David Weiner

2663 Benedict Canyon

I met Dolores Hayden in the summer of 1991. I was in Los Angeles and needed to get to Nova Scotia – she was moving to Connecticut to begin teaching at Yale and had a car that needed to be driven there.



She asked what I was interested in and lucky for me, it was within the realm of her specialty – urban and suburban space, homes, landscape. She gave me her book, “Redesigning the American Dream,” and her keys and suggested I look into JB Jackson.



I spent the Fall of 1991 walking around Halifax, taking pictures of backyards and returned to Los Angeles with an idea to take pictures of one backyard.



2663 Benedict was the house my Great- Aunt and Uncle bought as undeveloped land in the 50’s and where they built a post and beam, outdoor-oriented, open plan home on three acres of mostly hillside in Benedict Canyon.



At this point my Great-Aunt had lived in the house for 30+ years and alone for the last eight. She had one gardener to help, the rest she did alone. I came every other week from late March to early July and we’d decide together where to put the tripod and what to leave out.