hikes, from city center strolls to forest trails Full-color photos and maps, detailed trail descriptions, and trailhead GPS Insightful hike overviews and details on distance, difficulty, canine compatibility, and more California boasts a plethora of great urban hikes, and this guide highlights both family-friendly footpaths and culinary and gastronomic delights found along the way. Find hikes suited to every ability. Stroll Orange County's Laguna Beach to take in the sights or enjoy a pint of local beer after a walk to Downtown Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills. Discover arboretum trails, waterfront walks, after-work rambles, and more.

10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 52 Walking Adventures is for urban adventurers with a passion for healthy living who are also hungry to explore L.A.’s hidden, unsung, and sometimes quirky side. This unique guidebook provides everything readers need to venture out and tackle the city’s 500 square miles. The book is based on a concept that first took hold in Japan—that if people walked 10,000 steps each day, they would burn 20 percent of their caloric intake through that activity alone. Now an ingrained part of the American lifestyle, the 10,000 steps phenomenon is taking the country by storm; it is now a recognized daily goal by a number of major insurance companies like Kaiser Permanente and health institutes such as the World Health Organization, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the American Heart Foundation. In this first-ever book to explore the 10,000 steps concept in the City of Angels, these walks take readers through the terrain that makes Los Angeles the envy of many a metropolis—beaches, mountains, rivers, and reservoirs, not to mention the nation’s largest urban park, Griffith Park—all while immersing them in the city’s history and lore, offbeat locales, and popular landmarks. 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. promises three things: 10,000 steps in each walk, a blueprint for doing it each weekend of the year (52 walks equals a year’s worth of weekends), and a sense of fun and discovery about L.A. that will only make the 10,000 steps goal that much easier to attain. Readers need bring only their feet—pedometers optional.

Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city’s staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located. From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Junction Loop in Silver Lake, to taking the Beachwood Canyon hike through “Hollywoodland” to enjoying the magnificent ocean views from the Castellammare district in Pacific Palisades, Secret Stairs takes you on a tour of the staircases all across the City of Angels. The circular walks, rated for duration and difficulty, deliver tales of historic homes and their fascinating inhabitants, bits of unusual local trivia, and stories of the neighborhoods surrounding the stairs. That’s where William Faulkner was living when he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not; that house was designed by Neutra; over there is a Schindler; that’s where Woody Guthrie lived, where Anais Nin died, and where Thelma Todd was murdered . . . Despite the fact that one of these staircases starred in an Oscar-winning short film—Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box, from 1932—these civic treasures have been virtually unknown to most of the city’s residents and visitors. Now, Secret Stairs puts these hidden stairways back on the map, while introducing urban hikers to exciting new “trails” all around the city of Los Angeles.