Altered States of Agoraphobia

Happy New Year From ASA

2012-01-01T07:59:00.000-06:00

I wish everyone a wonderful, inspiring and creative new year, full of amazing, unexpected and beautiful experiences - may they continue into the next.

Thank you all so much for your support, enthusiasm and continuous inspiration.

It is a wonderful world and I wish you all my very best.

Cheers - with love, Simon X

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ASA

2011-12-23T08:11:00.001-06:00

Happy Holidays from the Altered States of Agoraphobia.

Many thanks for all your enthusiasm and support. Love Simon.

Automobile as Tripod

2011-12-13T14:46:00.005-06:00

Shawnee, KS

Mirriam, KS

West Bottoms, KC,MO

Dodge City, KS

Junction City, KS

Overland Park, KS

Olathe, KS

This post came about during an end of year review of some of the work I'd made. It's true that not all of these images were actually shot this year and there are in fact several others which I have not posted as part of this selection, but it has been interesting for me to filter some of my personal favorites out and view them together like this and to acknowledge the Automobile as Tripod as part of my method of working in certain conditions. Although there are several images in this style posted here, it's worth mentioning that sometimes several months, 1000's of miles and 100's of photographs sit between the making of each of them.

AUBADE Magazine Issue 7

2011-12-07T08:29:00.004-06:00

This morning I found out that Issue 7 of Christopher Turner's always wonderful Aubade magazine has been published at Magcloud. With each new issue this magazine gets better and better. Subtitled "Art and the work-a-day sublime" It contains a wide range of photography, writing, poetry and painting from across the globe and as always it is well worth ordering a copy. This issue includes one of my Overland Park photographs on it's cover.

Follow this link to buy or preview: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/309677

‘WAS HERE’ (The story of an abandoned series)

2011-12-05T13:13:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago I was invited to write a piece for the excellent photo-website fototazo.com about one of my images (which can be seen above). Below is the article which has now just been published there. My many thanks go to Tom Griggs fototazo's creator and curator. Follow the link at the end of this post to explore fototazo further.

‘WAS HERE’. (The story of an abandoned series)

It was the end of the first week after Bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals and this issue of Time Magazine was out on the news-stands everywhere and I found it both unsettling and powerfully symbolic to see his face juxtaposed openly against a backdrop of everyday American vernacular. Since moving to America in 08 I have discovered that the fear of Terrorism and Bin Laden seems to have become so much part of the American psyche, that over the years following the tragedy of 9/11, weather we would like to admit it or not, Bin Laden has become part of the group consciousness of the nation as a whole - standing as the ultimate universal archetype of evil and the biggest, most insidious threat to national and personal security. Now seeing this face crossed out in blood red ink on the cover of this latest edition of Time Magazine, this private and individual terror that so many people carried around within them every day had suddenly been externalized and it could be now seen almost everywhere I turned, mirroring in the same way that his presence was felt internally before hand. It was like a great national exorcism had taken place.

It was after seeing this issue of Time Magazine that I then had the idea that I wanted to photograph its cover whenever I encountered it, naming the series ‘Was Here’. The project would be an attempt to explore and acknowledge this dark power (and the diffusion of it) had over so many individual’s outlook and ideals. Unfortunately though, my work and school schedule was so busy at that particular time that I just did not have the chance to get out to record this image in the exhaustive manner I intended and the week the magazine was out sadly passed me by without me making a single photograph.

Luckily I did have a long road trip planned at the end of the following week which I envisioned would give me a second chance to work on it. My Mother and Brother would be coming to the USA from England to visit me and my wife and we were going to meet them in New York City where we would then rent a car and drive back to Kansas, where we live and I decided it would be here I would be given this second opportunity, but this time I would be able to explore it on a much wider geographical scale. The Magazine was no longer on the news-stands, but I had bought myself a copy and my idea was to photograph it in as many places as I possibly could both in NYC and on the long drive back to Kansas.

This particular photograph is one of the first images I made for this series and which ended up being the most successful photograph, I think, that came from. It was made on the plane somewhere between Kansas and New York City.

This project, which was actually abandoned later on the trip for various reasons, was a departure from the usual way that I work and it was partly because of this that the project ultimately failed. Usually I am not one to externally alter or set up any of my photographs, preferring to record images as I find them - to instead walk around, stand back or get close to whatever my subject may be in order to get the viewpoint which resonates as true to my personal vision as possible, always in search of a balance or harmony between self and subject with the end of hopefully transcending both. This photographs stands in contradiction to this usual way that I work and I found as time went on, that it became increasingly more difficult for me to make pictures in this way without them looking horribly contrived.

The project was also abandoned of other reasons too. I discovered, whilst shooting, that it was perhaps - after 10 years, just still too soon to be dealing with this as a subject matter somehow and I became more and more uncomfortable taking the magazine out of my satchel to set up photographs with this face in it, in spite of the presence of its big red cross and I began to draw some unwanted attention, disapproving looks and unwanted questions and also some knee jerk reactions which were at times aggressively charged. In these situations explaining what it was I was doing did not seem to help in any way either. I found this especially while I was at Ground Zero itself and also outside NYC in some of the small towns. This image above now remains as the only image from the project which I feel has truly worked.

The original article and Fototazo.com can be found here:

http://www.fototazo.com/2011/12/image-simon-kossoff.html

American Idol (part one of an on-going project)

2011-11-28T12:19:00.002-06:00

Hobby Lobby, KS

Farmington, NM

Thrift Store, KS

Jefferson,MO

NYC

Topeka, KS

Thrift Store, KS

Since arriving in the USA I have been working separately on three on-going photo projects which explore the notion of the American Idol. Until recently these individual bodies of work have been very much independent from one another, yet over time all of them have grown and developed very much in parallel and my method of working on them has been very similar in nature. Recently, whilst editing these series for possible publication at Get The Picture, the photo/collective I am a member of, I realized that these three photo series could actually sit well together as three separate chapters of the same long term project. This idea is not entirely a new one for me either as it was first touched upon last year in my interview with Sam Dickey at Amerikana Magazine, but it has taken till now to fully realize it's union and possible potential. Below is an extract from that interview:

"One project you’ve been working on has to do with images of US presidents. Can you discuss this project and what, if anything, you’ve learned about the American Presidency in the course of it?

Well, I terms of passing an exam, I’m afraid I have not learned that much. In fact a lot of what I have learnt about the Presidency has come through listening to the people I’ve met here – an oral history. This project, which is still in its early stages, is really an extension of two other series I am also working on about Elvis Presley and Jesus Christ and comes from a similar place. This project has felt a bit like I am photographing a kind of sediment – a history that has filtered down through time and settled here in the present - all these powerful leaders who at one time stood for so much have now washed up on the shores of the here and now, so to speak - their images have anyway, and then these images become culturally recycled in one form or another, whether it is in advertising, a T-shirt design, a record sleeve, a public monument, or just surface in the clutter of a thrift store. The presidents have become symbols - powerful historical markers and it has been interesting to see how and where they reappear. Right now I am keeping my eyes open and simply recording these appearances and trying to be aware of the context I discover them in, in a hope it will inform me somehow of who they were and what they stood for. It’s really a psychic history lesson I’m giving myself. This is why I like thrift stores so much. It is where all these great once new ideas, fads and fashions, heroes, villains and icons eventually all seem to end up. Walking around American thrift stores is like viewing a kaleidoscope of American culture past all under one roof - It gives me a strange kind of perspective which I understand, but find difficult to put into words."

The photographs in this post come from part one this series, under the working title of "The King of Kings & I". later I will discuss this project further with images from part two.

The full Amerikana interview can be viewed here:

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/09/resident-alien-photography-of-simon.html

Internal Landscapes (II)

2011-11-17T21:37:00.009-06:00

Hutchinson, KS

Jefferson, MO

Meteor Crater, AZ

St Louis, MO

For a while now I have had a fascination with internal and artificial landscapes. It is a theme which has threaded it's way through much of the work I have made in the USA and whenever I am lucky enough to see, or be in one, I always feel strongly compelled to photograph them. These images are a continuation of this occasional series.

I am interested in the illusion and the fantasy these places attempt to create and sometimes (in terms of my Cage series) their grim reality too. I love the theatre and suspension of disbelief which goes with standing in a themed museum for example, but what I have always found is these artificial landscapes seem to jar heavily with my own dreams, ideals and experiences and they are always, ultimately, strange, floored and sadly human.

Artificial and internal landscapes often force me to consider my own real life experience of landscapes which I have stood or lived in and questions what I have done with them myself, psychically. I think we are all filled with a lifetime - a history of landscapes, which have themselves, in turn, become a part of who we are as individuals. They become part of our own mental geography, full of archetypes, symbols and markers - integrating themselves inside, with special and personal significance. I always find it interesting and amazing, for example, when a landscape I have recently (or not recently) experienced suddenly becomes the location of a dream I have had. Why has this particular landscape or place been chosen to play out the drama of this dreams events at this time? It is something I find endlessly fascinating..

Text adapted from a previous post.

St Louis, MO

Jefferson City, MO

Part one of this post can be found here:
http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/01/wemego-ks-oz-museum-behind-curtain.html

A Flickr slideshow of my Cage series can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonpaulkossoff/sets/72157624733834338/show/

CZE Magazine 9 (American Flag)

2011-11-11T21:29:00.023-06:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More cze

Issue 9 of the always excellent CZE Magazine has just been published (in time for Veterans Day) and it can be viewed in full at issuu above. George Nabieridze; it's creator, curator and editor has once again done an incredible job putting it together. This latest issue titled 'American Flag' also contains two of my own images (on pages 72-73).

Pleasant Mount, KS

'The Pink Lady', Overland Park, KS

KY (South of Lexington)

Insurance Agent, KC,MO

Untitled

The photographs posted here are a small selection from my own American Flag collection.

It is impossible to photograph America without photographing its flag. It appears everywhere and whether it was my intention or not, it has invariably found its way into my work. Sometimes I have photographed it as a bold statement, or sometimes I have just wanted to record its presence in a certain unexpected place, like I were somehow collecting some form of private evidence - cold and artless. Other times it has made for me an interesting juxtaposition, often at odds with the main subject. Occasionally I have not even been aware that it was there at all until after the picture was made, giving a sometimes quite ordinary image a silent and surprising power of its own. The American flag is such a powerful symbol that its presence in a photograph can often move us to consider and question the true land where the photograph was made.

Robert Frank in his incredibly beautiful book 'The Americans' was a master of using this ultimate juxtaposition and the images he made in the 1950's are still, I consider, some of the finest photographs that have been made in America of America.

This text has been edited from a photo-story I posted at JPG.com a couple of years ago. A theme which was first brought to my attention by my friend and fellow photographer Jim Hart. Jim's wonderful on-going work can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim-hart/

Event

TV Area, Indoor Market, KC,MO

Postcards From Lawrence, KS (I)

2011-11-03T10:40:00.002-05:00

States of Grace (Part Two) at Netherworld Magazine

2011-11-01T08:05:00.013-05:00

Part two of my photo series 'States of Grace' has been published at the excellent 'Netherworld Magazine'. Many thanks to Marcin Klimek for doing a terrific job putting it all together. Please follow the link at the bottom of this post to view this feature (which is best viewed as a full screen slideshow) and see more of Netherworld Magazine.

