Aurora Tang: Revisiting Daydream Houses of Los Angeles

Rephotography is the act of photographing a site while attempting to replicate the original angle and framing of a previous photograph. Comparing such image pairs, often separated by a significant length of time, can serve as a visual research tool and reveal changes in the urban fabric of cities, patterns of land use, and architectural preferences. For curator and researcher Aurora Tang, it became a method for retracing Charles Jencks’ steps around Los Angeles.

Charles began photographing unusual vernacular houses while driving around Los Angeles in the 1970s. Eventually, this material was collected in Daydream Houses of Los Angeles (1978), where some 60 photographs were accompanied by witty captions, an address, and a few critical remarks. In the book’s introduction, Charles argued for the importance of paying attention to vernacular architecture that exists in a ‘critical limbo of silence,’ while his inclusion of addresses for each house might be read as an invitation for readers to embark on a tour of their own. The book situates Charles’ interest in the vernacular within a broader West Coast Post-Modern context, while demonstrating the importance of photography as his key research method, evidenced by the large quantity of photographic slides now held in his archive at The Cosmic House.

This display brings together some of the image pairs created by Tang as she retraced Charles’ steps in search of the Daydream Houses today. Like Charles’ own practice, the project demonstrates that understanding architecture often begins with looking closely – through the camera lens, and through the simple act of moving through a city on foot or by car.

‘Revisiting Charles Jencks’ Daydream Houses of Los Angeles’ is an ongoing rephotography project by Aurora Tang. The project originated at the Schindler House in West Hollywood, California, in 2019, as a presentation co-organised by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and the Southland Institute. Tang’s research at The Cosmic House was supported in part by Askeaton Contemporary Arts.