Landscape in Motion: Nostalgia and Urban Redevelopment in Ed Ruscha's Then & Now: Hollywood Boulevard, 1973-2004. (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Reynolds, Matt
• Is Part Of: Journal of urban history. Volume 41:Number 6(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1052
• Page End: 1072
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: Ed Ruscha -- Hollywood -- CA -- Urban renewal -- gentrification -- nostalgia; Cities and towns -- History -- Periodicals; 909.09732
• DOI: 10.1177/0096144215602014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0096-1442

Abstract

Ed Ruscha's photo book Then & Now: Hollywood Boulevard, 1973-2004 consists of two continuous photographic panoramas of the north and south sides of the eponymous street taken thirty years apart. The juxtaposition of these two time periods depicts a dramatic transformation of the neighborhood, a result of the ongoing Hollywood Redevelopment Project (HRP). From its inception in 1986, the HRP has enlisted a nostalgic image of the city during the heyday of the film industry to mobilize redevelopment efforts. At first glance, Then & Now seems complicit in the HRP's nostalgic enterprise. However, Ruscha's book provides a device for rethinking the city's renewal and the historical narratives that drive it. "Reading" this unusual text disrupts our relationship to "now" and "then, " problematizing nostalgia's function as a condition of Hollywood's revitalization and urban redevelopment more broadly.