Andrea Blanch: When did you first start to make the elaborate models that are now subjects?

Lori Nix: I started The Laundromat in 2005 and it is continuing. This time next year it will be a decade. Thats a long time for a project.

AB: Do you work on anything else?

LN: I work on all kinds of other projects, I have black and white series I’ve been picking away at since 2009 called Unnatural History which spoofs the The Natural History Museum. I was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship so I’m starting that whole body of work. I won’t see the results of it until 3 or 4 years from now because I work slowly. It’s just me and my partner Cathleen; we build pretty much everything.

AB: She helps you make the models?

LN: Absolutely.

AB: Why did you gravitate towards this method?

LN: Well I’m just that type of photographer. I’ve never been a photojournalist, I tried in college, I was horrible at it. Not interested in being a wedding photographer - not interested in that whole institution. I’m a bit of a hot body so, I’m not going to be a travel photographer. I don’t have any personality to do fashion and commercial work; I have personality to stay home and create environments instead. I have a degree in ceramics so working with my hands comes pretty naturally.

AB: What do you feel is the difference between creating your subject matter and finding it out in the world?

LN: Well you have more control for one thing, so you can direct exactly what the viewer is going to see. What is interesting about these models is I only build them from one vantage point; that of the camera lens. If you take two steps to either side you will see the building materials I never finished. You will see hot glue and clamps and everything else. There is a type of photography that loos a lot like mine for urban explorers. It’s these people going into abandoned spaces all through the U.S. and E.U. and photographing. Do I really want to ben an urban explorer in New York City? No I’m not a fan of smelly places.