Simon Kossoff: Remains to Be Seen
Remains to Be Seen is the first photobook by British photographer Simon Kossoff and one of those rare, deeply personal self-published books that seems to have disappeared almost completely from circulation. Produced independently by Kossoff, the book was issued in a strictly limited edition of only 100 signed and numbered copies. The edition sold out shortly after publication, making surviving copies exceptionally difficult to locate.
This particular copy is especially remarkable: it is signed twice by Simon Kossoff, an extraordinary detail that makes it an unusually distinctive example of an already extremely scarce publication. At present, copies of this original edition are virtually impossible to find in circulation, making this a genuinely exceptional opportunity to acquire one of Kossoff's earliest and most personal photographic works.
Remains to Be Seen is an introspective meditation on grief, loss, memory and the strange ways in which the past continues to shape our perception of the present. Rather than approaching these themes through conventional documentary photography, Kossoff constructs a fragmented visual landscape of signs, traces, objects, places and fleeting encounters. The photographs function almost like fragments of memory, where reality and personal association constantly overlap.
The work emerged from Kossoff's experience of living in the United States after moving from England. America becomes both a physical landscape and a psychological space, filtered through memories, expectations and personal history. The resulting photographs occupy an intriguing territory between observation and imagination, creating what Kossoff has described as a kind of psychogeography.
The book contains 60 photographs across 70 pages, accompanied by two poems. Its deliberately intimate and self-produced character is essential to the work. Rather than functioning simply as a container for a photographic series, the book becomes an extension of Kossoff's personal investigation, with photographs, text and sequence creating a fragmented narrative about what remains after loss.
Simon Kossoff was born in Middlesbrough, England, and grew up in Hampshire and Dorset before settling in Brighton. He studied Editorial Photography at Brighton University, graduating with first-class honours in 1996. After travelling extensively, he moved to the United States, where the experience of being an outsider became an important element of his photographic practice. His work explores the relationship between place, memory, perception and personal mythology, often finding psychological meaning in apparently ordinary American landscapes.
Kossoff has also been associated with the international street photography collective Burn My Eye and the Get the Picture community, while developing a broader practice that encompasses long-term photographic projects, photobooks and self-publishing.
Today, Remains to Be Seen stands as a fascinating early document of Kossoff's photographic language and his understanding of the photobook as an intimate, self-contained form. Its tiny edition, independent production, complete sell-out and the extraordinary survival of this double-signed copy make it an exceptionally scarce example of early independent photobook publishing.
For anyone interested in Independent photobooks, Rare Photobooks and the history of contemporary Photography Books, Remains to Be Seen is a particularly compelling discovery: a quiet, personal and highly elusive book that deserves to be seen again.