From a Mormon place of worship to a Denver exhibition hall: this story of the person who identified 75 triangular buildings throughout the United States

During a warm afternoon in the year 2017, California artist Ian James was at the town bar, the sole operating venue in the town of Nekoma, North Dakota.

Remaining until the early hours, while trying not to seem overly like a LA native in a village of less than three dozen residents, James struck up a conversation with a townspeople who outlined how to gain access the military facility.

The ex military defense complex, erected during the nuclear standoff period and only operational for half a year before being shut down, was his destination: particularly, its brutalist stone monitoring facility similar to an ancient structure lacking an tip.

For the next two days, while James slept in his vehicle in a open area to document the pyramid structure in changing lighting conditions with his large format equipment, he became transfixed by the pyramid's uncanny nature as a "purpose built ruin … unmoored from time".

It was in this place, within the monument's spiritual vibrations, that James realized the pictures of triangular structures he'd been capturing – from an office complex in Indianapolis to a place of worship in Utah, a science museum in Denver, a shopping center in British Columbia, and many private residences – were a series that would result in a book.

A ten-year period – and over 75 pyramid structures in almost 20 American regions – later James has released Pyramids: Special Economic Vortex Zones of North America.

James's interest to record United States pyramid structures was born out of a new age audio program he hosted on KCHUNG radio showcasing handcrafted cassettes ornamented with triangular designs that would have first been found in crystal stores or wellness centers – before he obtained them from online auctions.

Throughout his journeys on a true pilgrim's trail to these locations, James theorized that the intersection between new age beliefs and triangular structures around the America is demonstrative of what he labels "commercial philosophy" – the urge to direct the pyramid's ancient, oriental, energetic properties toward the manifestation of cultural principles and, as he puts it, create a "area for the 'religion' of laissez faire capitalism in the US".

The sporting goods pyramid in Memphis, which James documented for an extended period but didn't go inside – despite its promise of "total commercial journey" including a lodging, inside marshland, shooting area, eating venue and viewing area – is a notable case.

Designed in the 1950s as a group of 3 edifices named the Great America Pyramids, in a nod to the urban area's historic designation, the single building was built in the early nineties and has functioned as numerous purposes: for example a concert venue launched by the Grateful Dead and a stadium for the basketball team.

It's also earned the moniker "tomb of doom" due to powerful echos of crowd noise and the highly inauspicious taking away of a crystal skull installed in its apex by the proprietor of the Hard Rock Cafe to access mystic powers.

Vacant for nearly a ten-year period, the owner of outdoor company unwillingly negotiated a deal with the city in 2008 to restore the site (employing $100m of government revenue in return for a small percentage of the retailer's gross sales or, at minimum, $1 million dollars transferred to the government in lease payments each year), but provided that he captured a river fish in the waterway.

The cosmos gave him the animal, but questions remain as to whether the city has ever received their full 2%.

The mystical occurrences and overly lenient economic rules that have permitted Bass Pro Shops to prosper are an clear representation of a "structure which has been drained of purpose" and instead become, what James describes "the pure combination of the essence of US economics".

Ironically, he notes, even when pyramid sites are committed entirely to religious practices "we find these divine edifices in the United States but they have to be generating money or admission fees or economic viability."

The American religious practice is largely profit-driven.

In order to photograph the pyramid at the Church of Shambhala Vajradhara Maitreya Sangha in the state's northern region, James experienced "metaphysical healing" sessions in 2019 – during which he rested inside a sizable synthetic geometric form wrapped with metallic thread while a religious sister pointed vibrant illumination at different body parts in his body.

Operated by the religious figure, who announces himself the second coming of the Christian messiah and the long-prophesied Medicine Buddha, the monastery is dwelling to monks and religious women.

They manage metaphysical items, which sells personal structures, divination tools, mindfulness devices, metallic forms and vajras to guests and devotees, maintaining their communal lifestyle – which is backgrounded with the continuous musical background of the religious figure's music.

Residential owners that James has encountered also believe in the spiritual force of their structures and in the same way, he says, "{aspire|aim|str