Alison Nordström is an independent scholar, specializing in photographs of all kinds. She is known for her writing, speaking, and curating, and for the administration of photographic projects both in the US and internationally. Recent publications include On Becoming an Archive in Reading Magnum; Disappearance of Darkness: Photographs by Robert Burley; New Topographics; and Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art. She was the Artistic Director of Fotofestiwal and Scholar-in-Residence. Graduate of the Department of Photography, School of Art and Design, Lesley University, in 2015.
From 2004 to 2013, Nordström was the Senior Curator of Photographs at George Eastman House, the oldest and largest museum of photography in the United States. She was the Founding Director and Senior Curator of the Southeast Museum of Photography in Daytona Beach, Florida from 1991 to 2002. She has curated over 100 exhibitions of photography including the popular biennial series Fresh Work, and major surveys of landscape, portraiture, travel photographs and journalism. At George Eastman House, she curated Paris: Photographs by Eugene Atget and Christopher Rauschenberg, Why Look at Animals?, Lewis Hine, Of Time and Buildings and Found, photographs by Gerald Slota. She is a regular portfolio reviewer at festivals and other events around the world; her review discoveries include Torben Eskerod, Craig Barber, Lisa Klapstock, Susan Dobson, Susan Evans, and Candace Gaudiani, for all of whom she has produced major books and/or exhibitions. Nordström holds a BA in English Literature, an MLS with museum emphasis, and a PhD in Cultural and Visual Studies.
