Today you will be writing about a photograph by artist Lori Nix. This image is from her series titled The City.
Write 4 paragraphs, 5 sentences minimum per paragraph. Remember, refer to your "How to See" handout for analyzing a photograph--
Before you write, read the artist statement: I consider myself a faux-landscape photographer. I build meticulously detailed model environments and then photograph the results. Through the photographic process, the fictional scene is transformed into a surreal space, where scale, perspective, and the document of the photograph create a tension between the material reality of the scene and the impossibility of the depicted narrative. In this space, between evidence and plot, the imagination of the viewer is unlocked, engaged, and provoked. I want my scenes to convey rich, complex, detailed, and, ultimately, open-ended narratives. Several common themes prevail throughout my work: the constructed photograph, the landscape in turmoil, and danger married to humor. I present these elements as the raw materials of stories with messages, but without conclusions. The photographs I create do not reflect the tradition of the grand idyllic landscape. Rather than showing the beautiful or heroic vista, I look to the darker corners of life. I am interested in the forces of entropy, in the ruins left in the wake of human pretense of grandeur. My scenes are usually devoid of people, and this emptiness becomes an important element. In this way, the impact of civilization is shown by what remains in the absence of humans. Evidence of humans may still be visible, but the cause for their absence is left unclear, allowing the viewer to complete the narrative. In my current series The City, I focus on the ruins of urban landscapes. I have chosen the spaces that celebrate modern culture, knowledge, and innovation: the theater, the museum, and the library. Here the monuments of civilization and material culture are abandoned, in a state of decay and ruin, with natural elements such as plants, insects, and animals beginning to repopulate the spaces. This idea of paradise lost, or the natural world reclaiming itself, becomes more forceful as we face greater environmental challenges in the world around us. 4/20/2017 11:52:59 am
This image is of an abandoned library. It has dark and colorful colors in the image. The lighting is dull to emphasize the abandon feeling. There are lots of plants, books, and one giant tree growing through the library. There is not a lot happening in this image because it is taken during a dark time.
Emmet Owen
4/20/2017 11:54:30 am
This photograph by Lori Nix is of a library that was abandoned by people for a while. Lori Nix creates dystopian dioramas and then photographs them from particular angles in order to give the look that she wants. She works with a partner Kathleen on these and it can take up to seven months. When one first looks at the photograph it seems as if she had taken this photo somewhere in real life. The closer you look, the more you notice little things to show it was manufactured.
Mary Warder
4/20/2017 11:56:36 am
This image depicts a dilapidated library. This image was done by Lori Nix, and the scene is actually set up within a diorama, and that diorama is the subject of the photograph. In this image, you can see several shelves full of books. There are broken table parts littered around the floor, and trees are growing within the library. A hole in the ceiling can be seen, and the library looks overall dusty, abandoned, and destroyed. Other than the colorful books, this picture includes mostly neutral colors such as browns and grays. Despite the sunlight filtering into the room, this image appears underexposed due to the large amount of dark shadows present.
Tamyka Mena
4/20/2017 11:57:17 am
The image depicts a post-apocalyptic library. Nature is obviously taking its course and finding itself growing in the building. The image is using a lot of warm tones like green and yellow. The library is illuminated by a hole in the ceiling and the sun peaking through. There are paintings on the wall, books on the floor, and there is a globe in the bottom corner. There are no actions being depicted in the image but the stillness of it makes it even more ominous.
Bailey Dietzmann
4/20/2017 11:57:37 am
This is an image of a deserted library with plants growing inside of them. The railings are gold and the trees are vibrantly green. There's broken wood on the ground that looks like it fell from the ceiling as well. The lighting is studio lighting considering that this is a photograph of a diorama. The books on the shelves have a variety of colors and sizes. There are some shelves that contain more books in them as well as paintings on the walls aligning with the shelves. 4/20/2017 11:59:27 am
This photograph by Lori Nix is part of a ten year series called "The City" depicting how life would be like if humans were to suddenly disappear overnight. This photograph is of a two story distraught library and shows details of how it would look like if we were suddenly not there to take care of it anymore. There are two trees that have grown out from the ground and into the library. There are broken chairs on the ground, books, and torn papers all over the ground. The painting on the wall is also very distraught with the coors fading into the wall. 4/20/2017 11:59:48 am
This image is of a empty library which seems to have nature taking over. The image seems to reveal an emptiness, almost like no one has been there for a while. There is a hole in the roof because of a tree growing too big for the room itself. The books in the library are on bookshelves both in the first story of the building and in the second story. The library itself looks as if is was once beautiful but the absence of humans has allowed nature to take over. 4/20/2017 12:00:31 pm
The image is about a library that has suffered the effects of an apocalypse, or an end of the world situation. The image uses very dark and torn like colors. I think they use these specific colors in order to give the image that detail of chaos or time passing by. There are library related objects in the image this includes a globe, various chairs, books, book shelves, and various paintings.
