Topeka's First Zombie Walk for Hunger.

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)

 

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.

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 and a part one and two of this series can be found here:

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

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

New York City (ASA Postcards)

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)

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

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