Who needs a car? Los Angeles by foot
Gragossian documented the spaces, objects and textures that are often overlooked when life is in constant motion
Over a period of four years, Gragossian amassed a collection of images of store windows, parking lots and suburban houses that function as motifs
Gragossian: 'In a place teeming with dreams and expectations, a single sign or building can disrupt the pattern of conformity, reminding us that the true essence of any city is best appreciated when we slow down and truly observe our surroundings'
North North South takes its title from a photograph of a broken freeway sign that features in the book
The title collates the main ideas behind the series, such as the quintessential American condition of traversing freeways that perpetuate inequality and the power of photography to transform the banality of everyday life into the poetic
Speaking of LA, Gragossian says: 'Contradictions collide, and beauty and neglect, nostalgia and impermanence, intimacy and distance, exist side by side'
'In Los Angeles, what do you see when you are not moving at 60mph?'
Gragossian's black and white photographs are devoid of people, an aesthetic choice that emphasises the city's contradictory characteristics
The visual narrative in North North South departs from that of the glamorous LA popularised by the entertainment industry
Instead, Gragossian's photographs capture a deeply personal view of a working-class city where different realities coexist in close proximity
Gragossian: 'This book began as a personal journey. After living for a couple of years in England (where I completed my MFA at the University of Oxford), I returned to Los Angeles, wanting to reacquaint myself with the city I had called home for the past decade'
'I started walking … and seeking out spaces and objects that spoke to a different urban imagery, one that felt truer to the way I experienced it'
North North South is not a conventional portrait of LA. It is a sequence of photographs that moves through the city the way life does –without a fixed route, weaving in and out of places, refusing a singular narrative
In a city obsessed with productivity and spectacle, this work invites the viewer to slow down, to pay attention and to recognise the poetry in the overlooked
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