The first time I came across Nealy Blau’s photographs of natural settings I was totally charmed, and quite amazed that she had found such painterly landscapes to capture. Upon further investigation, I discovered that I was not far off the mark.

“Seattle artist Nealy Blau’s photographs examine the representation of the natural world within a constructed environment. Blau takes photographs of faux natural settings in natural history museums. Unable to distinguish scale, her photographs question reality. Nealy states, “Viewing dioramas inside natural history museums can be a deliriously disorienting, slightly eerie, and discordant visual experience. Yet photographing them, I often feel or sense a presence in them that parallels my experiences in nature in fascinating and subversive ways…”