Tom Zimmerman is a native of Los Angeles whose photographs are in the permanent collections of the United States Library of Congress, National Trust for Historic Preservation, California State Library, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles Conservancy, Brooklyn Museum, Motion Picture and Television Photo Archive, and Fortress of Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has taken historic recordation photos of the Ambassador Hotel, Olympic Swim Stadium, Tom Gilmore's Old Bank District in Los Angeles, Santa Fe Repair Yards in San Bernardino, State Armory in Santa Barbara, the last orange packing plant in Irvine, and hundreds of others. He is the author of the Angel City Press books Paradise Promoted: The Booster Campaign that Created Los Angeles 1870-1930, Downtown in Detail and Spectacular Illumination.