Galena, MO

Event

Topeka, KS

Gas Station, MO

After several months of editing, part two of my series 'States of Grace' is now finally finished and can been seen together with part one at Get the Picture's website. Here is a selection of images from this new work.

A link to 'Get the Picture' can be found here

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

A slideshow of this series can also be found here:

I have re-edited Part One of my series which documents my experiences of and during my immigration process into the USA called ‘States of Grace’. I believe this edit is now final and it will appear in full at ‘Get the Picture’ my agency website sometime next week.

In the meantime I have put together a Flickr slideshow which can be seen at this link:

Part Two of ‘States of Grace’ is also now close to being finished. Originally I intended this series to be in three parts of 50 images, but after reading an excellent and inspirational blog post about Photo Editing by one of my favorite photographers Harvey Benge I re-thought my whole approach to this project and I have spent the last few days savagely reshaping it. I am presently making some fine tuning of this work which will also appear shortly at ‘Get the Picture’.

Harvey Benge’s excellent blog about photography, art and idea’s is well worth checking out and can be found at this link – Thanks Harvey:

http://harveybenge.blogspot.com/

Many thanks also to fellow photographer Damien Lafargue for the fantastic job he has done creating ‘Get the Picture’ and bringing our small collective together.

Overland Park, KS

Overland Park, KS


Overland Park, KS


Overland Park, KS

Overland Park, KS

Overland Park, KS

Recently I was surprised to find out that Overland Park, where I live, 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. These images were made before I discovered this information and I am looking forward to exploring it further.

Each United States President has become a kind of historical marker, defining a time, both historically and culturally. As an outsider, from England, 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.

'Smile' Overland Park, KS

Happy New Year to all!

A toast to all those sudden, amazing, unexpected, strange and wonderful chance meetings and encounters with the world (photographic and otherwise) which inspire us each day. May the new year bring many more. Much love and Cheers!

Simon

Recession, Carthage, MO

Back Surgery

Hero

Yellow Brick Road, KS

Part one of my new body of work 'States of Grace' has now been added to GTP's website. Part Two and Three are presently being edited and will appear on this website when they are ready.

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

Extract from a letter to my friend and photographer Llorenc Rosanes.

“… this work was made between two dates in time and I suppose the subtext to the series is that it explores my experience of being both an outsider and alien going though the long, stressful and intrusive immigration process. It records my observations and experiences of and in the USA during this time period – symbolically and psychologically, rather than literally - my own 'States'. This series also takes into account too (mainly un-intentually) contemporary present day life in America - recession, election, national pride, myth compared to reality and my own fragile ‘American dream’. Which will, I hope, be revealed in more detail in Parts Two and Three, (which I am presently editing). Whist making this series I felt, at times like my own anxiety and hope was an echo of the anxiety and hope of the nation I arrived in.

It is a mosaic piece and purely personal in vision yet universal too, I would hope…”

Llorenc's wonderful work can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/llorensot/

Needed/Wanted

Victims exhibition at B-Studio, KC, MO