Your name:
Raul A. Gutierrez

Age:
39

Where are you from?
I was born in Monterrey, Mexico. Suffered through a childhood in Lufkin, Texas.

Where do you live now?
Brooklyn

What's your day job?
Media & Design Consultant

Which artists inspire you?
Paul Klee, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Kurt Schwitters, Garry Winogrand etc...

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
Literally since I got back my first roll of film which happened when I was around 8.

What kind of camera do you use?
Nikon FM3 and a Maymiya 7 (amongst others).

What's your favorite film?
Classic: Toss up between The Third Man and Wages of Fear
Contemporary: Toss up between Broadway Danny Rose and The Heroic Trio

What's your Favorite Museum?
Museo Picasso

Who is your hero?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
That's sort of an impossible question.

What are you reading now?
Best American Short Stories 2005.

Favorite color?
I like the deep blue the sky turns just before it goes black.

Name at least three web sites you visit everyday:
bbc
boingboing
wfmu blog
kirchersociety

What are your favorite foods?
I can't resist the traditional foods of Northern Mexico: Cabrito, carne asada, barbacoa... grilled meat basically.

Do you have an interesting/obscure hobby? If so, tell us about it.
I collect taxidermy (although less since my marriage) and Mexican ex-votos.

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
I'm a big fan of the illustrated letter.

Your name:
Donna Alberico

Age:
32

Where are you from?
Merrick, Long Island

Where do you live now?
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

What's your day job?
Worrying where my next freelance photo job is coming from.

Which artists inspire you?:
Eugene Richards, Nick Waplington, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Sebastiao Salgado

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
My first day of b/w photo class in 10th grade

What kind of camera do you use:
Mamiya 7, can't seem to stop shooting film and now a canon 20D (just started shooting digitally)

What are you reading now?
My travel guide to Southeast Asia (going in October for a month to shoot and explore)

Favorite color?
Blue

Name at least three web sites you visit everyday:
nytimes.com
weather.com
google.com

What are your favorite foods?
Chocolate, mango, bagels

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
Knitting, and writing in my journal if that's considered artsy

Have you exhibited your work in any other shows? If so, which ones?
Yes, at Momenta Gallery and Rotunda Gallery (both in Brooklyn)

Your name:
Michael Itkoff

Age:
25

Where are you from?
Philadelphia

Where do you live now?
NYC (East Harlem)

What's your day job? (if you have one)
Founding Editor, Daylight Magazine

Which artists inspire you?:
Sternfeld, Soth, Southam, Struffsky, Riebesehl, Evans, Frank, Christenberry, Eggleston, Misrach.

What kind of camera do you use?
Mamiya 7

What's your Favorite Museum?
Please Touch Museum

What are you reading now?
New Yorker / Transparent Things (Nabakov)

Favorite color?
Charcoal violet

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Wolf

We interviewed the 10 Hot Shot winners via email, so that our readers could know a little more about them. The first response we received was from Stefan Simikich. Here are our questions and his answers:

Your name:
Stefan Simikich

Age (optional):
30

Where are you from:
West coast, top to bottom

Where do you live now:
San Francisco, CA

What's your day job?
Contractor

Which artists inspire you?
The ones that do shit rather than talk shit.

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
It all started when I crashed real bad on my bike and almost busted my head open cause I didn't want to break my camera. I thought, "This thing is really important to me, I almost died to save it."

What kind of camera do you use:
Nikon and Contax. FILM

What's your favorite film?
Classic: Weekend at Bernies
Contemporary: Weekend at Bernies 2

What's your Favorite Museum?
Dave Schubert's house

Who is your hero?
People with disabilities winning at life.

Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
Iron Maiden

What are you reading now?
Your questions on the computer. (Is this a trick question?)

Favorite color?
Blackish

Name at least three websites you visit everyday:
anewyorkthing.com (the glob there is the best)
fecalface.com
tinyvices.com
epiclylaterd.com
cryptozoology.com

What are your favorite foods?
Sandwiches

Do you have an interesting/obscure hobby? If so, tell us about it.
Cryptozoology

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Bigfoot

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
Television

Have you exhibited your work in any other shows? If so, which ones?
That's all in the past. Let's just say lots!

