The photographs in this book pair the cities of Paris and Los Angeles. Faris, famously, was the capital of the nineteenth century; it is besotted with and dominated by its own history. L.A. is the paradigmatic city without a past. Paris - at least as bounded by the Périphérique - is compact, dense. Like New York - or Manhattan at any rate - Paris is a walking city. L.A. sprawls. It's a driving city.