Lori Nix (American, b.1969) is a photographer who is best known for her meticulously constructed subject matter. Nix was born in Norton, KS, and attended college at Ohio University, where she studied ceramics and photography. She uses this background to hand-construct her scenery. Nix uses various methods of lighting, scale, and materials to recreate visions she has for her photos. Her greatest influences include Casper David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840) and Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848).
Nix is influenced by styles of Romanticism, the sublime, and Abstract Expressionism. Her earliest project, Accidentally Kansas, began in the 1990s. Nix went on to work on Lost and The City, which is a depiction of a city that no longer has any human inhabitants. Nix has a fascination with disaster type scenarios and often incorporates such scenarios into her work, while including a snippet of humor. She is also a photographer for numerous magazines, such as O and Glamour UK.
Nix’s work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, WA, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. She has received honors such as the 2004 and 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts Individual Artist Grant. Nix currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.