I’m addicted to the work of various photographers that capture amazing imagery of urban life. But what about imagery of completely created spaces that don’t actually exist? Artist Lori Nix photographs spaces however the twist is that they are spaces completely created by her as dioramas and not a single thing has been edited in the computer. She even chooses to work with film. Her work, like the image above, because it creates this magical world somewhere between reality and fiction through her lens. Her scenes from “The City” bring to reality the question of what might happen when people no longer inhabit our cities and nature has taken over – the ruins of modern day life.

Other projects like “Accidentally Kansas” create images from her own memories of the bizarreness surrounding reality and “Unnatural History” is based around the 1940′s when science was a bit fuzzy.

In Lori’s words, she describes her inspiration:

I am fascinated, maybe even a little obsessed, with the idea of the apocalypse. In addition to my childhood experiences with natural disasters, I also grew up watching 1970s films known as “disaster flicks”. I remember watching Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Planet of Apes and sitting in awe in the dark. Here was the same type of dangers I had experienced day to day being magnified and played out on the big screen in a typical Hollywood way. Each of these experiences has greatly influenced my photographic work. The series Accidentally Kansas explored my personal experience with the natural disasters of my childhood. The City postulates what it would be like to live in a city that is post man-kind, where man has left his mark by the architecture, but mother nature is taking back these spaces. Flora, fauna and insects mix with the detris of high and low culture.

images via Lori Nix

The world as it is today is in many ways an alien landscape from what it once was many years ago. Industry has cut right angles and sharp edges into the earth and new materials and technologies have created unnatural forms. The spaces that are leftover are often unwordly, even disturbing. And yet the very same spaces can be intriguing and even beautiful.

After going through some old photographs recently of an area which has been greatly transformed to the point that it doesn’t even resemble nature anymore, I’m reminded of a photographer that I particularly enjoy, Edward Burtynksy. The Canadian photographer has built a career based on examining these very spaces – the landscape which has been transformed by industry. In Burtynksy’s own words:

I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.

These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire – a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.

There is also a great audio interview with Edward Burtynsky from LensCulture about his work in China. And of course, definitely check out the 2006 feature-length documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, on the work of Burtynsky and as well as his travels through China while shooting the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution.

images via Edward Burtynsky

Perhaps inspired by the most recent holiday and the fireworks show I witnessed down on Lake Union, as seen in the above photo I took from the new South Lake Union Park, I have been looking at a lot of imagery related to displays of light and the actions of electricity. However, it’s not the overall display that has caught my attention but rather the details.

Some of the most intriguing imagery is that of Hiroshi Sugimoto in his project titled Lighting Fields. The artists description of this project:

The word electricity is thought to derive from the ancient Greek elektron, meaning “amber.” When subject to friction, materials such as amber and fur produce an effect that we now know as static electricity. Related phenomena were studied in the eighteenth century, most notably by Benjamin Franklin. To test his theory that lightning is electricity, in 1752 Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm. He conducted the experiment at great danger to himself; in fact, other researchers were electrocuted while conducting similar experiments. He not only proved his hypothesis, but also that electricity has positive and negative charges.

In 1831, Michael Faraday’s formulation of the law of electromagnetic induction led to the invention of electric generators and transformers, which dramatically changed the quality of human life. Far less well-known is that Faraday’s colleague, William Fox Talbot, was the father of calotype photography. Fox Talbot’s momentous discovery of the photosensitive properties of silver alloys led to the development of positive-negative photographic imaging. The idea of observing the effects of electrical discharges on photographic dry plates reflects my desire to re-create the major discoveries of these scientific pioneers in the darkroom and verify them with my own eyes.

The images take on an interesting quality that exhibit the characteristsics of such things as water, land and vegetation – painted with brushes of light. The intricacies are amazing with softer areas that look like hair or grassy hills with bright points of light sprouting into trees. Simply stunning.

images via Hiroshi Sugimoto