Photographers whose work I like - No 12/ Simon Kossoff

Simon Kossoff is a British photographer who lives in Kansas City. Like many of the photographers I've got to know I've never met Simon, but I feel I know him through his work which is always perceptive, challenging, and hard-edged. Work you can't walk away from. Simon's blog, Altered States of Agoraphobia is well worth a look. Simon and I are both members of the Paris based collective get the picture.fr

Simon say this about his States of Grace series:
The work is in two parts and was made during my immigration process. Made between two dates in time, from my first initial application until the final arrival of my Green card - from Tourist to Illegal Alien to Permanent Resident. During this period I felt like very much like I was living on borrowed time. It was an extremely stressful period for my wife and I and we lived almost from day to day and could not make any solid future plans or put down any roots. Because of this I traveled and as much as possible and wanted to see as much as I could of America, just in case I was deported, because my case was complex. It was an interesting time for America too, it was an election year and in the middle of a recession. While making the work I felt in many ways that my own anxiety and hope during this period felt at times like an echo of the anxiety and hope of the nation I arrived in. 'States of Grace' is my personal document of this time, a mosaic, a diary and also poem of sorts. These images come from part two of this series.

You can see more of Simon's work here: http://simonkossoff.blogspot.com/