STATES OF GRACE (Part Two)

STATE:

1. the condition of a person or thing, as with respect to circumstances or attributes: a state of health.

2. a particular condition of mind or feeling: to be in an excited state.

3. an abnormally tense, nervous, or perturbed condition: He's been in a state since hearing about his brother's death.

4. a politically unified people occupying a definite territory; nation.

GRACE:

1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.

2. favor or good will.

3. mercy; clemency; pardon: an act of grace.

4. favor shown in granting a delay or temporary immunity.

5. an allowance of time after a debt or bill has become payable granted to the debtor before suit can be brought against him or her or a penalty applied: The life insurance premium is due today, but we have 31 days' grace before the policy lapses.

6. the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.

Macy's

Gas Station, MO

Mission, KS

Jimmy

Tucumcari, NM

This series of photographs was made during, and also in response to my process of immigration into the United States of America from the UK. It is a personal document – a mosaic of images or even (when viewed with part one) a poem of sorts. The immigration process took approximately one year and it was a difficult and uncertain time for my wife and I. We could not make any solid future plans or put down any roots. While making this work I often felt like my own anxiety and hope was also a kind of an echo of the anxiety and hope of the nation I had arrived in, which was in the grips of recession and in the middle of an election campaign for a new President.

Follow this link to see both this feature and see more of Netherworld Magazine:
http://www.netherworldmagazine.com/presentation/simon-kossoff-2/
Both part to this series can also be viewed here at Get the Picture:
http://getthepicture.fr/En/Photographes/Kossoff/Sog.html

Cave City, KY

Remains To Be Seen (at issuu)

2011-10-31T15:49:00.004-05:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More photobook

My first photo-book Remains to be Seen is now sold out. For those interested in viewing the books layout and contents, but were unable to order a copy, it can now be viewed in full, here in issuu. Many thanks to everyone who bought a copy and showed their support for my work.

Remains to be Seen has also been featured at these websites/magazines:

La Pura Vida:
http://lpvmagazine.com/2011/10/simon-kossoff-remains-to-be-seen/#1
Landscape Stories:
http://www.landscapestories.net/issue-04/022-simon-kossoff?lang=en#1
Holy Ghost Zine:
http://www.holyghostzine.com/2011/10/simon-kossoff.html#more
Trend Hunter:
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/simon-kossoff-remains-to-be-seen
Get the Picture:
http://getthepicture.fr/En/Photographes/Kossoff/RTBS.html

Bass Pro & Cabelas (III)

2011-10-26T23:48:00.004-05:00

These photographs continue an occasional series which somehow documents my visits to the bizarre and baffling, always surprising, sometimes strange and often sad Bass Pro and Cabelas outdoor hunting and fishing superstores. To see more images from previous visits follow the links below.

Part One: http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/04/bass-pro-cabelas-i.html

Part Two: http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/04/bass-pro-cabelas-ii.html

Venustreet Book

2011-10-17T14:35:00.018-05:00

I am proud to have one of my photographs published in Charalampos Kydonakis new photo-book venture ‘Venustreet’, which contains a wide collection of photography by some of the most interesting street photographers working today (in my opinion). It’s a fabulous and excellently edited book and well worth tracking down and ordering a copy. The images which make up this book were selected from his Flickr group of the same name.

Here is Charalampos’s introduction and description of his Flickr group which also gives a flavor of the book itelf:

"This group is dedicated to the beauty of women and all those who admire it. Its subject is the feminine beauty, also the interaction between women and man (or woman and woman, who knows?) and the interaction between woman and the photographer. All this through the eyes of the street photographer.

Is it enough that a beautiful lady can create just by her presence in an image a beautiful photo of the street aesthetic? This group was made to try and answer this question. Our only matter is the photographer’s way of thinking and his/her guts to go close and to create street beauty from the beauty that one way or the other exists in reality. After the ‘click’ this beauty exists only in the unique moment caught by a photo and not in front of our eyes in real time."

Charalampos also hosts a wonderful and exciting blog which is well worth exploring. The link below is to a recent feature he made about my own work:

http://dirtyharrry.blogspot.com/2011/05/simon-kossoff.html

Venustreet book can be previewed and ordered here at this link to Blurb.com

http://www.blurb.com/books/2560879

Charalampos is himself a wonderful photographer. His Flickr photo-stream can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtyharrry/

Overland Park, KS (Continued)

2011-10-13T11:46:00.006-05:00

Here are some recent images from my Overland Park project. The text below is taken from a previous post.

My on-going project about Overland Park, KS has been my photographic playground since I moved here a few years ago and it has been the source of great inspiration and also personal insight. Many of the photographs I have made here have found their way into several sub-projects and it was also the catalysis for my recently completed Remains to be Seen series. The "Over-Land Park" has become, for me, both a window and a mirror, where I have discovered as much about America as I have about myself and my photographic vision. It is where both place and self are slowly becoming one. The objective gravity of my original and sober statement about this city is dissolving. This is something which leaves me enlightened and confused equally, every time I leave my home (or not) to photograph it.

Original Artists Statement:

Overland Park has been consistently ranked in the top 10 best cities to live in the United States, by CNN/Money magazine. Additionally, the city was ranked one of the ‘best places to raise your kids’ and also ranked 3rd for ‘America’s 10 best places to grow up’. As a photographer this news comes as an inspiration and something of a shock to me and I have decided to explore what it is that gives Overland Park this status.

Here's a link to the recent feature Urbanautica published about this series:

http://www.urbanautica.com/post/1312841707/kossoff-overlandkansas

Please view previous posts to see more from this project.

Kansas City Zombie Walk For Hunger

2011-10-03T13:43:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the Kansas City Zombie Walk. The Kansas City Zombie Walk for Hunger is in its forth year and has helped many people in the Kansas City Metropolitan Community who suffer from hunger or homelessness. I did not 'go zombie' myself, but I showed my support and made several photographs which they are more than welcome use to publicize their events.

These are some of the photographs I made that day. Eventually they will be edited then used as a kind of punctuation for a series I am working on with Pogo Books, a publisher and gallery based in Berlin, who have kindly invited me to make a book of my American pictures with them which is presently being slowly edited under the title 'Resident Alien'.

POGO BOOKS:

http://www.pogobooks.de/

More images from Zombie Walks past can be found here at 'Get the Picture':

http://getthepicture.fr/En/Photographes/Kossoff/zombiewalk.html

Remains to be Seen. Book now available.

2011-09-19T08:30:00.005-05:00

For the last 2 months I have been working on producing a book based on my photo-series 'Remains to be Seen'. After several hitches the book is now published and I finally picked it up from the printers on Friday. It was a huge learning experience for me and it was my first venture into self publishing a portfolio of my photographic work. It contains two poems and 60 photographs over 70 pages and printed in a limited edition of 100 copies which are all signed and numbered. This book is now available to order via the link below using Paypal:

To order a copy please follow this link, thank you:

http://www.jp127.com/Remains/Remainstobeseen.html

‘Remains to be Seen’ is a personal work which explores grief, loss and memory and the emotional impact these experiences have had on the way I have come to perceive the world here in the present. It’s a book of clues, keys, symbols, echoes and traces. Like latent fingerprints lifted from the psyche - made thousands of miles away from the graves of which it speaks of and recorded several years ‘after the facts’. Because of a lack of direct access to perhaps more concrete ‘evidence’ which still remains stored in a barn in England, a basement in Norway and a spare bedroom in Wales, this book has become very much a history of the present. Because of this, my only resources for making this work have been internal in nature - accompanied by a certain awareness, like a frequency that was tuned into and the series as a whole has been, to some extent, something of a ghost hunt. The sad events which have silently surrounded this project have consequently altered who I am today in ways which I am still discovering and has been part of the secret drive behind the books creation. It is not an exorcism because the possession (if this is what it is to be called) is permanent - dissolved into the self and is present more as an evolution in progress. There are seven stages of grief and this book, I believe, marks for me its final stage; Acceptance.

Follow this link to view a slideshow to the complete series:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonpaulkossoff/sets/72157624605701906/show/

ST ALBANS & WEST VIRGINIA. SOME PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHICAL FIELD NOTES (II)

2011-09-12T09:23:00.014-05:00

We pull over into the first Motel we see in St Albans. It was dark and the scattered streetlights had flickered on with a low sodium glow. In the office I was met by a friendly but slightly suspicious desk clerk of faded beauty and the first question she asks was if we were local or from out of town. This question stuck me as odd and when I asked her about it she picked her words carefully telling me she always liked to keep the locals and visitors separated and it was with this information she would use to choose our room. She was obviously hiding something and though she was genuinely glad to see us, her smile was nervous. Outside I began to understand why the clerk asked us this question as I started to see a few of these locals shuffling around in the darkness just beyond the streetlights dim illumination, half shrouded in the shadow, with wild unkempt beards, wearing dirty disheveled clothes and flashing their dark but fearful eyes in our direction “like Zombies” my brother whispered as we got back into the car.

Our rooms were located on the far side of the motel, detached from the main block and were comfortable clean and ordinary and we were happy to find them this way. After unpacking my brother and I left in search of food leaving my wife and mother in the room to settle in. Instead of backtracking on the Charleston road we decided to dive on further into the darkness of St Albans on route 60 and on a five mile drive found nothing open, but a long scattered line of neon-lit ‘Gentleman’s Clubs’, Adult Video stores and a biker bar which advertised it’s latest act on the roadside verge outside, simply as ‘Toothless Ruth’. All these dubious establishments had beat up cars and trucks parked untidily outside, all with their front wheels turned tightly inwards, as though they had swung in off the main road and parked in a hurry. There was not a soul to be seen anywhere. After driving some distance deeper into the dense forest darkness we rounded a corner and slowed down to take a closer look at what was called the ‘Playboy Motel’ which was a clap trap two story place, lit with buzzing neon, with a balcony which ran it’s length between the floors where bulging MILF’s in lingerie leaned over languidly blowing smoke into the insect infected night. On the ground floor the main entrance was guarded by a heavy man in a dark suit sitting in a chair, who surveyed the road like a machine and clocked us as we passed with hooded eyebrows. The place looked busy and I was instantly put in mind of ‘Ben’s Place’ from the David Lynch movie classic Blue Velvet. My brother and I looked at one another smiling in disbelief. “Where in god’s name are we?” he said.

After another stretch of darkness we eventually saw that unmistakable sign for McDonalds ahead of us, high up on a long pole above the tree line, ‘The Golden Arches’ as I have heard them referred to here with hideous affection. As we turned left into the shadowy strip mall where the ‘restaurant’ was located, I noticed that to our right, sitting on the river bank was some kind of military monument in the form a great cruse missile on a large stone plinth. It stood against the clear star filled night sky like some great erect penis, with its swollen bulbous war-head. This was a grotesquely fitting sight to behold after the drive we had just taken and the sights we had seen along the way.

