Altered States of Agoraphobia Flickr Group

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 .

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

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

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

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

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 contributor in March of this year.

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

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

Overland Park, KS (IX)

Grant Ave (home)

Garbage Area

Down-Town Overland Park

Central Library

Here is a selection of new images from my continuing series about Overland Park, Kansas, where I live.

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.