Simon Kossoff
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Altered States of Agoraphobia.
These photos are a search for a kind of personal orientation between the dream or idea of a place and my actual experience of it in reality. They can be described as a collection of psychic coordinate points which I have plotted between the imagined America I brought with me from England and the real America I found on my arrival in 2008. These images are half truth and half fiction, they are a psychogeography, filled with personal symbolism and tangled with influences so old they were already part of me long before this journey ever began.
A note about the title: The compulsion to travel, to move from one place to another, has been with me my whole life. Whether it be local, national or international, I have always found myself either in motion or, if not, I have been dreaming about it. Paradoxically, it has been in the periods of dreaming that Agoraphobia, (which Google defines as “Extreme or irrational fear of entering open or crowded places, of leaving one's own home, or of being in places from which escape is difficult”) has gripped me and, at times, crippled me. These photographs are my continued (once secret) revolt against it in the United States of America today, despite recent quarantines.
Simon Kossoff, 2013 (revised 2020)
Below is a list of the most notable places where my work has been featured (up until 2013).
Please check out my flickr group.
Get The Picture (Agency/Collective)
Urbanautica feature (Overland Park)
La Pura Vida (Populated by Vegetation #3)
Truth Magazine (III) Utah Road Trip
Truth Magazine (IV) 'Cage' series
Truth Magazine (V) 'Victim' series
Exhibition Review (Running on Empty)
JPG Magazine Issue 20 (White House)
JPG Magazine Issue 23 (Nostalgia theme)
artishock 'Artist of the week' (Chile)
GTP Book feature at La Pura Vida
ASA group feature at La Pura Vida
Altered States of Agoraphobia (II) Flickr group blog
Netherworld Magazine feature (States of Grace pt1)
Netherworld Magazine feature (States of Grace Pt2)
Interview with Head-On Photo Festival
Fragments & Collisions (LPV Group Show)
Magnum's Postcards From America Blog
Magnum's Postcards from America Blog (II)
Battle At 3AM blog (Interview)
Landscape Stories. Issue 4 (Traces)
Remains to be Seen Book (La Pura Vida feature)
Remains to be Seen (book review at trendhunter)
Venustreet (colour) Blurb Book
CZE Magazine 9 (American Flag Issue)
Fototazo: The Image (Was Here series)
ASA group feature at La Pura Vida #7
VIEW Magazine #5 (PDF)
Showcase
- JoinedNovember 2008
- OccupationEMT
- HometownBrighton, England
- Current cityOn the road
- CountryUSA
Testimonials
I spent three hours riveted to my chair the day I discovered Simon’s work on another website. I must have studied every image. Twice. His remarkable photos pay homage to the great photographers of our time while forging a unique voice of his own, full of humor and heart. Even his most brazenly sarcastic and ironic phot… Read more
I spent three hours riveted to my chair the day I discovered Simon’s work on another website. I must have studied every image. Twice. His remarkable photos pay homage to the great photographers of our time while forging a unique voice of his own, full of humor and heart. Even his most brazenly sarcastic and ironic photos have an underlying affection for the subject matter. Oh yeah, the compositions are great too. Though his photos are technically strong, he doesn't seem to be weighed down by equipment or hung up on technical data. His work is all about subject matter, composition and having something to say. I’ve never met the man but, judging by his photos, conversations with him would likely be lively and insightful. Cheers, my friend, and keep that camera pointed at the stuff we overlook.
Read lessI write testimonials when the I reach the "Favoriting Threshold of Futility" - what's the point of a putting a star on something when more than half the images seem to need one? This guy consistently takes what would be boring, stereotyped images in other hands and just whacks them clean out of the park.
Your stream is so on point it's out of reach. Clever, carefully composed and damn funny. I have to think of Stephen Shore with Martin Parrs sense of humour. Waiting for more miracles to come. Sincerely foddokross