Pulling into McDonald's, scantly dressed toothless teens chased each other around parked cars hissing at each other and cackling and inside we were met by a friendly waitress with a soft southern accent, who, recognizing our own accents, asked us lots of questions about where we were from and where it was we were heading, welcoming us to St Albans West Virginia with an almost poker face, which afterwards broke into a smile of long yellow teeth. We told her about our journey from the motel in search of food, this time with our own questions, and she began to tell us of the altogether more sinister town of Nitro which was located close by in what she referred to as ‘Chemical Valley’ and that Nitro was the true local den of iniquity which made St Albans look like nothing at all in comparison. Nitro was named after the nitro-glycerin powder and other explosives which it was the leading producer of during both world wars. Nitro, I later discovered, was also, strangely, the location of several sightings of the infamous and mysterious ‘Mothman’, a West Virginian legend who was said to be a tall and metallic looking supernatural or alien creature with shining red eyes and a giant 10 foot wingspan. The origin of this creature still remains obscure for me, but over the years has become the subject and inspiration for at least two Hollywood movies and the city is said to boast an impressive monument to it, based on its few eye witness accounts.

Part one of this account can be found here:
http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/08/st-albans-west-virginia-some-psycho.html

Ground Zero (With Time)

2011-09-11T11:01:00.008-05:00

This image is part of a failed series I made titled "WAS HERE". My intention was to photograph this particular issue of Time Magazine in as many different locations as I possibly could on my recent road trip from NYC to Kansas - from Airplanes and Airports, various tourist destinations, in Diners, Gas Stations and Motels and in all the cities and small towns I visited or passed though on our journey home. Sadly though, for many reasons, the project didn't work out . Although I found the initial idea for the series a powerful one, the images I made were unfortunately, on the whole, uninteresting and somewhat contrived to me, so it was abandoned. This picture was made at Ground Zero in NYC.

Today is September 11th and I post this photograph in memory of those that lost their lives.

ST ALBANS & WEST VIRGINIA. SOME PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHICAL FIELD NOTES (I)

2011-08-27T14:21:00.008-05:00

St Albans West Virginia is a small town about 8 miles south of Charleston and is in many ways connected by a continuous line of roadside homes, strip malls and other local business’s which did not appear to separate the two towns in any discernable way and which made our eventual arrival there an accident. Thinking we were still in Charleston, our intention was to search for a cheap motel on its outskirts, but with each mile driven beyond Charleston’s invisible city limits, we became uneasy as the settlements became noticeably more ramshackle in appearance.

On our approach the atmosphere of St Alban’s began to assert its own distinctive and grubby fingerprint with a long string of ominous billboards advertising Quick Credit Debt Relief, Narcotics Anonymous, Religious Fire and Brimstone, Military Recruitment and the dangers of Crystal Meth.

Arriving at sundown in long shadow I had the strangest feeling we were entering a forgotten place, isolated and carved out of the thick forest which surrounded it and in many ways, the forest was indeed in the process of reclaiming it, as dripping vines threaded across the power lines above the road and were slowly beginning to suffocate any structure that had been left unattended for more than a few months. With the wide green and slow moving murk of the Amazon-like Kanawha River on one side and the ever closing forest on the other, it seemed like St Albans didn’t have a chance and the road which passed between both was the only thing which kept an open pathway, holding nature at bay.

Our arrival in St Albans came after a days driving south from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on interstate 79 which at the West Virgina Stateline seemed to slice it’s way through this same dense landscape of thick forest on either side of the roadside. A forest which was dark, beautiful, oppressive and seemingly endless - layering away like a giant green steaming ocean to every horizon in every direction, rising up into the distant Appalachian mountains to the east and disappearing into a hazy almost tropical heat, obscured by low cloud and singing with a vast chorus of insects which never stopped. Apart from the beautiful empty asphalt ribbon of the road, the whole West Virginia landscape appeared empty of any visible human footprint and I was stunned again by the unspoiled vastness and beauty of the America beyond the city. It was only on our regular detours from the interstate that we came into contact with the existence of humans where narrow meandering roads wound through peeks and valleys which were littered with homesteads, farms, mills and sometimes coal mines which were all connected by the rail road; the main lifeline for these remote business’s and it’s mournful call could be heard like some huge prehistoric animal deep in the seemingly impenetrable forest.

Part (II) of these notes will be posted shortly.

Related posts from this road trip can be found here:

5 Postcards from Pittsburgh

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/07/pittsburgh-pa-5-photographs.html

Niagara Falls, NY

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/07/niagara-falls-ny.html

New York City (ASA Postcards)

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-york-city.html

Preparations for the journey

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-trip-nyc-niagara-falls-west.html

President (IV)

2011-08-03T08:20:00.017-05:00

Thrift Store, Overland Park, KS

Lincoln, Topeka, KS

Obama, NYC

Washington, Overland Park, KS (Library)

Truman, Jefferson City, MO

These images are a continuation of my series about the United States Presidents. This series is another of my long term projects which I began about a year ago and although the American presidents can be seen everywhere and often here in the U.S. I have found myself being extremely selective in my recording of them and the series presently only contains approximately 30 images to date and I consider it still very much in it's infancy.

Each United States President has become a kind of historical marker, defining a time, both historically and culturally. As an outsider, I have found it deeply compelling to see these powerful leading figures surface again from history, often unexpectedly and juxtaposed against the chaotic mosaic of present day life. In my continuing search to orientate myself within American culture, I have felt when photographing these sudden Presidential appearances, like I am somehow retrieving the memories from an Amnesiac.

My intention with this series is to eventually have a record photographically of every American president and giving myself a psychic history lesson in the process.

I will post on this blog further encounters as they occur. Part 1, 2 & 3 of this series can be found here:

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/02/president.html

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/01/president-ii.html

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/06/president-iii.html

Interview with Pistol & Fur

2011-07-26T16:27:00.002-05:00

Recently I was interviewed by Jason Hynes the editor of the excellent UK photo collective Pistol & Fur as part of the promotion for the new limited edition book that the website have published. A collection of 49 photographs by 49 photographers, including myself. This is that interview illustrated with a selection of images which until now have not (I believe) appeared on this blog before.

INTERVIEW FOR PISTOL AND FUR WEBSITE

Where are you from and where are you going?

I was born in Middlesbrough in the industrial north of England, but grew up on the south coast. First in Dorset and later Brighton in East Sussex. After a lot of traveling, I now live in Overland Park, Kansas, but plan to move to Chicago this Autumn. In terms of my photographic life, I come from Black and White, Film, Medium Format and a disciplined darkroom practice. Now I work in digital with a small Leica and make pictures in colour. I love colour. For the last three and a half years I’ve been photographing America obsessively, but I feel, as I’ve become more settled in the U.S. my work is slowly becoming much more personal in nature.

What is your inspiration?

My inspiration comes from so many diverse corners that it’s almost overwhelming to think about. I’m especially inspired by artists driven by a strong personal vision who are willing and unafraid to follow their creativity where ever it takes them - beyond their own discipline. I admire explorers and experimenters, or more to the point ‘psychonaughts’. David Lynch, Julian Cope, Jean Cocteau and William Burroughs are a few I could immediately name here. I’m inspired by those with a restless energy, the ‘mad ones’ as Kerouac once said – artists with drive and passion. I’m inspired by the journey. Those artists whose lives, whatever they do, are tangled up in the art they make and live it. These, for me are the true artists and my greatest inspiration.

What got you into photography?

Writing was my first love, but photography was always there. I studied photography with a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and I also gained a BA Honors degree in Editorial Photography at Brighton University, passing with a 1st. For me poetry and photography are quite similar in nature. They are both initially about an idea and they are both closely linked to my emotional and psychic life. I used to carry a notebook and pencil around with me everywhere and I scribbled down notes, observations and poems whenever a situation moved me. Now I carry a camera instead. Photography is a much more direct tool, for me, but the thinking behind both is very much the same. The transition from writing to photography was a natural and easy one for me to make.

Digital? film? no preference?

I love the almost sketchbook feeling of making pictures that digital can offer, but I do sometimes miss being in the darkroom, which could be at times a mystical experience. I sometimes find using a computer to process images a drag and the ethereal nature of pixels makes me nervous.

What do you hear at this moment?

Humming air conditioners, screaming Cicadas and the distant din of traffic.

If you could work on a project with any photographer living or dead who would it be and why?

I would have loved to have come to America during the 50’s or 60’s. I find that period in U.S. history and culture fascinating and many of my most beloved and respected cultural heroes, artists and writers come from this era too. Without doubt I would have loved to have shared the driving with Robert Frank while he worked on his Americans series. That book came as a revelation to me and his vision inspires me to this day. To experience and explore pre-interstate America is something I find hard to imagine, especially knowing now the sheer size and scale of this country, having made several long road trips myself. It would have been incredible..

Any news you want to share?

There are a number of on-going projects I am continually working on and I am always having ideas for new works. For several months now I have been back at school studying to be an EMT (emergency medical technician) so photography has sadly taken a bit of a back seat, but now that this course is finished I have just began work on producing a couple of books. One of these will be my Remains to be Seen project, a series of photographs which explores loss, grief, time and memory and what we do with the void left within us after the death of a loved one and how it affects the way we see the world. It is a deeply personal project for me and was a difficult one to make. It will, when completed, contain all 50 photographs from this series plus a handful of personal family snapshots. It will also include some writing from that time also, which I recently re-discovered on some floppy disks and in some old notebooks. These writings I intend to publish in their raw, floored and un-edited state and I will use them to punctuate the photographic sequence to hopefully inform and enrich the images and the book as a whole.

Also couple of months ago I was also lucky enough to get a book deal and I am presently working with a few trusted photographer friends to edit and sequence it. It’s hard work. I do not want to say too much about this right now, but I am very excited about it and I am hoping it is going to be something really special. It will be an edit of my American photographs and titled ‘Resident Alien’. When this project really starts to take some shape I’d love to come back and talk about this with you in more detail.

Pistol & Fur's excellent website and the originally published interview, set with an alternative selection of images, can be found here. Many thanks to Jason Hynes:

http://cargocollective.com/pistolfur/#788188/interviews

Follow these links below to read more interviews:

Interview with Amerikana Magazine with Sam Dickey

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/09/resident-alien-photography-of-simon.html

Interview with Head On photo-festival with Lyndal Irons

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/03/interview-with-head-on-photo-festival_28.html

Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, KS/MO

2011-07-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

Here is a selection of some of the horizontal photographs I have made along Southwest Blvd in Kansas City (I will post the vertical images another time). Southwest Blvd is a location I have kept returning to, over and over again and I am attracted somehow by it's open urban spaces, concrete, cars, chain-link fences, railroad tracks and scattered business's, making it extremely photogenic and iconic of the America within me, evoking childhood memories of a place never visited. Whilst walking around Southwest Blvd I am often filled with an eerie sense of de'ja' vu, an experience which is both strange, familiar and compelling.

