Hutchinson Salt Museum, KS

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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/