Starting from a Utah place of worship to a Colorado museum: the journey of the individual who discovered 75 triangular buildings in the America

On a warm evening in 2017, California photographer Ian James found himself at the town bar, the sole functioning business in the town of Nekoma, North Dakota.

Staying until the early hours, while attempting not to appear excessively like a LA native in a community of fewer than three dozen residents, James struck up a conversation with a local couple who explained how to enter the Stanley R Mickelsen Safeguard Complex.

The ex anti-ballistic missile installation, constructed during the Cold War era and functioning for half a year before being closed, was his objective: especially, its stark cement radar tower similar to an ancient structure missing an peak.

For the next two days, while James stayed overnight in a meadow to capture images of the pyramid structure in different lighting conditions with his large format equipment, he became captivated by the pyramid's strange nature as a "purpose built ruin … unmoored from time".

It was at this location, within the monument's spiritual vibrations, that James understood the images of pyramid-shaped structures he'd been capturing – from an business center in Indianapolis to a religious temple in Utah, a science museum in Colorado, a retail store in Canada, and countless dwellings – were a collection that would lead to a volume.

A ten-year period – and exceeding three-quarters of a hundred triangular buildings in nearly twenty US states – later James has launched Pyramids: Special Economic Vortex Zones of North America.

James's desire to catalog US triangular buildings was inspired by a metaphysical sound program he presented on a radio station including self-made recordings ornamented with geometric patterns that would have originally been found in metaphysical shops or therapy locations – before he acquired them from digital marketplace.

Throughout his expeditions on a true spiritual path to these sites, James proposed that the connection between new age beliefs and pyramid-buildings across the US is indicative of what he labels "economic spirituality" – the drive to direct the monument's ancient, eastern, metaphysical qualities toward the manifestation of cultural principles and, as he states, create a "area for the 'religion' of laissez faire capitalism in the US".

The outdoor retailer pyramid in Memphis, which James photographed for several days but didn't go inside – despite its guarantee of "an immersive retail adventure" including a hotel, interior wetland, shooting area, eating venue and viewing area – is a prime example.

Conceived in the 1950s as a collection of multiple edifices named the Great America Pyramids, in a reference to the urban area's Egyptian namesake, the lone structure was built in 1991 and has served many functions: such as a concert venue launched by the rock band and a arena for the Memphis Grizzlies.

It's also earned the title "ominous structure" due to loud reverberations of fans' cheers and the particularly unfortunate extraction of a quartz artifact installed in its peak by the proprietor of the restaurant chain to access supernatural forces.

Empty for nearly a decade, the owner of the retail chain unwillingly struck a deal with the municipality in two thousand eight to restore the site (using $one hundred million of taxpayer money in compensation of 2% of the store's overall income or, at least, $1m transferred to the city in rent each year), but only if he found a catfish in the waterway.

The universe delivered him the animal, but uncertainties remain as to whether the municipality has ever received their complete small percentage.

The superstitious events and very flexible economic rules that have allowed Bass Pro Shops to thrive are an clear representation of a "pyramid which has been stripped of purpose" and instead become, what James describes "the ultimate blend of the blood of American capitalism".

Paradoxically, he notes, even when pyramid sites are devoted solely to religious rituals "there exist these sacred structures in the United States but they have to be generating revenue or tickets or monetary stability."

The United States metaphysical journey is predominantly commercially motivated.

In order to photograph the pyramid at the Buddhist monastery in northern California, James experienced "soul therapy" treatments in 2019 – during which he lay inside a sizable polymer triangular structure wrapped with copper wire while a religious sister aimed brightly colored beams at various body parts in his body.

Managed by the spiritual leader, who proclaims himself the return of the Christian messiah and the long-prophesied healing deity, the religious community is home to monks and religious women.

They operate Shambhala Healing Tools, which provides head pyramids, spiritual instruments, mindfulness devices, geometric shapes and ritual objects to guests and followers, maintaining their collective existence – which is accompanied by the continuous musical background of the Buddha Maitreya's recordings.

Private homeowners that James has visited also trust in the energetic power of their buildings and in the same way, he states, "{aspire|aim|str