On the north end Southwest Boulevard starts as 19th Street at Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City, MO, and travels southwest crossing the state line into Kansas City, KS at 31st Street and continues until crossing 39th Avenue at which point it continues as Merriam Lane. Southwest Boulevard passes through the Crossroads Arts District and the West Side Neighborhood in Missouri and also the Rosedale Neighborhood in Kansas.

Pistol & Fur Book

2011-07-20T08:47:00.000-05:00

The excellent UK based photo-collective Pistol & Fur have published a book where I have one of my photographs included in it. I have been a huge fan of P&F for a long time now and love their vision and it comes as a great honor for me to have been chosen to be part of this new project. Many thanks to Jason Hynes, it's editor and creator on what looks to be a beautiful book.Thank you.

Hers's the Blurb about the book from Pistol & Fur's website:

51 page hand-made, limited edition of 100 books, size A6 book, includes 49 colour images from 49 photographers from the Pistol & Fur Collective. Each book is hand-made to order.

Book pages are printed on professional 170gsm matt ink jet photographic paper,
Book cover is made from 100% recycled card.

Photographers included in the book are:

Anabel Navarro,Goran Jovanovic,Louis Little,Pierre Wayser,Jelena Martinovic,Shelbie Dimond,Alexander Alekseenko,Sergiy Barchuk,Stephanie Gonot,Michael J Demeo,Johann Watzke,Bez Uma,Ana Himes,Erin Meehan,Carly Scott,Erika Braukis,Riccardo Nava,Samantha Casolari,Vins Baratta,Nina Zivkovic,Sara Visconti,Johnny De Guzman,Danny Hopkins,Derek Vincent,Alex Bloundele, Hanna Kallebo Neikter,Terry Westwood,Gabriel Chemery,Pipiabat,Kirill Kuletski,Maria Kopytova,Alex Catt,Nickolay Dyadechko,Daniel Ribar,Adele M Reed,Michael ten Pas,Ana Pereira,Steven Philip Brown,Claudia Moroni,Danielle Velterelle,Elina Nilsson,Herve Demers,Ramell Ross,Vivian Weidmann,Simon Kossoff,Victoria A. Lisbet,Benedetta Falugi,Maggie Shannon,Zhengdong Xu.

To order a copy of this book or explore P&F's website, follow this link:http://cargocollective.com/pistolfur/#785355/pistol-fur

Please see this link to view Jason's personal website:

http://jasonhynes.co.uk/

New years Eve by Simon Kossoff

5 Postcards From Pittsburgh, PA

2011-07-19T07:40:00.000-05:00

AUBADE Magazine Issue 5

2011-07-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

Aubade magazine issues 5 has been published and from the looks of the preview, it promises to be another excellent journal for contemporary photography, painting and creative writing. For Chris Turner, its creator, editor and designer Aubade is a labor of love and with each new issue his editorial eye is becoming more refined in it's vision.

My gratitude and thanks go to Chris for his faith and continued interest in my own work and I am proud to have had images published in all five issues to date. The latest issue includes a photograph from Middlesbrough Kentucky, an image I made on my most recent road trip from New York City to Kansas, which, I was delighted to discover, chosen for this months cover. Thank you Chris and keep up the good work - Aubabe magazine is a very special thing.

Aubade issue 5 and it's back issues can be ordered and previewed at Magcloud's website here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/218527

Niagara Falls, NY

2011-07-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

Tourists

Gift Shop

Tourist views the Falls via iPad

Tourists

These photographs are from my recent trip to Niagara Falls. For me, Niagara is one of those almost mythical places that I had always, especially as a child, dreamed of visiting. I have discovered though, the reality of these dream locations is an altogether different experience. Like all the great mysterious, beautiful, powerful and legendary landscapes, such a the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and the Pyramids at Giza, it came as no surprise to me that Niagara Falls, like all the others, was heaving with tourists attempting to fulfill the same romantic dream as my own.

Regardless of the crowds, which could not be in any way avoided and which became part of my photographic vision of the place, Niagara Falls left me spellbound and ultimately wordless with it's awesome beauty.

Topeka's First Zombie Walk for Hunger.

2011-06-27T08:23:00.001-05:00

On Friday was Topeka's First Zombie Walk for Hunger. Being a huge fan of director George A Romero's 'Dead' movies, I have naturally also become a fan of these these great fun 'real life' events. Over the last couple of years I have attended the Kansas City Zombie walks, (who organized this one), which have always been a great success and raised much needed funds to feed the homeless and hungry in the KC metropolitan area. I have always enjoyed making photographs at these Zombie Walks and the images I have always attempted to capture have not strictly been journalistic, but instead more symbolic in nature and some of the images I have made have become important elements in a few of my past photographic projects.

More images from these events can be seen as a photo-feature at 'Get the Picture's website:

http://getthepicture.fr/En/Photographes/Kossoff/zombiewalk.html

President (III)

2011-06-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

Washington

Monroe

Lincoln

Lincoln and Kennedy

Obama

Lincoln

G W Bush

These images are a continuation of my series about the United States Presidents. This series is another of my long term projects which I began about a year ago and although the American presidents can be seen everywhere and often here in the U.S. I have found myself being extremely selective in my recording of them and the series presently only contains approximately 25 images to date and I consider it still very much in it's infancy.

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/02/president.html

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/01/president-ii.html

New York City (ASA Postcards)

2011-06-20T17:17:00.001-05:00

Here are a few images from my recent trip to New York City. This is my second visit to this fabulous and beautiful city. NYC's continually shifting cultural Kaleidoscope of imagery came again as a great inspiration for me - almost to the point of overload, but I loved every moment of it. I will post more photographs from here later, along with images from the rest of this latest road trip when I have completed the writing I'd like to use to accompany it.

Landscape Stories Issue 4. (Remains to be Seen)

2011-06-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

A selection of images from my new photo series 'Remains to be Seen' has been published with an original poem in issue 4 of the excellent on-line magazine 'Landscape Stories'. I have been a huge fan of this magazine for a while now and I am honored to be included in this new issue which explores the idea of Traces.

Created in 2010, Landscape Stories is an independent and free online magazine dedicated to the presentation of stories and photographic work. Their aim is to connect a growing number of readers deeply with fine art contemporary photography. Their goal is to bring together a collection of photographers from around the globe and to present their work to a wider audience. Landscape Stories encourage photographers to offer their vision of the world, relating to a certain topics and themes.

Issue #4 TRACES

Traces is the title of Landscape Stories number 04. Trace, clue, wake. Path, scratch, furrow. Print, brand, footprint. Testimony, memory, documentation. Evidence, finding, remain. From the big and transient proportions of Earth and landscape’s skin scars, we go closer until we can decipher and try to understand the wounds that mark the face of a human being. The words that come to our mind are those by Wemer Herzog, about some faces from the film “Herz aus Glas” that recall landscapes.

“I’d be prudent, I’d rather think about the strange phenomena that one has when he looks at some pictures from the 50s, for example. One realises straight away that they are faces from the 50s. In reality I can’t think of faces as if they were like landscapes, maybe I’m particularly allergic to the idea because Kinski always shouted at me when I filmed landscapes. He told me that the human face is by far the most fascinating landscape”

The publication of this personal body of work, which is an exploration of loss, comes poignantly on the eight year anniversary of the passing of Tonje Andersen, who was my long time partner and friend - A great artist too, who will always be missed.

Landscapes Stories, Remains to be Seen feature can be found here:

http://www.landscapestories.net/issue-04/022-simon-kossoff?lang=it#1

Landscape Stories wonderful website can be found here.

http://www.landscapestories.net/?lang=en

AUBADE Magazine Issue 4

2011-06-01T09:24:00.000-05:00

I arrived home last night from what was a wild road trip (more on this later) to discover I have a couple of photographs published in the new issue of Aubade Magazine, issue 4. With each issue this wonderful magazine gets better and better and it is well worth ordering a copy if you have the chance. As always, many thanks to Chris Turner for all his time and energy creating it. It's a special thing.

Here's the blurb:

"Issue 4 of Aubade Magazine contains art by John Patrick Byrne (Painter & Playwright) and Mayako Nakamura, photography by Meral Guler, Jan Cieslikiewicz, Fredrik Holmer, Don Hudson, Jules Dernier amongst notable others, writing by C C Turner and J J Turner, some Egglestonian photos courtesy of NASA and a public warning section illustrating the clear dangers of parking beneath bridges in Bethnal Green, London."

See a preview or order a copy of AUBADE Magazine issue 4 here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/202221

Joplin, MO

2011-05-23T08:05:00.000-05:00

A huge Tornado passed close to Overland Park on Sunday night, shaking our home as the sirens sounded. I heard this morning that this Tornado hit hard the southern Missouri city of Joplin, causing massive devastation. I know Joplin, having passed through it on one of my route 66 trips made a few years ago. I have considered driving down there today, but it is not possible because I need to prepare for my trip to NYC early tomorrow morning. Here are a few of the images I made in and around Joplin on that trip. My thoughts go out to the people of Joplin in this desperate time.

" A massive tornado that tore through the southwest Missouri city of Joplin killed at least 89 people, but authorities warned that the death toll could climb Monday as search and rescuers continued their work at sunrise.

City manager Mark Rohr announced the number of known dead at a pre-dawn news conference outside the wreckage of a hospital that took a direct hit from Sunday's storm. Rohr said the twister cut a path nearly six miles long and more than a half-mile wide through the center of town, adding that tornado sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down on the city's west side.

Much of the city's south side was leveled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to ruins.

Fire chief Mitch Randles estimated that 25 to 30 percent of the city was damaged, and said his own home was among the buildings destroyed as the twister swept through this city of about 50,000 people some 160 miles south of Kansas City."

Report from KCTV5's news website:

http://www.kctv5.com/news/27984786/detail.html

Video of the storm can be viewed here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13501695

Road Trip: NYC-Niagara Falls-West Virginia-Nashville-Kansas.

2011-05-21T07:21:00.000-05:00

The road to Dodge

Along I-70 East (Truck Stop)

Groom, TX

Ottawa, KS

I-35 East

Road to Rolla, MO

Ottawa, KS

Road to Monument Valley, AZ

Next week I will be meeting my Mother and Brother in New York City. I haven't seen my family for over three years and I am looking forward to it very much. After flying to NYC we will spend some time exploring the city and then rent a car in Manhattan (booked here) and drive it back to Kansas after first taking a northern detour to visit Niagara Falls, a place I have always wanted to see, but until now, not had the chance. My Mother has never before visited the U.S. and I can think of no better way of giving her a flavor of it's massive scale and geographic diversity than taking a road trip by car.

