Lori Nix
Lori Nix is a Brooklyn-based photographer known for constructing dioramas by hand and photographing the results. Nix has sais she considers herself a 'faux-landscape photographer,' and works without using digital manipulation techniques, instead constructing the entirety of her dioramas by hand. Nix often works with dark subject matter, whilst at the same time adding an amount of dark humour in that these models are clearly just that; models. Nix says she is inluenced by the Hudson River School of Painting, which she says has an 'ability to create a state of mind and express intense emotions either through beauty or horror' which could also be said of Nix's work.
Nix was born in Kansas in 1969, and graduated from Truman State University where she studied Ceramics and Photography. She went on to study Photography at graduate level. Nix's work is heavily influenced by extreme weather and disaster films.
In her series of photographs 'The City,' Nix created several areas from a post-apocalyptic city in diorama, and photographed the results. Nix states she is 'fascinated' by the changes time can bring, but is also fearful of the future in terms of human impact on climate change. In the image below, Nix has created a diorama of an abandoned anatomy classroom. Not only is this setting eerie in itself, but the fact it is presented through a diorama intensifies this; dioramas are usually supposed to be very precise and aesthetically pleasing, rather than displaying something this dark. Nix has used dull colours and has even added details such as grime and vegetation to the diorama. In my opininion the piece is extremely eerie, especially due to the anatomical models scattered around the room.
In the above photograph from 'The City,' Nix has lighted the image artificially to simulate rays of sunlight entering through the church window; to excellent effect.
In this image from her 'Lost' series, Nix succeeds in combining beauty with horror; above the surface, a tranquil harbour is depicted, but beneath are hundreds of wrecks. This image has a feeling of unseen horror to it, which I find very effective. Nix has used colours very interestingly in this image to create juxtaposition between dark subject matter and a strangely colourful image. A beautiful deep purple is used for the sky backdrop, and the ocean itself is made up of bright blues and greens. The image is divided into two distinct sections; the top third consists of a deep purple sky and a city backdrop, and in the far left a small Quay. Beneath this, a deep ocean ravine sits filled with wreckage. Several features make this image feel extremely eerie. The first of these is that despite seeing a parked car on the Quay, there are no humans anywhere in the image, even though we can see a city in the background with lights on; even so close to civilisation, this place seems all but forgotten. The glassy flatness of the ocean takes this feeling even further; the location feels as though it has remained undisturbed for years. One of the most striking parts of the image is the bright red tentacles of a large octopus, entwined in the shipwreck. This gives the impression that these wrecks have been reclaimed by nature, and makes for a beautiful and haunting image, which may be a criticism of our constant pollution of the ocean. The brightness of the tentacles draws our eyes to this part of the image, suggesting Nix felt it was important. Nix states she likes to create images which are quite dark, but which are quite amusing when one knows with what materials they were created. The image gets progressively darker towards the bottom, suggesting that these wrecks extend to a great depth, where even light cannot penetrate, and the choice to frame the image in landscape adds to this sense of depth; we can see a long way vertically down from the ocean surface. The wide assortment of debris, from a fairground ride to a boat, could be considered microcosmic of our society’s pollution of the oceans. On top of the fact this image is actually a diorama, the dark and eerie subject matter makes for an interesting juxtaposition.
Upon seeing this image, I became fascinated with the idea of submerging a subject in water, and the eerie sense this could bring to an image. This image served as my primary inspiration for ‘Black Gold,’ where I used a similar idea of wreckage in water, but as a criticism of America’s dependence on fossil fuels.
The above image, 'floater,' is one of Nix's personal favourites amongst her own work. She states that she likes how the image came together to make the viewer uneasy, but also finds humour in picking apart the image and seeing the materials it was constructed with.
‘Control Room’ is a photograph from Lori Nix’s ‘The City,’ perhaps her most famous series of works. In ‘The City,’ Nix created several post-apocalyptic dioramas and photographed the results, before then scrapping the models and re-using the parts, leaving only the photographs. ‘Control Room’ is largely divided into four sections, by the lines running across it; these lines are defined by the top and bottom of the huge command consoles in the centre, and the divide between wall and ceiling. There is a grey section of ceiling, the grey wall, the consoles themselves, and the dark, reflective water on the floor. These consoles are almost the only sources of colour in the image, and this colour is a mixture of drab olive and orange rust, giving the image a very bleak and industrial feel, especially combined with the almost-black green of the floor and the dull grey of the ceiling. Nix does not digitally manipulate her images, so the lighting of this image is very deliberate; some nice shadowing is created to the left of the consoles, and glare on the water is kept to a minimum, allowing us to see the reflection of the consoles. Ultimately, the choice to use low lighting levels in this image makes it feel more claustrophobic and bleak. Small details, such as the floating papers and upturned chair in the water, make the place feel like it once contained life, which is not only important in making the environment feel abandoned but is also surprisingly convincing given the nature of the piece as a diorama. The perfect stillness of the water gives the image an eerie feel; it truly feels like this place has been left undisturbed by a long time. The piece has an interesting symmetry to it, with the centre of the L-shaped consoles in the centre, although it is taken from a slightly diagonal angle, possibly to make it feel more natural. The work evokes a sense of eeriness and unease through its portrayal of an environment devoid of human life, yet one which was so clearly intended to feature humans; small details like the chair and fire extinguished help to give the dials and panels a contextual scale, which heightens this sense. Nix may have wanted to explore what a world would be like without people through ‘The City,’ or perhaps the lasting impact we have made upon the world. Personally, I find the image very eerie, especially as Nix chose to use miniatures to present her vision; models and dioramas are usually very pristine and calculated, and could even be associated with toys and innocence, yet Nix presents a disturbing scenario using miniatures, contrary to convention.
I like how many of Nix's images create a sense of unease, whilst only being models. I felt that if I combined Nix's dark humour with Zahir Batin's minimalism and practical effects, I could create a successful satire of certain issues.