2.13.2008

Creating New Worlds

Museum of Art, 2005
I stumbled across the website of model-maker and photographer Lori Nix yesterday in my new quest to reacquaint myself with some contemporary photography. Nix turns her exhaustively detailed dioramas into beautiful and haunting scenes. On her info page, she describes her inspiration coming from watching disaster movies from the 70s and growing up in Kansas.
The state of Kansas is located in the middle of the United States geographically, and also represents the moral middle of the road as a state of mind where conventional family values and good citizenship go hand in hand. By linking disasters with moral imperatives Nix allows herself to question conventional codes of society at the same time as she explores the unsettling memories of her youth.
Diorama- a great way to get your photography students out from behind the lens and working with their hands.  Nix provides an excellent example of how to create a diorama based around conceptions of identity and society. 

1 Comment:

  1. Anonymous said...
    I think that this picture shows something that is beautiful but let die. Much like art has today. But, like the picture suggests, we simply need to acknowledge that it needs work and work on it.

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