From Niagara we intend to head directly south through Pennsylvania, making various stops along the way and then traveling the length of West Virgina (weaving the 'Red Roads' which will be the title of a future photo series). West Virginia is one of the poorest and most beautiful States in the union, I hear, and I have longed to see and explore it. We will then begin heading west into Kentucky to the small town of Middlesbough, a destination chosen by my mother because it shares the name of the northern England City she was born and raised in. From there we will travel south to Nashville before making the last leg of our journey back home to Kansas City. There will, I'm sure be a lot of meandering along the way too and a lot of photography stops, which will I'm positive will be a powerful test of my wife Jenny and my family's patience. It will be a journey of approximately 2400 miles, a distance which anyone from England will find incomprehensibly huge.

The preparations and time leading up to a road trip, for me, is one which is always filled with both apprehension and excitement. It is a time when my confidence photographically is at it's most vulnerable and it forces me to put every previous image I've made under great scrutiny making me ask, what is it that I am ultimately doing here? I try to pre-visualize the trip and plan the work I will make and the things I will see. Experience though, has told me, again and again, this is an impossible thing to do and I know that any road trip should be embarked upon without expectation of any kind, with the exception of faith and trust. I am acutely aware that I am about to enter the unknown where reality will present itself along with all it's myth and legend, in ways I cannot yet imagine, with whatever photographic projects and ideas I have in mind. It's a beautiful, exciting and pure experience, close to that of a meditation where the present will be continuously unwrapped from moment to moment. America by car with little more than my companions, a map, camera, note book and those dreams.

Gas Station, MO (I-70)

The Over Land Park

2011-05-19T08:44:00.000-05:00

As a follow up to my last post, yesterday, about 'The Over Land Park', here is another selection of photographs from this on-going project.

Overland Park / Over-Land Park. Some Thoughts.

2011-05-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

Original Artists Statement:

Here's a link to the recent feature Urbanautica published about this series:

http://www.urbanautica.com/post/1312841707/kossoff-overlandkansas

Below is a link to an (un)edited, work in progress slideshow of this series at Flickr:

More form the now called 'The Over-Land Park' project can be seen in previous posts.

Cage series. New Images

2011-05-17T07:56:00.000-05:00

Here are some new images from my on-going series 'Cage'. This long term project first began approximately two years ago and I have only added images occasionally, when the opportunity has arisen. Including these new photographs the edit presently stands at 25 and it is still very much a work in progress.

Below is a quote from a previous post about the exploration of these cages and other 'internal landscapes':

"For a while now I have had a fascination with internal and artificial landscapes. It is a theme which has threaded it's way through much of the work I have made so far in the USA and whenever I am lucky enough to see and be in one, I always feel strongly compelled to photograph them.

I am interested in the illusion and the fantasy these places attempt to create and sometimes (in terms of my Cage series) their grim reality too. I love the theatre and suspension of disbelief which goes with standing in a themed museum for example. I always find that these artificial landscapes jar heavily with my own dreams, ideals and experiences and they are always, ultimately, strange, floored and sadly human.

These artificial and internal landscapes often force me to consider my own real life experience of landscapes which I have stood or lived in and questions what I have done with them myself, psychically. I think we are all filled with a lifetime - a history of landscapes, which have themselves, in turn, become a part of who we are as individuals. They become part of our own mental geography, full of archetypes, symbols and markers - integrating themselves inside, with special and personal significance. I always find it interesting and amazing, for example, when a landscape I have recently (or not recently) experienced suddenly becomes the location of a dream I have had. Why has this particular landscape or place been chosen to play out the drama of this dreams events at this time? It is something I find endlessly fascinating.."

A slide-show of the series can be viewed here:

Postcards from St Louis, MO (Vertical)

2011-04-29T06:36:00.001-05:00

AUBADE Magazine Issue 3

2011-04-25T11:51:00.000-05:00

The latest issue of AUBADE magazine has now been published and contains another fabulous collection of photographs, artworks and writing from artists across the world. Issue 3 also includes a recent image of my own, made on the road to Dodge City earlier this month. Many thanks to Christopher Turner for his passion, vision and hard work on what looks to be another great journal.

AUBADE Issue 3 can be previewed and purchased from Magcloud here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/187338

"Aubade Magazine Issue 3 is a kalaidoscope of work-a-day artistic topography - writing by cult US writer James Brown, photography by David Solomons, Dave Mason, Andy Brown and Simon Kossoff, Robert Saucier amongst luminous others, art by Mayako Nakamura, poetry by Didi S Gilson...Oh, and some unidentified objects sketched by a fearful public and sent to the ministry of defense."

Marcus Haydock (new website)

2011-04-19T09:03:00.001-05:00

Marcus Haydock (Via Skype)

My good friend and photographer Marcus Haydock has re-visioned his website. He has included a new series and extended a few of his previous projects and included several new (and old) images. Marcus was also my room-mate at college where we attended Brighton University’s excellent BA honors degree in Editorial Photography. It was here we became friends and often worked closely, sharing ideas, opinions, the process of editing and life. Over the past 15 years our friendship has grown and I have come to know his wonderful work intimately which has always been a revelation and inspiration.

Follow the link below to see Marcus’s new website:

http://www.marcushaydock.co.uk//Marcus-Haydock-photograper-home

Postcards from America

2011-04-10T09:07:00.000-05:00

Overland Park, KS

Last night I was pleased to discover that one of my very recent photographs, from my EMT school in Overland Park, KS had been published on the new Magnum blog as part of the 'Postcards from America' project. It was chosen by photographer Alec Soth, who set up a Flickr group in search of insightful images of America today from outside this prestigious photo agency.

I am always really grateful when my work is posted on a blog and it is something which always comes as a pleasant surprise for me. This particular blog post is an important one to me personally, because this new Magnum project appears to run parallel, in many ways, to my own on-going personal work and also that of ASA(II); my Flickr group and it's companion blog. Many thanks Alec for this small exposure, it means a lot.

Here is the intro to the Flickr group and Postcards project:

"In May 2011, five Magnum photographers will travel from Texas to California in the first of a series of trips documenting post-millennial America. Along with encouraging people to follow the journey on our blog, we're asking you to submit your own images of America.

We're looking for new images and video (made between April 1 and May 25, 2011) that give us insight into what America is like today. We'll be regularly highlighting our favorites on our blog.

At the end of trip, we'll be displaying these selections alongside our own in a special exhibition in Oakland. We look forward to your postcards."

Postcards from America's blog can be viewed here:

http://postcardsfromamerica.tumblr.com/

Alec Soth's Flick group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/postcardsfromamerica/

As an update to this post I have discovered that another of my photographs has been chosen for this project and appeared on the 'postcards' blog this morning (26th April, 2011). this image is from my recent easter weekend trip to St Louis.

39th St, KC, MO (II)

2011-04-07T07:36:00.001-05:00

Here is another selection of images made along Kansas City's 39th St. These photographs could be described as impressions really, more than that of a guide book document. 39th St is a place I visit often. It has some great restaurants, an excellent vintage clothes store and a very good second hand music shop. It is also the home of Prosperos Books which is a used book store full of rare and hard to find gems.

39th St is one of the earliest suburban neighborhoods to flourish in Kansas City's turn of the last century's expansion, 39th Street West was served by two light rail lines: a single-track streetcar line running to Rosedale, and the "Strang Line" providing a direct connect to areas further south, like Olathe.

39th St Impressions Part (I):

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/11/39th-st-kansas-city.html

Prosperos Bookstore:

http://www.prosperosbookstore.com/?page=Home

La Pura Vida Magazine. Issue One

2011-04-06T14:04:00.000-05:00

The excellent photography website La Pura Vida have published a magazine. Issue one is called 'Fragments and Collisions'. So far I have only viewed the preview of it, but it looks like something very special and I look forward to receiving my copy in the mail shortly. I am also pleased to say that I have a photograph included in the 'Group Show' section of this magazine - an image from my on-going Overland Park project.

Many thanks to Bryan Formhals, it's editor and the team which helped put this terrific looking publication together. I am in the company of some wonderful and talented photographers there.

LPV is an online and print magazine dedicated to contemporary documentary and fine art photography. Our aim is to provide a platform for emerging and amateur photographers to showcase their work in interesting ways. In our essays, we explore the evolving nature of photography in the digital age and how social media and technology are creating new opportunities for photographers and publishers.

To preview or order a copy of La Pura Vida Magazine please follow this link:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/173566

A slideshow of the Group Show, Fragments and Collisions can be seen here:

http://lpvmagazine.com/2011/04/group-show-fragments-collisions/#1

Some interesting articles about the magazines background and creation can be found here:

Intro: http://lpvmagazine.com/2011/04/introduction-fragments-collisions/

Welcome: http://lpvmagazine.com/2011/04/welcome-to-lpv-magazine/

Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson.

2011-04-01T17:20:00.000-05:00

I have made two visits to the fabulous Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. The first visit was not long after I arrived in the U.S. and it was one of the first road trips I made. At that time I was overwhelmed by everything I saw and in an almost paralyzed state of culture shock and it took me several months to gain some sort of equilibration photographically. At the best of times my photographing was erratic and I felt very much the alien I was/am and it is strangely fitting that the Cosmosphere was one of the first museums I visited.

It was over that first winter when I slowly I began to pick up on various photographic threads which I wanted to explore further. Ideas and projects then began to take shape and some of these early Cosmoshere images found themselves part of my first two projects, 'Running on Empty' and 'States of Grace'. The images posted here were made on both Hutchinson visits. On the second visit I did not go into the museum itself, but instead became fixated on the grounds surrounding it and found the contrast between these imposing relics from the space race standing amongst an everyday American vernacular too irresistible to not record.

Here is some background and information taken from the Kansas sampler website:

The Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center is one of The 8 Wonders of Kansas because it has one of the most significant collections of U.S. and Russian space artifacts in the world!

The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, conceived by long-time Hutchinson resident Patricia Carey, is one of America's premier space centers. Making its start as a small planetarium on the Kansas State Fairgrounds, the Cosmosphere is now an internationally-acclaimed staple of the space science community.

Educating patrons from around the globe, the Cosmosphere boasts the Hall of Space museum, one of the most significant collections of U.S. and Russian space artifacts in the world; the Carey IMAX Dome Theater, one of only 14 IMAXR dome theaters in the world; a planetarium; and astronaut training camps for all ages.

Located in central Hutchinson, the Cosmosphere, a non-profit organization, is unique to Kansas. Its Hall of Space Museum is one of only three museums in the world to display flown spacecraft from all three early-manned space programs - Mercury (Liberty Bell 7), Gemini (Gemini 10) and Apollo (Apollo 13).

In regard to depth and size, the Cosmosphere's space artifact collection is second only to that of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Similarly, the Cosmosphere's Hall of Space Museum harbors the largest collection of Russian space artifacts outside Moscow.

Proudly placed in Kansas, the Cosmosphere has also taken part in many documentaries and films. Most notably, the Cosmosphere built the spacecraft and hardware used in the movie Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks.

