These Unsettling Images Are Little, And Not In The Way You Think

Lori Nix‘s photography specializes in the eerie and unsettling. Her photos show evidence of natural and man-made disasters, abandoned buildings, and rolling landscapes that are pretty, but only for their looming sense of doom. Nix’s strangely artificial colors, lighting, and deceptively simple subject matter give each image the feeling of a close catastrophe, particularly one that just happened or is about to happen.

That’s not all that Nix’s work has to offer. She isn’t the type of photographer to simply go out with a camera and capture the world. Instead, Nix builds her own worlds. Each pile of rubble, overturned car, and eerily-lit window was carefully placed by Nix herself. She uses model-building materials and creates small-scale dioramas for her photos. While she takes inspiration from her current home in New York City, she knows that street or studio photography simply isn’t her bag. “My strength lies in my ability to build and construct my world rather than seek out an existing world,” she says. By building the scenes, she’s in control of exactly the feeling she wants to portray.

Nix’s earliest collection was called Accidentally Kansas, which is an exploration of her childhood in 1970s rural Kansas. “I was born in a small town in western Kansas,” she explains “and each passing season brought [its] own drama, from winter snow storms, spring floods, and tornadoes to summer insect infestations and drought. Whereas most adults viewed these seasonal disruptions with angst, for a child it was considered euphoric. Downed trees, mud, even grass fires brought excitement to daily, mundane life.”

Nix also takes inspiration from urban settings, after having lived in New York City for around 15 years. Her collection The City reflects this, as well as her fascination with apocalypse movies showing the decay of modern civilization. Here, the photos show once grand, populated areas falling into ruin. This project began in 2005, and is still ongoing.

This collection is titled Some Other Place, and shows what seems to be an eerie suburban world full of strange and sinister things under the guise of perfect, ’50s-style modern life. Full of mysterious facilities, huddled homes, and open expanses of land under moody skies, its narrative speaks to some kind of unseen menace.

Similarly, the Lost collection has an overarching feeling of disaster. Like Some Other Place, the images don’t tell a straightforward story, but rather suggest a narrative to the viewer, who can then come up with their own interpretation.

When it comes to why she chooses these beautiful yet unsettling images, and what she wants her viewers to take away from it, Nix’s message is open-ended, but has a firm foundation in accountability and responsibility. “I just want the viewer to consider their place in the world of today and their impact upon the planet,” she explains. “I do not define what has taken place in my photographs. I do not know if it is climate change, nuclear meltdown, annihilation by war, or something more unseen such as a super virus. I want the viewer to think about their actions and how they may impact the future of humanity and civilization.”

You can see more of Nix’s work on her website, and keep up with her latest pieces on her Instagram page.