Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs
Denise Scott Brown, 1968
© Denise Scott Brown
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.
Yaxuan Liu, 2025
© Yaxuan Liu
Exhibition Credits
Credits
Izzy Kornblatt, Curator
Yaxuan Liu, Exhibition Design
Ugen Yonten, Curatorial Associate
Peter Xu, Curatorial Associate
Milo Bonacci, Graphic Design
YSoA Exhibitions
Andrew Benner, Director of Exhibitions
Alison Walsh, Exhibitions Coordinator and Registrar
Installation
Jay Bates, Ryan Cyr, Evan DiGiovanni, Jaime Kriksciun, Alessandro Maione, Kevin Wiggington, Zach Wilder
Theater Fabrication
Trueline Productions
Additional Thanks
Denise Scott Brown, Deborah Berke, Lars Müller, Hester van den Bold, Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown, Shilpa Mehta, William Whitaker, Emma Brown, Nyamsuren Erdenbayar, Kelly Lopez, Dara Martinez, Reggie Luqi Zhao, Judy Ditner, Melissa Minds VandeBurgt, Ruth Kornblatt-Stier, Simon Wu, Joan Ockman, David Sadighian, Carolyn J. Dean, Jarod Lew, Rick and Ruth Snyderman, Bimal Mendis, Phil Bernstein, David Gissen, students and faculty of the Yale Ph.D. program in architecture, Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University Art Gallery, Temple University Special Collections Research Center
The Yale School of Architecture’s exhibition program is supported in part by the Robert A.M. Stern Fund, the Pickard Chilton Dean’s Resource Fund, the Nitkin Family Dean’s Discretionary Fund in Architecture, the Fred Koetter Exhibitions Fund, the Kibel Foundation Fund, and the James Wilder Green Dean’s Resource Fund.
Visit the Exhibition
The Yale Architecture Gallery is located at Paul Rudolph Hall in New Haven, CT.
Enter through 190 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 and proceed to the second floor.
The Yale Architecture Gallery is open 9 - 5 on weekdays and 10 - 5 on Saturdays. The Gallery is closed on major holidays.