Kansas Cosmosphere website:

http://www.cosmo.org

Kansas Sampler:

http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/8wondersofkansas-view.php?id=14

Interview with Head-On Photo Festival (unedited)

2011-03-28T15:37:00.001-05:00

I was recently interviewed by Lyndal Irons from the Head-On photography festival in Sydney, Australia about my blog; The Altered States of Agoraphobia Flickr group project and it's companion blog ASA(II). Lyndal did a wonderful job turning this interview into a beautifully illustrated article with images from the Flickr group pool, which was then published at the Head-On blog.

I have since been asked by a few people to see the unedited interview, so I have decided to publish it here for the first time with an alternative selection of photographs from the on-going Flickr project, including some new photographs I made on the road from our recent trip to Dodge City and Hutchinson, KS.

The Head On Photo Festival is Sydney’s major innovative showcase for Australian and international photography, reflecting a vibrant, diverse cross-section of new and traditional photographic practices covering all genres. Head On aims to present good photography regardless of the celebrity of either the subject or photographer. Events for 2011 will include indoor and outdoor exhibitions, screenings, workshops, a seminar as well as some special events. Venues include public and commercial galleries, cafes, park-lands and the streets of Sydney itself.

Many thank to Lydal for giving me this oppotunity to talk about the ASA project.

Head-On's website can be found at this link: http://headon.com.au/

When did you start Altered State of Agoraphobia?

I started Altered States of Agoraphobia (ASA) about a year and a half ago.

Under what circumstances?

I’d been in the U.S for about a year and a half and had made quite a bit of work. America came as a great inspiration photographically and I was buzzing with all sorts of ideas. I had taken several long road trips, seen quite a lot of the country and had also kept a few written journals along the way. I was also beginning to develop several photo projects which I was excited about and I was looking for a place to explore them further. I had already been posting images at Flickr and was an active member of its community, but I felt I needed to focus and edit my projects in a more personal space. At that time I was also beginning to have exhibitions locally and I needed a place to let people know when and where they were.

What were you attempting?

I wanted something which showed my work in progress and to also help me think about what it was I was doing. In the introduction to ASA I state that these images could be described as a collection of psychic co-ordinate points I have plotted between the imagined America that I brought with me from England and the real America which I found on my arrival in 08. It was my search for a kind of personal orientation between the dream or idea of a place and my actual experience of it in reality. Ultimately it is a journey which explores the destination. ASA has also been for me, the digital equivalent of laying prints out on the floor to see what I’ve got, and it has helped me think about where I’m going photographically. Starting ASA seemed like the perfect place for this exploration and it has since proved to be a valuable tool in my creative process.

What response did you get from people?

The response to ASA has been fantastic. And I think it gave those who already knew my work (and also those who didn’t) an idea of what I was doing in a broader sense. Showing them something of the framework I was using to build my various projects around and how they were connected. I know, for many people, ASA helped to put my work into a context, which made it easier to access. I’ve had some encouraging and insightful feedback from people right across the world and this has been affirming and a source of continuous inspiration which has contributed to my growth as an artist. What really makes my day though is when I hear that someone has discovered my work for the first time, having stumbled onto it from somewhere else, where I might have had only a single image published.

How big has it grown in readership?

For the purpose of this interview I have just checked my stats and I have had over 7000 visits in all. These visits have come from right across the globe too. It’s exciting to think that my work is being viewed, and I hope enjoyed, by such a widely dispersed audience. When I compare this though, to the stats of Altered States of Agoraphobia (II) which is the blog I set up as a companion to the Flickr group which I started only a few months ago, this number is small. ASA(II) is getting over a 1000 visits a month and growing in popularity all the time.

What motivated you to begin the Flickr pool? How many people now contribute?

The Flickr pool came about at a time when I was unable to get out and make pictures myself after I decided to return to school. At the same time I was seeing all this amazing work posted on Flickr and I wanted to focus it somehow and starting a Flickr group seemed to me the natural thing to do. I was seeing so many wonderful images made by other photographers from every corner of the United States who were photographing places I had not visited myself but wished I could, and were shooting some really interesting and original work. It was then when I decided to invite some of these photographs to join the group as a way of extending the work I’d made with my own projects. My intention was, with the help of other like-minded artists and photographers make an extensive psychological, geographical and cultural investigation into the United States by what I call its ‘Resident Aliens’. In the ASA(II) blog intro I call it a contemporary photographic exploration into both the psyche of the artist and also a document of the world in which he or she inhabits and the forces acting on both. The group has only been running for just a few months and it already has almost 200 members and close to 3000 images in it.

In ASAII (your edited showcase of the best of your Flickr group) what are you looking for when you're curating?

This is my first experience of acting as ‘curator’ and I have mainly felt my way through it and trusted my instincts about which images work and which do not. It’s a really subjective thing and at the end of the day my choices have been made purely on personal taste, but yet anchored firmly in the concept of the group too. There are certain themes I am particularly attracted to, but I am open to consider anything which moves me. When I post a run of images on the blog I always try to sequence them into a loose narrative, unlike the ‘image of the day’ photographs which generally stand alone. There are so many really extraordinary images in the Flickr group pool and refining them for the ASA(II) blog has been sometimes a difficult, but interesting challenge. As a guide I have always very much stuck as closely to the ‘rules’ I set down for the Flickr group and I have mainly chosen images which tell me something not only about the subject which is being photographed, but also says something, I believe, about the photographer who made it. In that respect ASA(II) is a place where 1+1=3.

What are you cutting?

When I first opened the group I allowed every photographer who joined to submit three images a day and it did not take long for the submissions to build up quickly and I was suddenly overwhelmed by images which I had to either accept into the group pool or deny. Most I denied, because the group was not open long and it took a while for people to tune into what I was looking for. There were however, a handful of photographers, who took up the challenge with ease and I immediately included these images into the group pool to set both a standard and example of what I was looking for and I began building the pool from there. I also then cut down the submissions to one image a day in a hope of making members consider their submissions more carefully and this has worked well. In terms of what I am cutting, this has again been a totally subjective thing and difficult to put my finger on.

What's surprised you during the process?

I guess I never expected such a positive response to this project in such a short amount of time. In just a few weeks of the group opening, for example, I was contacted by Brian Formhals who runs the excellent photography website La Pura Vida, inviting me to make ASA a regular feature in the form a monthly selection of images made from the group pool and accompanied by a text. After I put together the first of these features I decided to hand it over to the group members, because it was about their experiences of America after all. I have had a terrific response to this also and seen, so far, some inspired and varied submissions. I regularly post these features on the ASA(II) blog and the 3^rd La Pura Vida feature will appear later this month.

Any thoughts on the future of ASAII?

I have had several ideas. My initial intention for the group was to produce, once the group was up and running, a quarterly magazine of some kind, but recently I have also been thinking perhaps a book too. I also have designs on having an ASA exhibition at some point also. I have not made any steps towards this yet because I have had very little free time recently because of school, but I would love to find a space to show actual prints of some of this incredible work and I think it deserves it. I will see how things pan out when I graduate in May.

Anything else you'd like to add?

In my experience, Flickr has an amazing photographic community and some incredible photographers have accounts there, posting some of the most interesting, cutting edge and original photography I’ve seen anywhere. In many ways I consider Flickr the front line in photography today. Great things happen there all the time and it’s a wonderful place to collaborate, weather it be part of an exhibit, magazine or book ( on-line or in print). The ASA project could never have happened without this talented and passionate network of artists and it's exciting to be part of it. Before I discovered Flickr I felt very much like I was working in a vacuum and the only work I had access to was that of established artists presenting polished bodies of work. I’ve since discovered that communities such as Flickr and also JPG.com are the raw pool from which many talented photographers find focus and direction and emerge with some really inspiring projects.

Click this link to watch a slideshow of the group ASA pool

To view the individual photograph credits for this post please click the image. Unfortunately I was not able to list the artists names below the images, like I usually do, on this particular post.

Lydal Irons original Head-On article can be found here:

http://headon.com.au/blog/altered-states-agoraphobia

The ASA(II) blog can be found here:

http://alteredstatesofagoraphobia2.blogspot.com/

The ASA Flickr Group Project can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/alteredstatesofagoraphobia/

The First La Pura Vida feature can be found here:

http://lapuravidagallery.com/blog/2011/01/altered-states-of-agoraphobia-1-no-drag-like-u-s-drag/

Hutchinson Salt Museum, KS

2011-03-27T22:08:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago I took a short two day and much needed road trip to western Kansas. Traveling from Overland Park my wife and I drove west on I70 to Salina (Please see a previous post exploring this town) where we then headed south to see Dodge City on the Oklahoma state-line. From Dodge we began our trip back, making Hutchinson and it's Salt Museum our last stop. For me this was largely a photographic expedition to visit several places I have intended to visit, but not yet had the chance.

To be back out on the American road was as wonderful and inspiring as ever and came, as always, with several unexpected and amazing encounters, many of which I made pictures of and will share in future posts, here at this blog.

The Kansas Underground Salt Museum

The Kansas Underground Salt Museum is one of The 8 Wonders of Kansas because it showcases the natural treasure, salt that exists hundreds of feet below the Kansas plains.

Hutchinson seized the unique opportunity to provide a destination attraction for the citizens of Kansas, the United States, and the world to explore an exotic environ carved from salt deposits formed 280 million years ago, 650 feet below the surface.

In the United States there are 16 salt mines but Hutchinson is the only one, in fact the only one in the Western Hemisphere, which has an underground museum open to tourists. There are only two other underground salt museums in the world and they are in Poland and Austria. People from throughout the country have clamored for an opportunity to visit the Hutchinson salt mine.

The adventure at the Kansas Underground Salt Museum begins on board a double-decked elevator that takes visitors to the salt deposit 650 feet down. Upon arriving underground, they board a tram that takes them into mined out areas where they will see naturally occurring geologic formations and artifacts left behind by miners over a period of 85 years. They then have the opportunity to wander through exhibits that tell the story of salt mining, the geological history of the area and how these vast salt caverns under Hutchinson have been used to store over seven million documents.

The mine's perpetual 68 degrees and 40 percent humidity make it a great place to for the storage of unique, often secret and very rare or treasured cultural artifacts. A company named Underground Vaults and Storage has been doing that here since the 1940s, founded by ex-GIs who saw a similar operation in Nazi Germany. Visitors aren't allowed into the vaults, but you can tour a small exhibit, which includes movie memorabilia such as James Dean’s shirt from Giant, the costumes from the Batman movies and the Matrix. It also stores the master prints of Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and thousands of other Hollywood films.

The text for this post has come from and been adapted from two websites:

http://kansassampler.org/ Kansas Sampler

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/12232 Roadside America

Mission, KS

2011-03-24T07:53:00.000-05:00

These photographs were made in Mission, Kansas over the last year. They probably say more about me, than the actual physical place. I do not visit Mission often, except on certain errands I have needed to run. It has been on these errands that these (collected) photographs were made.

Here's some background about Mission from the city's website:

Mission was a stopping point for covered wagons on the way west via the Santa Fe Trail. Because of the clear blue water in free-flowing springs, these pioneer ancestors looked forward to setting up campsites in Mission. The springs, likewise, enticed the first residents of Mission, since the precious water was free. Mission grew as America grew, becoming the first suburb of Kansas City and has emerged as a sophisticated cosmopolitan neighbor on the east.