Kids at Play, Dusk, Kashgar by Spring Hot Shot Raul Gutierrez

Hey! Jane created a Hey, Hot Shot! Flickr set for the Spring winners. Well noted, Jane.

Chip's Drawing of a Robot from Outer Space, 2005

It's that time again - We're very excited to announce the finalists for the Spring '06 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!.

The Spring Edition Showcase will open with a reception for the artists on the evening of Wednesday June 7, 2006, from 6-8pm. The showcase will be on view Thursday, June 8 from noon - 8pm and Friday June 9 - Sunday June 11 from noon - 6pm.

Without further ado, we present to you the Spring 2006 Hot Shots:

Donna Alberico
Ian Baguskas
Andrea Chu
Alison Grippo
Raul Gutierrez
Michael Itkoff
Casey Kelbaugh
Andrea Longacre-White
Stefan Simikich
Sarah Small

Special thanks go to our awesome, fabulous and excellent panel for their insight, humor and hard work. And the other people who help make it happen: Jesse Chan-Norris and Jeff Kirsch for their technical prowess, Antony Van Couvering for hosting our panel meetings, Lauren Cerand for PR support, and also just for being her amazing self and last but not least the Spring intern crew: Anna Wolfgang, chief Hey, Hot Shot! blog editor, Christine Dillion (editor of the Jen Bekman Gallery News Blog), as well as recent arrivals Sophie Lvoff + Jane Tam.

It's always tough to narrow it down to the final ten, so we're also happy to include a list of great photographers in our honorable mentions category: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Dave Barry, Michelle Bruzzese, Sylvie Buchler, Samantha Casolari, Jessika Creedon, Eric Ray Davidson, Amy Eckert, Bethany Fancher, Rachel Hawthorn, Brandon Herman, Simone Lueck, Sara Macel, Jeremy Mazzenga, Liz Nielsen, Leah Oates, Pascal Shirley, Don Simon, Joanna Simpson, Michelle Westmark, Jen Williams and Shiigeki Yoshida

Louis-American Truckers, by Donna Alberico

Donna Alberico
Currently resides in: Brooklyn, New York

Website: http://www.donnaalberico.com

Work Statement:
Through photography I look to capture the true essence of people in their most natural environment and the circumstances surrounding their lifestyle. My work showcases an aspect of Americana specifically the working class that may not usually be celebrated. I strive to comprehend the honesty of the subject and treat them with respect, whether it's a truck driver who has been drinking on the job, or a young girl learning her lines on a pornography set. Many of these subjects I document have an element of daily struggles and hardships which supersede them into a nomadic existence, one where they live with their own set of rules and values.

Bio:
Since a very young age I have used photography as a filter for which I see the world. I received my first camera before the age of 11 and went on to study photography at the School of Visual Arts where I graduated from in 1996 with a BFA in photography. Upon graduation I accepted a position from Harvard/Cornell Universities to work on an archeological dig in Sardis, Turkey documenting and recording recent Lydian findings. After its completion I returned to New York where I currently live. Since then, I have been working on personal documentary projects and shooting editorial assignments for magazines and newspapers such as The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Fortune, Newsweek, Marie Claire, and Bike Magazine to name a few. My work has been a part of group shows in Brooklyn, Long Island, and Los Angeles, and was in Art NADA in Miami this past December where 3 pieces sold to collectors.

My most recent documentary is an ongoing project on American truck drivers.

Log Cabins 2, by Ian Baguskas

Ian Baguskas
Born: Philadelphia, PA.
Currently resides in: Brooklyn, New York

Website: http://www.ianbaguskas.com

Work Statement:
I am continually finding myself interested in subjects that examine the relationship Man has with Nature; Man's longing for and continual exploration of the landscape.

This work examines the sometimes lonely journey that people take to see and experience the American West.

The picture Log Cabins 2 is part of a series inspired by photographers like Carlton Watkins who explored and documented settlements in the West. The settlements that I have documented are made for people who are looking to experience the "Old West". These cabins, however, are right next a major highway. These type of journeys are highly romanticized, but are usually anything but romantic.

Bio
I was born 1977 in Philadelphia, received a BFA from Cooper Union, and am currently living and working as a photographer in New York.

