Articles by Josh Stephens
The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
Laurel Canyon: The Classic California Urban Ecosystem
The most arresting image, among many, in the documentary Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time, directed by Alison Ellwood, is a black-and-white photograph of Eric Clapton visiting Los Angeles for the first time on tour with Cream. He sits a few feet from Joni Mitchell, who is playing guitar, with a visibly stoned David Crosby in the background on the backyard lawn of Cass Elliot’s house. Clapton observes Mitchell with such a smoldering intensity you think he’s going to blow an amp. He is transfixed by Mitchell not because she was striking—and she was—but because of her musicianship.
The One Redeeming Feature That Brings Humanity to the Sameness of Suburban Sprawl
This article was originally published by Common Edge as “The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
How Photography Helped to Dehumanize Our Cities
This article was originally published on Common Edge as “How Photography Profoundly Reshaped Our Ideas About Cities.”