Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159 pp. Introduction
Noir Writers
". . . Few of the writers were natives. Authors such as Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, John Fante, Evelyn Waugh, and Aldous Huxley drew inspiration from local news accounts. The tales were there for the asking. The local rags and newpapers published the city's dirtiest laundry . . . early writers of the noir culled these stories, adding the chaos and cynicism of the corrupt city . . .
"Later, a new crop of writers such as John Gregory Dunne, Walter Mosley, and James Ellroy . . . From the dreams and nightmares of the real city they crafted fact into fiction, and the photographs substantiated their writings." p. 156
The Photographers:
"Early in the twentieth century, the city was filled with daily tabloids: the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, the Mirror, the Examiner, the Herald, the Hollywood Citizen. Photographers such as Delmar Watson represented the typical news photographer. George Watson, Delmar's uncle, worked initially for the Times later becoming manager of Pacific and Atlantic Photos, a forerunner of United Press International Wire Photos. One of the town's most aggressive news photographers, George Watson shot the region's most acclaimed personalities, events, disasters, and crimes. Delmar Watson described the Los Angeles shooting scene as one that was free form and filled with spontaneous decision making. Bruce Henstell in his book Sunshine and Wealth quotes Daily News editor Matt Weinstock describing his newspaper's staff of ten photographers as uncontrollable: they "could terrorize everyone with flash powder which after the explosion filled the vicinity with throat-searing smoke."
"After the war and into the fifties, stringers for East Coast scandal sheets such as Confidential shot viciously unflattering celeb shots, or anything else that looked like a story. Forerunners of today's paparazzi they were an unorganized group who were an unwelcome intrusion around town.
"A few commercial photographers, in the course of their assignments, caught another side of the Southland: the posed and precise Los Angeles. The Mott, Dick Whitington, Merge, and other studios produced some of the most enduring images of L.A. A studied treatment was given to tourist attractions, architecture, movie premieres, grocery store openings, flossed-up streets, and hand shaking politicians. Together with the freewheeling newspaper photographers, they captured the genuine Los Angeles noir." p. 158