Taschen's new photography book Los Angeles: Portrait of a City is quite simply the most comprehensive visual survey of the city ever published. Editor Jim Heimann begins with the first known photo taken in Los Angeles, and uses the lenses of some of the city's most famous documentarians--as well as plenty of unknowns--to weave a narrative of celebrity and politics, real estate and riots, pop culture and palm trees into a hefty 500-page volume. What could be more fitting for the sweeping, sprawling metropolis?

Rooftop location shoot, downtown Los Angeles, 1922. During the 1920s, the movie industry used Los Angeles as a kind of ready made film set, shooting films on its streets and in its buildings.

The Hollywood sign was built in 1923 as an advertisement for Los Angeles Times Harry Chandler’s “Hollywoodland” real estate development. In the background, the San Fernando Valley remains largely rural and undeveloped.

Opening of the Warner Theater, later the Wiltern, Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, October 7, 1931.

Spectators join police at the aftermath of a shootout, 1953.

Simon’s drive-in, Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, c. 1939.

Little Tokyo, First Street, 1953. The Japanese community recovered its presence near downtown Los Angeles after World War II.

Mickey Cohen sitting amid the front pages of newspapers that helped make him the city’s most infamous citizen, 1953.

Rita Aarons, wife of the photographer, swimming in a pool festooned with floating baubles and a decorated Christmas tree, ca 1955.

The intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and Doheny Drive in West Hollywood, captured through the wind shield of actor Dennis Hopper’s car, 1961.

The Jackson 5 in Santa Monica, before the release of their first album, 1970.

President Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, then governor, confer at the Century Plaza Hotel, 1974.

A minutely detailed model of downtown Los Angeles was a WPA project displayed at the Museum of Natural History, 1940.