A new photo book shows for the first time how the famous architect and co-author of "Learning form las Vegas" explored the world with her camera. "Encounters", published by Lars Müller Publishers, is a travel book that guides us to different cities, landscapes and people in Europa, Africa and the US.
Las Vegas, mid 1960s, © Denise Scott Brown
Observations in London and Venice
Street scenes in London and beach life in Santa Monica Beach, residential buildings in Rotterdam and Central Park in New York from the air: through the lens of her Alpa camera, Denise Scott Brown captured everything she observed on her travels and in everyday life. Lars Müller Publishers has now released a photo book that captures these photographic explorations from the 1950s to the 1970s and brings together observations from Europe, Africa and the USA. Among the photos is a portrait of the architect and co-author of Learning from Las Vegas from 1956, taken by her first husband Robert Scott Brown. It shows her as a young woman with her head bowed in St Mark's Square in Venice. A pigeon sits on her shoulder and looks out of the left edge of the picture, with the spolia of the church façade visible in the background.
“Venice Den. S. Marco,” Denise Scott Brown in the Piazza San Marco, c.1956, © Robert Scott Brown
The world in pictures
Denise Scott Brown was born in South Africa and lived in London before moving to the United States. For her, the camera was a way of exploring the world. She photographed a wide variety of subjects in order to explore complex relationships and everyday life and pass on her findings to students in her lectures. Later, the photographs also became part of the design and planning process for projects. Looking at her photographs as a whole, what is striking is the curiosity and zest for life that still shines through in every photo today.
“Central Park from RCA Building,” New York City, 1962, © Denise Scott Brown
Thematic sequences
The new photo book Encounters presents a selection of photographs by Denise Scott Brown, sorted into thematic sequences as a method of studying and understanding the world. Izzy Kornblatt, editor of the volume, writes in the foreword: “this book is meant as a point of departure: an open invitation to think with and through, or even at times against, Scott Brown’s photographs”.
"Encounters, Denise Scott Brown Photographs", edited by Izzy Kronblatt, Design: Integral Lars Müller, 24 x 17 cm, 9 ½ x 6 ¾ in, 434 pages, 383 illustrations, Hardback, ISBN 978-3-03778-794-6, Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich 2025
© 2025 Lars Müller Publishers
