JOÃO CANZIANI FOR THE ECONOMIST

“I took the 110 to the 10, back to the 110, then onto the 105 and finally the Imperial Highway—the not-so-scenic route to the not-particularly-exotic hills of El Segundo,” says João. “At first glance there’s not much beyond Chevron’s giant refinery and the sprawl of LAX to the north.

When The Economist called, I hesitated—what was I going to shoot there? Diners? Lawns? The beach? Instead, I found a group of charismatic characters with wild ambition. There’s Cameron Schiller at Rangeview—a kid with movie-star looks building a top-secret foundry for high-precision superalloys—and a team down the street fabricating nearly 2,000 lethal defense drones a day for Ukraine.

Scratch the surface around here and there’s a whole hidden world of industry and invention.”