Lori Nix has lived most of her life in the rural midwest. A childhood spent playing in open fields and witnessing countless storms and natural disasters has left her with a deep affection for the American landscape.

This love of the land and sky in its endless variations, and a fascination with the absurdities of life has developed into a series of constructed environments that form the basis of her photographs. Cardboard, plaster, faux fur and paint are employed to create highly detailed dioramas for the camera. Like a movie still, Nix's photographs capture the drama mid-story and it's up to the viewer to complete the narrative.

Her series "Accidentally Kansas" (1998-2000) re-created tornadoes, floods, insect infestations and other bizarre events that punctuated her childhood in the Midwest. Transplanting herself to New York City brought an urban feel to her scenes. In the series "Some Other Place" (2000-2002) neighborhood sidewalks, city parks and forays into the wildnerness are reconstructed, playing out dark little dramas before the camera.

With the series "Lost" (2003-2004), Nix continues her investigation of the constructed landscape, this time examining the feelings of isolation and loneliness. Like much of her previous work, this series of photos blures the line between truth and illusion. She subverts the traditions of landscape photography in order to create her own humorously dark world. Her photographs toy with romantic notions of landscape and her lush, rich color and theatrical lighting magnify a sense of isolations and melancholy. The obvious artificiality of the scenes does not diminish the tension created in the photographs. It is the 'fake' quality that enhances the enjoyment of the illusion.

The newest series "Shadows of the City" (2005-2007) finds its wat indoors with interiors synonymous with our urban surroundings. Public spaces dedicated to history and science (and a few intimate spaces) lie deteriorating and neglected while nature slowly takes them back . The Natural History Museum lies in ruins while an old theatre remains empty of its occupants. The vity of our future is not looking very promising.

Lori Nix has received several photography awards. She is a 2004 NYFA Individual Artist Grant recipient. In 2001 she was awarded a Light Work Artist-in-Residency, an internationally recognized photograpy organization in Syracuse, New York. She was a 1999 recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant; a Great Columbus Ohio Arts Grant recipient in 1998; and participated in the Artist in the Marketplace program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2000.

Currently she has exhibited at the California Museum of Photograph, Riverside, CA, DiverseWorks, Houston,TX, White Columns in New York City, SF Cameraworw, and the Houston Center for Photography in Houston, TX. In the fall of 2002, Light Work published a monograph to coincide with an exhibition of her work. Museum exhibits include "Fresh! Contemporary Takes on Nature and Allegory" at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, "Picturing Eden" and "Vital Signs" at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, "I Love the Burbs" at the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY and "Innocence" at the New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT.

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