Cody Ellingham's Nocturnal Architecture: Danchi Dreams and Urban Memory

Cody Ellingham, a self-taught photographer born in Hastings, New Zealand, in 1991, creates nighttime images with a futuristic and decadent aesthetic that explore the relationship between architecture, memory, and urban transformation. His photographs predominantly feature large housing blocks, deserted streets, and old dwellings, captured after twilight using long exposures and artificial lighting. One of his most representative projects is "Danchi Dreams," a series dedicated to danchi—large residential housing complexes built in Japan from the 1960s onward to accommodate rapid population growth. Ellingham photographs these complexes at night, often nearly deserted and illuminated only by the fluorescent lights of windows and long corridors. He studied Japanese language and literature at Victoria University of Wellington. His work has been exhibited in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand, and has appeared in publications including The Guardian, Wired, and CNN. The source article, published by Objects, highlights his ongoing investigation into how built environments shape and reflect collective memory. Through his lens, the danchi become haunting monuments to a specific era of Japanese urban development, their emptiness underscoring themes of isolation and the passage of time. Ellingham's practice sits at the intersection of documentary and fine art photography, using the night as both subject and medium to reveal the uncanny beauty of overlooked architectural forms.