I was recently selected to show work at an auction to benefit the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and the March For Our Lives at the Dactyl Gallery in SoHo.

Cloverfield, by Andrea Chu

Andrea Chu
Born: Palo Alto, CA.
Currently resides in Brooklyn, New York

Website: http://www.chucandy.com/

Work Statement:
My first experience with a camera was when I was 13 and I stole my brother's camera to document a day of skateboarding with my friends. Though the subject of my work has changed, this sense of freedom and whimsy continue as strong themes and my friends and family remain my greatest sources of inspiration. The images I have submitted are part of an ongoing series of my closest childhood friend, Candy, whose two daughters, Vicki and Annie, were born when we were still in high school. I have been documenting the girls' lives since their birth. They are now young teenagers around the age I was when I first met their parents and I find their changes and entry into adulthood to be of endless fascination. For me, the series reflect a time of change, the mystery of incipient womanhood and a playfulness tied to that fleeting bridge between childhood and adulthood.

Bio:
I grew up in Palo Alto, California and lived San Francisco until my mid-twenties. I moved to New York six years ago to finish a BFA in Photography at Pratt Institute, where I concentrated on learning the finer points of printing in color. I graduated four years ago and landed my first editorial job with Paper Magazine. My work as also been featured in the following magazines: Sportswear International, Time Magazine, Time Out New York, and Cookie Magazine. This year PDN included me as one of the emerging 30.

Old City, Kashgar, by Raul Gutierrez

Raul Gutierrez
Born: Monterrey, Mexico
Currently resides in: Brooklyn, New York

Website: www.mexicanpictures.com

Work Statement:
Photography has been part of my everyday life as long as I can remember, so much so, that I substitute photographs for memory as words often seem clumsy and imprecise compared to even the simplest of images. My interests are in documenting the visceral world, grand journeys, and the small mysteries we experience daily. I believe images are already out there, they exist, it is simply up to us to frame them.

Bio:
I was born in Mexico and raised in Texas. Photography is self taught. My BA was in art history specializing in Eastern Zhou era bronze.

This September a one man show of my work will be on display at the Nelson Hancock Gallery in Dumbo.

Mott Street, by Alison Grippo

Alison Grippo
Born: New York, NY.
Currently resides in: New York, New York

Website: http://www.inkcapture.com/

Work Statement:
I took my first photograph with a pinhole camera and never looked back. I shoot people, people in their moments, finding their space inside of crowds and cities and thick urban landscapes. I shoot their single moment when they are entirely who they are and may not even know it. I shoot them anywhere they shine. The submissions are two from the Chinese firework festival in New York, and then one special one of a woman in a small coffee shop having just left a hospital to get a cup of coffee. She was clearly mentally unstable and arguing with her self in the corner of the shop with a bandage still on her hand from where the IV once was.

Bio:
I grew up in Manhattan, born and bred a native New Yorker I've never learned to drive. I have no formal training in photographer other than my eyes and years of trial and error with reading as many books as I can get my hands on. There is also the constantly asking questions of those I think are better than me so I can learn. I'm 33, I'm old enough to sign most any legal waiver. As for what got me into photography - my father, he spoke of his darkroom often and I caught his bug.

Pumping Station, West Ham, London, April 2006, by Michael Itkoff

Michael Itkoff
Born: Philadelphia, PA.
Currently resides in: New York, New York

Websites:
www.daylightmagazine.org & www.michaelitkoff.com

Work Statement:
One sleepless night when I was fourteen I started taking pictures of my room. It was a point and shoot camera and I wasted most of the pictures but I became obsessed with the pleasure of seeing things differently through a lens.

I lived on the edge of a state park and would often walk around it with my dog. Both of us felt constricted by the boundaries of life and leash and in the park we could wander freely. The most interesting places to explore were the edges of the park where one could see evidence of human endeavor through the trees. In those liminal zones, the wilds of nature made made even pre-fab housing and strip malls look idyllic.

Years later I moved to a city but continued to be fascinated with the places where the concrete met soil. There was a perceptible presence there, a living tension between natural flora and society's efforts to keep it at bay. One could almost watch as, year by year, the city spread its concrete tendrils further and further afield. Soon, having man-made structures inescapably discernible through the trees began to inspire within me a vague sense of dread.