Eric Hammond
4/20/2017 12:05:43 pm
This image is part of a Lori Nix and Cathleen Gerber's series titled "The City". "The City" is a collection of images that are in a dystopian future.So its basically a bunch of run down deserted urban areas. All of the images are sculptures and not real places. Lori and Cathleen make these sculptures in their studio where they live.
Hannah Lashway
4/20/2017 12:07:33 pm
The above photograph is a diorama from a series called "The City" by Laurie Nix. In this series Laurie Nix photographs scenes inspired by an apocalypse or post-human world where plants and animals have returned and re-inhabited the world and metropolitan areas. The catch is that all of her photographs are fake; as in they are simulated and not actual realities. All of her photographs are small scale sets that she has built with the help of Katherine Gerber. She has been building small scale dioramas since 2005.
PonI Bryan
4/20/2017 12:07:55 pm
The photograph above is of a very detailed diorama constructed by Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber. The scene is of an old abandoned library that has allowed nature to take control. From the looks of it, this photo is in the future and portrays a dystopian vibe. The colors in the photo are very eclectic. There is bright, dark, pale, and soft colors. Because of this the photo is very eye catching. The walls of the library are a faded green while some of the objects in the photo are bright. The lighting appears bright where the "sun" comes in through the hole in the ceiling. In corners and underneath objects the lighting is dark. Main objects in the image are the books, trees, and distressed items. The main thing the image shows is that time has taken advantage to a place that can be vulnerable when humans are no longer occupying a place. 4/20/2017 12:09:51 pm
This photograph, by Lori Nix shows a library with trees growing through the floor and breaking through the roof. Within the library, there also includes scattered chairs, tables and even books along the floor. The color that is most prominently shown in this image is green. Green is shown in the walls and trees and make the room seem decrepit and a bit old. Other than the dark green in some of the corners of the room, the building seems very well lit because of the light coming in from the hole in the roof.
Rylin McArthur
4/20/2017 12:10:05 pm
The image is of trees invading a library. There are all different kinds of colors in the image, but green sticks out the most. This is because the walls of the library are an olive green while the top son the trees are a darker shade of green. The lighting is studio set-up because the the photo was taken inside of the photographers house on a set that she built. The objects included in the image are a significant amount of books, flipped over tables and chairs, paintings, and of course the trees. In the image, the library is no longer used by humans, so it has been taken over by nature.
Sebastian Sotomayor
4/20/2017 12:10:13 pm
The image shows a library full of books slowly being taken over by nature. The walls are losing their color and the floor is full of rubble. Near the middle of the two story library, there is a tree growing from the torn ground, rising up towards sunlight coming from a hole in the roof. There are also two smaller trees growing from the ground on the right and left sides of the center tree. The image uses dark/bland colors to depict this scene; specially shades of green and brown. This gives the image a darker tone and a sense of erosion and age. No people are included in the image (except for the remains of some portraits framed on the wall).
Montserrat Martinez
4/20/2017 12:13:13 pm
The picture itself is of a library. An abandoned library building that has been taken over by nature. The picture depicts lack of human activity, as new species like insects and plants begin to repopulate our areas. In this case, my dream library is being colonized. There's trees and all kinds of nature related species covering the building's area. Anything could have happened to it, but judging from the amount of destroyed furniture, it was probably a natural disaster that we humans caused.
Kristina Samuel
4/30/2017 06:08:30 am
The photograph by Lori Nix depicts a worn down/abandoned library. Interestingly enough, there are trees sprouting from the ground, even though the scene is from inside the library. The floor of the library is honestly quite a mess. There are leaves. old books. and lopsided chairs scattered all over the 1st floor. However, despite the grey and gloomy scene, there is a pocket of light coming from a hole in the ceiling that brightens the overall mood of the photograph. Comments are closed.
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