City Website: http://www.mission-ks.org/index.aspx

AUBADE Magazine Issue 2

2011-03-05T16:18:00.000-06:00

I was really excited to find out today that 4 images from my recent trip to the Oz Museum in Wemego, KS have been published in the second issue of the excellent arts magazine Aubade. Many thanks to Christ Turner for selecting these images and showing faith and support for my various on-going projects and also for all his hard work in editing and designing what looks like another wonderful issue. I am truly honored and I am in the company of some fantastic artists there.

"Issue 2 of Aubade Magazine contains photography, writing and art from artists all over the world. Paintings from Japan, poems from Australia, photography from the streets of London, Paris, Stockholm, Washington DC and Antarctica." -(& Kansas of course :-)

Unpublished image from the Oz Museum series

Follow this link to view more from Wemego, KS Oz Museum (behind the curtain)

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2011/01/wemego-ks-oz-museum-behind-curtain.html

To order and preview Aubade issue 2 please follow this link:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/168848

Overland Park, KS

2011-03-02T16:42:00.001-06:00

Remnants of Valentines Day. Part of the on-going 'Overland Park' project.

More of this project can be viewed in earlier posts on this blog or follow this link to view the feature that Steve Bisson of the wonderful landscape photography website 'Urbanautica' posted on this developing series here:

http://www.urbanautica.com/post/1312841707/kossoff-overlandkansas

'States of Grace' (part one) published at Netherworld Magazine

2011-02-28T07:34:00.000-06:00

I found out this morning that part one of my photo series 'States of Grace' has been published at the excellent photography website 'Netherworld Magazine'. Many thanks to Marcin Klimek for doing a terrific job putting it all together. Please follow the link at the bottom of this post to view this feature (which is best viewed as a full screen slideshow) and see more of Netherworld Magazine.

STATES OF GRACE (Part One)

STATE:

1. the condition of a person or thing, as with respect to circumstances or attributes: a state of health.

2. a particular condition of mind or feeling: to be in an excited state.

3. an abnormally tense, nervous, or perturbed condition: He's been in a state since hearing about his brother's death.

4. a politically unified people occupying a definite territory; nation.

GRACE:

1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.

2. favor or good will.

3. mercy; clemency; pardon: an act of grace.

4. favor shown in granting a delay or temporary immunity.

6. the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.

Worlds of Fun, KS

Immigration Lawyer's Office

Waffle House

Event

This series of photographs was made during, and also in response to my process of immigration into the United States of America from the UK. It is a personal document – a mosaic of images or even (when viewed with part two) a poem of sorts. The immigration process took approximately one year and it was a difficult and deeply uncertain time for my wife and I. We could not make any solid future plans or put down any roots, just in case. While making this work I often felt like my own anxiety and hope was also a kind of an echo of the anxiety and hope of the nation I had arrived in, which was in the grips of recession and in the middle of an election campaign for a new President.

Follow this link to see both this feature and see more of Netherworld Magazine:

http://www.netherworldmagazine.com/

Motels (III) The Most Haunted Places in America

2011-02-25T06:41:00.000-06:00

Holbrook, AZ (Wigwam Motel II)

Knob Hill, KY

Santa Fe, NM

Conway, TX

Little Rock, AR

This is a selection of images from my on-going series about Motels (The Most Haunted Places in America).

When I'm traveling I like staying in cheap motels. There's something about them which captures my imagination. I love the atmosphere, the dated and crumbling decor, the buzzing neon signs, the musty smell of the rooms and the people that use them. I love to listen to the stories of those that work in the office. I love the plastic dusty flower displays, stale coffee, the old TV's and faded pictures hanging on the walls. I love the cracked cement parking lots, the broken coke machines and the Bible in the bedside draw with the broken back.

What I love most of all are the dreams I have in the bumpy uncomfortable beds after a day of driving. Laying in the darkness listening to the trucks thundering past on the road outside I think about all the people who have stayed in the very room I am in. I imagine all the things that could have possibly happened and feel the fleeting ghosts of their presence echo around me. In the darkness I contemplate my own flickering sepia place in it's transitory history.

For me they are the most haunting and haunted places in America.

Please follow these links to see more images from this series:

Part One: http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2009/12/motels-most-haunted-places-in-america.html

Part Two: http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/07/motels-ii-most-haunted-places-in.html

Overland Park, KS (XII) EMT School

2011-02-23T08:16:00.000-06:00

Since October last year I have been attending Johnson County Community College’s excellent and also rigorous EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) Program with the view to eventually becoming a Paramedic. This is a subject I have been interested in for a while now and it has marked a sharp change in the direction of my career which has always been art based.

Since beginning this course I have found myself making occasional photographs of the equipment used in this training with a mixture of something close to anticipation, excitement and also a little dread. These innocuous human representations have captured my imagination and stand in sterile and sharp contrast to the reality in which I am yet to experience. I find their dark implications difficult to both avoid and sometimes comprehend at this time.

This is a small selection of them and continues my on-going personal project which explores Overland Park, KS. (please see previous blog entries to view more on this project).

Wemego, KS. The Oz Museum (behind the curtain)

2011-01-27T08:29:00.000-06:00

For a while now I have had a fascination with internal and artificial landscapes. It is a theme which has threaded it's way through much of the work I have made so far in the USA and whenever I am lucky enough to see and be in one, I always feel strongly compelled to photograph them.

These photographs were made last weekend in Wemego, Kansas at the excellent and well worth visiting 'Wizard of OZ' museum and marked my three year anniversary since moving to the United States.

Here is what their website says about it:

"What words could be more appropriate when describing the dream of a small community that literally built a museum out of a rainbow's notion? It took the brains of a small group of leaders, the heart for what L. Frank Baum began in 1900 as a simple children's book and the courage to take on the task of constructing a home for over 2,000 artifacts dating from 1900 to today.

The OZ museum was built with a major grant from the State of Kansas and the generosity of the people of this small community, who also provided thousands of hours of volunteer time. The museum houses more than just memorabilia from the famous 1939 MGM musical starring Judy Garland! It encompasses earlier silent films, one of which starred none other than Oliver Hardy (Laurel and Hardy fame) as the Tin Man as well as "The Wiz" starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

The OZ Museum offers everything imaginable from the earliest Baum books and OZ Parker Brothers board games to today's collectibles that can be purchased in Auntie Em's Gift Shop. The OZ Museum is dedicated to ALL things OZ. It is a treasure trove of delight and wonder and thrills visitors young and "young at heart."

http://www.ozmuseum.com/about/default.htm

Of course I did make lots of photographs of the actual exhibits and artifacts on display and I may post some of them here at a later date.

Aubade Magazine Issue 1

2011-01-21T19:31:00.001-06:00

Aubade Magazine Issue 1, originally uploaded by Christopher C Turner.

Great news today. Just heard I have two photographs published in issue 1 of Aubade Magazine. I have just seen the preview and it looks wonderful. I am in great company there too with some really talented photographers, writers, poets and artists. Many thanks to the Editor and designer Christopher C Turner for his hard work and dedication to what looks like a fabulous new publication.

"Aubade Magazine is for those whose work-a-day lives seem to throb with infinity. Photography, Poetry, Prose, Art, Drawing, Pen Portrait. Sublime."

Follow this link to see a preview or order a copy: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/143882

President (II)

2011-01-20T10:19:00.000-06:00

These images are a continuation of my series about the United States Presidents.

Each United States President has become a kind of historical marker, defining a time, both historically and culturally. As an outsider, I have found it deeply compelling to see these powerful leading figures surface again from history, often unexpectedly and juxtaposed against the chaotic mosaic of present day life. In my continuing search to orientate myself within American culture, I have felt when photographing these sudden Presidential appearances, like I am somehow retrieving the memories from an Amnesiac.

My intention with this new series is to eventually have a record photographically of every American president and giving myself a psychic history lesson in the process.

I will post on this blog further encounters as they occur and a part one of this series can be found here:

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/02/president.html

Truth Magazine - Issue.5 (Victim series)

2011-01-11T07:37:00.001-06:00

Truth Magazine - issue.5, originally uploaded by fotorich.com.

I found out this morning that my Victims series has been published in issue 5 of Truth Magazine. So far I have only viewed the preview and the editor Richard Payne and Curator for this issue Dave Carswell have done an excellent job putting it together. For me this is a pleasant surprise, as I'd submitted the images a few months ago and had long forgotten about it. A nice start to this new year. Thank you guys.

Blurb about this issue:

"In a no-bullshit kind of way, Truth seems to be just the outlet to explore the various depths of human interaction and emotion. Even when we try to shield ourselves we do a fairly clumsy job of masking what’s behind the front. Contributors to the magazine come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and in spite of their unique styles there seemed to be an underlying current of ‘truthfulness’ about their submissions. We are blessed to have the philosophical musings of Salvatore Sale peppered throughout this issue. A fitting interlude to the bold statements our image makers are creating. I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I have enjoyed putting it together."

To view a preview of This issue of Truth or to buy a copy please follow this link:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/150764

See a slideshow of the 'Victim' series here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonpaulkossoff/sets/72157622427197877/show/

Please see the link below to see the contents of the entire issue:

Remains To Be Seen (image slideshow)

2011-01-08T00:29:00.000-06:00

Some notes on a work in process.

This slideshow contains all the photographic images which will make up the final project which I have titled: 'Remains to be Seen'. Presently I am also in the process of editing a small collection of personal 'snap-shots' and carefully selecting some poetry and other writings I have made, which I recently discovered on some floppy disks and in some loose leaf folders, which have laid neglected since I left England three years ago (but were written apx 7 years ago). It's exciting (and also painful) to discover these texts, but I am hoping that the edit of this work will be a relatively objective one, because so much time has passed since the words were written and also read and I am hoping perspective will be on my side. Eventually, when these texts are finally edited, scanned and then sequenced with these images, I would like to include them in what will be my first book of photographs and writings together. A kind of new years resolution, for me..

New Years Eve

2011-01-01T10:06:00.000-06:00

Here are five images I made last night while out celebrating the new year.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T12:22:00.000-06:00

Overland Park (Postcard from Home)

I wish everyone a wonderful, inspiring and creative new year, full of amazing, unexpected and beautiful experiences - may they continue into the next.

Thank you all so much for your support, enthusiasm and continuous inspiration.

It is a wonderful world.

I wish you all my very best.

Cheers - with love

Simon X

Scattered Self Part 3 (Finding Myself On The Road)

2010-12-30T08:42:00.000-06:00

Self (with second sight)

Self (high & on the edge)

Self (In-Security 1)

Self (as Zombie target)

Self (with shadow)

Continuing my on-going series of occasional self portraits titled 'Scattered Self' (finding myself on the road), here is a selected, end of the year round up, of a few places I have caught that glimpse.

