Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber

In her darkly fanciful photographs, Lori Nix refracts our world in urban and rural scenes largely absent of humans, and threatened by manmade disasters or the forces of nature. As she explains: “I create photographs that depict our failing future and the demise of humanity, though I temper it with subtle humor.” Working in series, and with an 8-by-10 camera and film, Nix begins by crafting painstakingly detailed dioramas. She shoots only what she builds, based on her surroundings and inspired by the Hudson River School, current events, science fiction, and 1970s “disaster flicks.” In “Accidentally Kansas” (1998-2000), her first series, she recreated the rural Midwest in microcosm, showing its communities ravaged by ice storms and tornadoes, menaced by modern technology. In her most recent project, The City (2005-11), Nix presents visions of a decaying New York overtaken by nature.