Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs

In the formative years between 1950 and 1970, Denise Scott Brown found in photography the possibility of looking anew at a fraught world—and of rethinking the architect’s role within it. Presenting a wide-ranging selection of Scott Brown’s photographs, Encounters explores her crucial but little-studied photographic practice, and raises broader questions about architectural research and pedagogy, the profession’s interest in so-called ordinary places, and the social and political obligations of design. In Encounters, these photographs—many of which are shown as slides in a darkened theater—are paired with work by other photographers, as well as materials drawn from several archives, placing Scott Brown’s work in an expanded field and prompting audiences to rethink its significance for the present.

Encounters is based upon the 2025 book of the same name edited by Izzy Kornblatt, which features nearly 400 photographs chosen and sequenced in collaboration with Scott Brown.
 

“Silver shop Main St. SM,” Santa Monica, Denise Scott Brown, 1968. Photo © Denise Scott Brown.