Worried Landscapes 2025
Worried Landscapes is a photobook and art project by Maya Økland that uses analog photography and text to depict Western Norwegian landscapes through both people and nature.
“Living on the West coast means enduring the moodiness of the elements, the tearing, biting, drenching wind and weather. I often say that it is like living in a violent relationship, because when the sun finally shines, it is so beautiful that everything is forgiven.”
The project is followed by a conversation between Maya Økland and art historian Helga Nyman.
“Most of us know the saying about not seeing the forest for the trees, but sometimes you need to see the trees in order to actually understand the forest. In the spring of 2025, we had several conversations about our respective relationships to the landscape in Hardanger and what it means to our identities and sense of belonging. Like a tree with many branches, Worried Landscapes has some directions springing out of it, which we examine through the prisms of landscape art, landscape changes, and relationships. The personal is political, the view of the landscape is personal as well as political.”
About the writers:
Maya Økland (born 1980 in Bergen) has an MA in Photography from Bergen National Academy of the Arts (2005). Since then, she has been active as an artist and a curator. Her works are found in several collections: KORO – Public Art Norway, Kode Art Museums, and Halland Art Museum. In 2017, she published the photobook, Stranger in Motherland, with the publishing house Teknisk Industri. This is her second photobook, which is published by her own publishing house, the recently established Minutiøs forlag.
Helga Nyman (born 1983 in Odda) has an MA in Art History from the University of Bergen (2012). She works as a curator of contemporary art at Stavanger Art Museum, where she has curated a series of exhibitions, art projects, and educational programs. Nyman was previously Chair of the Board of the magazine Contemporary Art Stavanger and sits on the Stavanger Municipality Art Committee as an Art History representative.
The book is designed by La Tigre and printed by Narayana Press. The texts are in Norwegian and English, translated by Ingrid Haug. Minutiøs forlag, 2025.
ISBN 978-82-694263-0-4