From Meg Ryan Heery’s feature in American Photo:

For this year’s showcase, we asked a slew of keen-eyed photographers which images of the past 12 months stood out the most. We gathered stunners from photojournalism, fashion, fine art, and more, then made the final cut.

Is that really her living room? No. But that is a question Lori Nix wants you to ask about the pinnacle of her eight-year project, “The City,” shown at ClampArt in New York this fall. Her lifesize photographs begin as dioramas–some as small as 50 x 60 centimeters–that she builds with her creative partner, Kathleen Gerber, who adds aging and deteriorating effects. “We have a great symbiotic relationship–I build them, and she helps destroy them,” Nix says. The scenes recall the 1970s disaster movies she grew up watching, images of crumbling buildings and abandoned subways, and nature reclaiming the built environment. (By coincidence, she finished “Subway” just before Hurricane Sandy hit in late 2012. “We’re almost on the brink of disaster. We’re overpopulated and it’s getting worse, we’re killing the atmosphere with fossil fules,” Nix says. “Can we save ourselves with science or are we just too far gone?”

View a JPG of the original article
Browse all of Lori Nix’s work at ClampArt