Terra Incognita: Photographs of America's Third Coast

Until recent catastrophic events, little attention was paid to the landscape and ecology of the American Gulf Coast. Acclaimed photographer Richard Sexton's evocative black-and-white images capture this often-overlooked terrain throwing into haunting relief the marshes, forests, and bayous from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle. Sexton focuses on the intersection between human culture and natural phenomena, creating a body of work attuned to the passage of time, loss, and renewal. Essays by museum directors J. Richard Gruber and John Lawrence place the images in the context of southern photography, while horticulturist Randy Harelson illuminates the environmental challenges unique to the region. Terra Incognita is the first book to so strikingly illustrate the vulnerability, resilience, and splendor of America's third coast.

Richard Sexton is a noted commercial and fine art photographer whose work has been published and exhibited worldwide. Terra Incognita is his eighth title with Chronicle Books. Sexton's work is included in the Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and numerous private collections. His multidisciplinary studio is based in New Orleans. Additional information is available on his Web site, richardsextonstudio.com.

Randy Harelson is the owner of the Gourd Garden Courtyard Shop in Rosemary Beach, Florida. In 2004, the award-winning Gourd Garden was chosen by Garden Design magazine as one of "25 great garden shops in America." Randy has taught and written about both art and horticulture for more than thirty years. He is currently restoring an early-19th-century plantation home and garden in his home state of Louisiana.

J. Richard Gruber, Ph.D., has been Director of The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, since 1999. Prior to joining the Ogden, he held directorial and curatorial positions at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia, the Wichita Art Museum in Wichita, Kansas, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Peter Joseph Gallery, in New York. He has published numerous books and catalogues.

John H. Lawrence is currently Director of Museum Programs at The Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum and research center, where he previously held the position Curator of Photographs. Lawrence writes, lectures, and teaches on subjects pertaining to historic and contemporary photographic practice. He lives and works in New Orleans, the city of his birth.