Cover image 'A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture', Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021)

Jeffrey Ladd's 'A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture' (MACK, 2021) presents a "country portrait" projection listing an extensive series of historic residential facades previously archived by the Historic American Buildings Survey. This large collection of homes and interiors configures a topological space, and Ladd is an integral and non-arbitrary part of this complexity, appearing as its demiurge.  Halfway between a road atlas and an architectural abacus, the book does not provide texts or explanations to support the choices made, revealing a fictional character and leaving the observer a margin of uncertainty and therefore of re-discovery.

John P. Frey. Image from A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture by Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021). Courtesy the artist, the Library of Congress, and MACK.

James Chipps. Image from A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture by Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021). Courtesy the artist, the Library of Congress, and MACK.

Thus the outcome of this investigation is thrown like mental geography, a sort of country image subjected to a precise form. It's an almost nostalgic presence that recognizes a "housing root" which, like a geometric figure, tries to format different files. This repeated, widespread and simultaneous presence has a gravitational force, sediments the attention towards a formal stamp, an original "One" whose profile emerges by superimposition. This photography experience reaffirms an educational possibility, capable of rationally modeling the visible. The forms and the aesthetic representativeness operate as a discourse function that holds them together simultaneously rather than in succession, which allows us to look at them together. And it is in this repeated exercise, in this incestuous game between the parts, between the fragments, that a model of unity can take shape.

Unknown. Image from A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture by Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021). Courtesy the artist, the Library of Congress, and MACK.

In addition to certain sculptural, graphic, forensic aspects that inevitably lead us to the destructuring operations of Gordon-Matta Clark, there is a precise posture recognizable in this North American catalog of houses. We could even isolate a dictionary from it as quickly as through an anatomical analysis of building structures and enclosed details. Thus, a measure of "being in space" is formed in social imagining, albeit it is nevertheless desolately empty.

John Ansley. Image from A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture by Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021). Courtesy the artist, the Library of Congress, and MACK.

These images taken from different eras, by other hands, have a common denominator: the abandonment of things—an inventory of remains. And perhaps the most exciting aspect of Jeffrey Ladd's work lies precisely in having wanted to manifest the political implication of a historical conservation strategy. And this comes with a whole set of questions. First of all, what is conservation, and what is its meaning? Photography itself is conservation. The book traces an itinerary. A journey that passes through the landscape of precariousness, memory, and concise history of the United States of America. Mostly wooden houses. We don't see native settlements or anything. The book is about a few centuries of land occupation. A subtle story, however, as noteworthy as its fragility. 

Roger Watts. Image from A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture by Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021). Courtesy the artist, the Library of Congress, and MACK.

In this decay, that of an era, a dream, a historical season, and that of life. Of the many lives consumed. And so, we return romantically to the concept of time regardless of troubles and aspirations. Whether they are faces in the cemetery, cars piled up at the junkyard, or forgotten buildings along the streets, they are always there trying to pass the time. And photography can only help us remember them.

Jet Lowe. Image from A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture by Jeffrey Ladd (MACK, 2021). Courtesy the artist, the Library of Congress, and MACK.

Jeffrey Ladd
Book 'A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture', MACK, 2021