This series began last year after JPG magazine.com ran a 365 day portrait theme and asked members to make a self portrait every day for a year. I took up this challenge, but unfortunately I only managed to make an average of 1 or 2 images a week. Here are just a few of the images. I will still continue this search for myself - as, when and where ever...

Parts 1 & 2 of this series can be found in earlier posts on this blog here:

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2009/09/scattered-self-part-1-finding-myself-on.html

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2009/11/scattered-self-part-2-finding-myself-on.html

Remains To Be Seen

2010-12-29T07:46:00.001-06:00

For a while now I have been working on a personal project called 'Never / Together' which I have now recently re-titled 'Remains To Be Seen'. It has involved a direct exploration and an awareness of what photographer Harvey Benge referred to in his wonderful Photo-book 'Vital Signs' as the "I-ness in Other-ness". It is a recognition that when photographing we bring our entire personal histories with us when making pictures and that we see not only with our eyes, but with our minds also.

For me this project has been a kind of ghost hunt.

This difficult new series of what are actually psychological landscapes constitutes a search for an understanding of one particular aspect of my own personal photographic vision and some of it's roots.

The images which make up this series are almost now complete and it rests uncomfortably as an incomplete document of psychic markers gathered here in the present, yet separated by 7 years and thousands of miles. My intention is, when finally edited, is to make a book which will both include these images and also a selected scattering of recently discovered poems and personal snapshots, which were brought with me to America and some other documents which were written at the time of the events it explores.

In my memory

Your image

Hangs in my heart

Like a beautiful

And timeless

Oil painting.

It is lit by candles

In a dark room

To which I have

The only key.

My expression

Is drawn

And flickers

In the low light

Of my fond

Recollections.

Yet the shadows

It casts distort

And make strange

Your features.

Sometimes.

A truth all the same

That I dare not describe

For fear of tainting

Your spirit which is

Captured in this portrait,

Which unlike you

Was beautifully

Executed.

More images from this series can be seen in previous posts on this blog or search 'Never / Together' here:

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/08/never-together.html

http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/2010/09/never-together-ii.html

Season Greetings from ASA

2010-12-21T08:42:00.000-06:00

Kansas City, MO

Season Greetings from Altered States of Agoraphobia.

I wish you all the very best

Cheers

Simon

Overland Park, KS (XI) Central Library

2010-12-20T08:22:00.000-06:00

Continuing my project about Overland Park, where I live, these images were made at the Central Library, located on 87th street and a 5 minute walk from my home. The library is a place I often visit and I almost always seem to make one photograph when I am there. Other images made at this library can be seen in previous Overland Park posts.

Altered States of Agoraphobia Flickr Group

2010-12-14T09:26:00.000-06:00

Chuck Patch

A Kochanowski

Jim Hart

Aaron Noah Graham

Don Hudson

Tim )ezra(

Alexis Gerard

For some time now I have contemplated extending my own personal photographic work to involve the work of other photographers and artists and last month I started the Altered States of Agoraphobia Flickr group as a response to this. These photographs presented here are only a tiny selection of the 1000 plus images which have already been submitted to this group.

This Flickr group, much like my own on-going work, could be described as a psychological, geographical and cultural investigation into the United States of America today by what I call its ‘Resident Aliens’. It is a contemporary photographic exploration into both the psyche of the artist and also a document of the world in which he inhabits and the forces acting on both. It is a journey which explores the destination with the aim of eventually creating, collectively, both a personal and also universal portrait of America by its residents.

It is an experiment which I hope is full of insight and discovery.

My intention with this group is to link some of the images submitted there to my blog in the form of edited sequences, artist’s features and for the purpose of exploring ideas, notions, observations and trends made by artists who are tuned into the subtle energies at work internally and externally in America today. The ASA members are psychic agents. A national artistic collective of like minded photographers with a certain outlook and of vision who are interested in making insightful and sensitive observations. It is a place where 1+1=3 .

Please follow this slideshow link to view, join or submit an image to Altered States of Agoraphobia Flickr group:

I have also set up a separate blog to platform some of the work submitted to this new project. Altered States of Agoraphobia (II) which can be found by following this link below:

http://alteredstatesofagoraphobia2.blogspot.com/

Glore Psychiatric Museum

2010-12-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit the creepy but extremely interesting Glore Psychiatric museum in the city of St Joseph in Missouri. St Jo is also a beautiful city which I have plans to visit again and explore with my camera soon

This is what their Glore Psychiatric museum website says about it:

In 1968 the Glore Psychiatric Museum was started in an abandoned ward of the St. Joseph State Hospital by George Glore. He had been collecting historical psychiatric treatment devices as well as interesting items made by the patients of the hospital for over 40 years.

The original set up featured full size replica exhibits of 16th, 17th and 18th century "treatment" devices that resemble the torture devices used during the same period. These were created by George for a mental health awareness week celebration. The public loved them and he was encouraged by superiors to expand the exhibit. More mental illness treatment items were soon added and the museum had begun.

The museum was relocated to it's current location in 1997 when the asylum campus was converted to a correctional facility. Being located just off the main campus, the building was spared destruction by the project but is shadowed by the fence of the newly constructed Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center. Luckily, the building is still historical and maintains its ties to the past, it was built in 1968 - the year Glore first put together the exhibits - and was used as a clinic for the patients of the asylum.

Glore continued to develop one of the largest collections of mental health historical items until he eventually retired from the Missouri Department of Mental Health

Glore Psychiatric Museum
3408 Frederick Avenue (One Mile West Of I-29, Exit 47)
St. Joseph , Missouri 64506
816-364-1209 or 800-530-8866

'Get the Picture': New Book

2010-11-24T09:10:00.000-06:00

Kansas City

Kansas City, MO (Sprint Centre)

This week 'Get the Picture' photo agency, based in Paris, France published a limited edition book.

With a print run of only 200 this wonderful sixty page collection contains a broad selection photographs from six of its members, including myself and edited, designed and produced by Damien Lafargue, who has done a beautiful job putting it together.

From the Introduction:

"Get the Picture is a cooperative which provides a platform for a group of like minded photographers with the common objective of fostering mutual support, gaining exposure and a following for their personal and conceptual work.

This diverse group consists of a broad and distinctive range of ages, locations and experiences. Despite stylistic differences all are wanderers, and each in their own way share the need to make sense of a strange and often hostile world. These bodies of work take place in an intimate theatre of elaboration, in a completely personal time frame. The different series presented here explore a range of approaches each with it's own identity and particular narrative, random collections of signals and signifier's. Although each individual follows his own rules, this selection of works demonstrates how much they cross over."

The book contains work by these photographers:

. Harvey Benge

. Pascal Fellonneau

. Simon Kossoff

. Paul Kwiatkowski

. Damien Lafargue

. Philippe Taris

This book is available to buy at a reasonable price from 'Get the Pictures' website, where a preview can also be seen.

Please follow this link: http://getthepicture.fr/En/publications.html

Thanks so much. I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.

Simon

39th St, Kansas City

2010-11-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

Here are a selection of image made on Kansas City's 39th St.

The 39th Street West business district and its surrounding neighborhoods offer some of Kansas City 's richest history. Once a vineyard supporting a winery, 39th Street West rapidly became home to some of Kansas City 's most stately, stone and brick homes, destination restaurants and boutique retail.

One of the earliest suburban neighborhoods to flourish in Kansas City's turn of the century expansion, 39th Street West was served by two light rail lines: a single-track streetcar line running to Rosedale, and the "Strang Line" providing a direct connect to areas further south, like Olathe.

"39th Street is a colorful neighborhood district offering a fun mix of fine dining, casual & ethnic specialties. An eclectic mix of shops, bookstores & coffee houses." ~ AOL Cityguide

The King And I at Get the Picture

2010-11-01T15:25:00.000-05:00

Lawrence, KS

Carthage, MO

Lawrence, KS

Liberty, MO

This is another selection of images from my series 'King and I'.

On my travels in the USA Elvis began appearing to me like some religious/cultural vision in a wide range of places and in the strangest of circumstances. From New York City to rural Kentucky and Virginia to the desert towns of Arizona. He has appeared in Shopping Malls and Thrift Stores and everywhere in between. Elvis has become one of the many ‘psychic coordinate points’ which I mention in the introduction to this blog and I have often orientated myself culturally around his scattered presence.

This series has naturally come to a conclusion, or perhaps the end of a chapter, after the inclusion of my recent portraits of Tarry Westley which were entered into Alec Soth's Flickr group From Here To There: Assignment #2. For chapter two and three of this series I intend to make portraits of Elvis impersonators and to also eventually travel to Graceland.

The complete series, including the portrait of Tarry Westley has now been published at my agency website 'Get the Picture' which can be found here:

http://getthepicture.fr/En/Photographes/Kossoff/King&I_1.html

Damaged Goods (II)

2010-10-21T08:13:00.002-05:00

This is another selection of images from my on-going series 'Damaged Goods'. More images from this series can be found in an earlier post to this blog or by visiting the website Aamora where I was a guest contributer in March of this year.

Aamora's excellent website can be found here: http://www.aamora.com/?p=1889

Overland Park project featured at Urbanautica

2010-10-14T08:09:00.000-05:00

Urbanautica is a research platform centered on photography and the human landscape. A navigation by sight, a trip around the ideas, people and what makes them part of nature and the world. Established through a website with the aim of promoting a critical reflection on the planet Earth, the site has already received significant recognition among photographers, magazines, blogs and websites from all over the world.

SIMON KOSSOFF: “OVERLAND PARK”

Overland Park, Kansas, has been consistently ranked in the top 10 best cities to live in the United States, by CNN/Money magazine. Additionally, the city was ranked one of the ‘best places to raise your kids’ and also ranked 3rd for ‘America’s 10 best places to grow up’.

"For some time we have observed with curiosity the patient work of Simon Kossoff. We like it because it is a determined slap in the face of reality or perhaps it is best to call it personality. Without melancholy, Kossoff creates with a lyrical precision that has become more refined over time, a mature vision with a narrative tension that is also soaked with poetic ambition. A subjectivity that is made up of silent traces isolated through intuition. The human landscape that he approaches through photography consists of colorful individualities and a macrorealism that pierces our sensibilities. Using razor-sharp details that scrape the surface of the banal. Kossoff makes skilled incisions into reality, finding essential spaces, briefly shooting, embedding the image with what feeds his own story. A fluent and fast paced vision, relentlessly alternating between a sob that first exposes your feelings and then defines them. What we see in this work on Overland Park is the intention of the photographer becoming stronger and gaining weight around curious, occasional and fragmented shots. Kossoff’s speech is never casual, it is a discontinuous process yet well-disciplined and that rarely stalls. Kossoff does not make fleeting statements but questions the viewer instantly and insistently. It is easy to be caught by surprise, a little unprepared, but that’s part of the game, the dialogue that expands the perception and reveals new possibilities."

This article with the images can be found here at Urbanautica’s website.

http://www.urbanautica.com/post/1312841707/kossoff-overlandkansas?ref=nf

Many thanks to the Editor Steve Bisson