Desert Houses East of Los Angeles
Message from the Exterior is a photobook by Mark Ruwedel documenting abandoned houses in desert regions east of Los Angeles. Published by Mack Books in September 2016, the book is structured in two parts and contains 128 pages with 77 colour plates.
Two Sections, One Subject
The first section, "Desert Houses," presents 68 structures photographed as vernacular architecture — improvised shelters that record the impulse to settle in a landscape that resists it. Ruwedel treats each building as a layered document: the desert terrain functions as a palimpsest of habitation, abandonment, and natural reclamation. The second section, "Dusk," returns to the same subject under fading light, where the boundary between presence and absence becomes less distinct.
Message from the Exterior sits within a sustained body of work attentive to how human activity leaves marks on terrain. For related titles, browse Photography & Photobooks at Lokator100.
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About Mark Ruwedel
Mark Ruwedel (b. 1954) is an American landscape photographer based in California. His practice centres on reading the landscape through traces of habitation, infrastructure, and time — work that locates meaning in what remains rather than what is built.
His photographs are held in major museum collections including Tate Modern, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and LACMA. In 2014, he received both a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Scotiabank Photography Award.
