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

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, 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)

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..

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

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

Overland Park, KS (XI) Central Library

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.

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.