Landscape Photography. Nervous Landscapes. January 17 - March 18, 1994.

Southeast Museum of Photography. Essay by Alison Devine Nordstrom. Exhibition catalog, wraps, illustrated, 28 pages, includes checklist of 54 items compiled by Ica Brooks and Nadia M. Yousif. Catalog designed by Jim Stephens. Photographers: Masumi Hayashi; Craig Roper; Jim Vecci; Paul Seawright; Stephen Lawson; and John Divola. Fine. Scarce. Summary:

Nervous Landscapes is a 28-page exhibition catalog published in 1994 by the Southeast Museum of Photography at Daytona Beach Community College in Florida. Created to accompany an innovative winter exhibition (January 17 – March 18, 1994), the publication documents the work of seven contemporary photographers who moved away from traditional, serene landscape photography to explore the psychological, political, and unstable tensions embedded within physical environments.

Core Themes and Content

• The Edge of Disquiet: The catalog features a central, anchoring introduction by Dr. Alison Devine Nordström, a prominent curator and photo-historian. Nordström’s essay frames the exhibition's concept around the idea of landscapes that evoke anxiety, memory, and trauma, presenting the natural and built world as a "nervous," psychologically charged space rather than a passive backdrop.

• Seven Conceptual Photographers: The publication features a highly curated group of international and American artists: Dean Chamberlain, John Divola, Masumi Hayashi, Stephen Lawson, Craig Roper, Paul Seawright, and Jim Vecci.

• Diverse Media and Artistic Strategies: The featured works highlight how contrasting technical processes disrupt ordinary landscapes. Included are Dean Chamberlain’s vibrant, time-delayed "light painting" compositions, Masumi Hayashi’s panoramic photo-collages of uncomfortable historical sites (such as Japanese-American internment camps), and Paul Seawright’s stark, tense imagery documenting the invisible scars and socio-political traumas of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

• Curatorial Checklist and Organization: To anchor the complex visual portfolios, the book features a meticulously organized catalog checklist of 54 items compiled by researchers Ica Brooks and Nadia M. Yousif. The entire volume was designed by graphic artist Jim Stephens, balancing text-based curatorial theory with rich visual layouts.

By compiling these diverse photographic interventions, the catalog functions as an important historical record of 1990s postmodern landscape art, illustrating how the camera can peel back the surface of terrain to expose underlying cultural anxieties and historical trauma.