These are photographs of a landscape under siege - meditations on the mesh of human society and nature that exist woven together. Within the clusters of growth there is life, and hope, that the tide of concrete and steel is high. A city or suburb allowed to lie fallow for twenty years would soon be swallowed by bushes and wildflowers poking up from gaps in the pavement...

Bio:
Michael Itkoff grew up in the suburban sprawl outside of Philadelphia, PA. After studying photography at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and Sarah Lawrence College in New York, he received his BA in 2004.

Michael is one of the founding editors of Daylight Magazine, a documentary photography publication, and was an editorial work-scholar for Aperture Foundation as well as an intern for the Annie Leibovitz Studio.

Untitled 3, by Casey Kelbaugh

Casey Kelbaugh
Born: Princeton, NJ.
Currently resides in: New York, New York

Website: http://www.caseykelbaugh.com & www.slideluckpotshow.com

Work Statement:
I shoot a variety of subject matter, but what I strive for is a sense of authenticity in my photographs. I tend to stay away from staging, forcing, or over-producing my pictures, as I find that there is so much richness in the world that already exists. With the corners of my frame, I try to provide a thoughtful, clear window into a world where truth meets beauty.

Bio:
I was born in Princeton, NJ in 1974, though most of my upbringing took place in Seattle. I studied Psychology and Painting at Middlebury College ('96) in Vermont.

I began taking photographs in 1997 while living in Tokyo. At the time I was studying sumi-e ink painting under a Zen Buddhist master. I began to experience the limitations of the medium, and found photography gave me much greater access to the world and allowed me to participate in it, rather than sketching it from afar. I got my basic training at Tokyo Photo Workshops, and then at the Photocenter NW in Seattle. I spent the next few years studying, interning at galleries, traveling and shooting around the world, and assisting commercial and editorial photographers. It was also during this time that I started Slideluck Potshow, which is a slideshow potluck that I brought to NYC, and now exists in a number of cities around the country.

After working for all of the editorial clients in Seattle and doing a substantial amount of commercial work, I moved to NYC in the fall of 2003. Since that time I have done some very high-end advertising work as well shot for a number of publications. I am represented by World Picture News and shoot for the New York Times on a near-daily basis. In fact, I have to run now to shoot something for them.

Chip's Drawing of a Robot From Outer Space, 2005 by Andrea Longacre-White

Andrea Longacre-White
Born: suburban Philadelphia
Currently resides in: New York, New York

Website: http://www.andrealongacrewhite.com/

Work Statement:
These photos reflect an ongoing investigation into isolation and connection within contemporary American culture. Upon quiet backdrops both literal and social architectures suffocate space, complicate the relation and separation of person and place, and punctuate loneliness with moments of affinity.

In this age of standardization and acclimation I look to make record of the human or individual mark, and see photography as a means from which to indexically highlight and collect.

I hope to gain insight into issues of daily isolation, detachment and reconnection, by focusing upon imaging rituals of everyday life, their remnants and their discards; from the indelibly prominent mark to the nearly invisible trace of human interaction in and with the world.

Bio:
Andrea Longacre-White lives and works in Los Angeles and New York. She attended Hampshire College in Amherst, MA where she pursued an interdisciplinary course of study, majoring in Photography, Art History and Cultural Studies.

Growing, by Stefan Simikich

Stefan Simikich
Born: Van Nuys, CA.
Currently resides in: San Francisco, California

Website: http://www.hereyouarenow.com/

Work Statement:
I shoot photos cause I can't spell for shit. Its my diary, a kinda visual diary. I am intrigued by people and how they live and what they do. Even everyday stuff is interesting if I just imagine I didn't see it everyday. I like to document the continuing story of life on Earth -- capturing honest uncontrived moments that capture me forever.

I started shooting photos cause I wanted to gather subject matter to take home and recreate in a painting. Well I never made any paintings just kept gathering interesting subjects since then. I took a couple classes and read a lot of "how-to books" for photography. I had many people that are close to me show me the ropes in the begining. Just lots of practicing I guess.

I'm inspired by the great photographers of our time like... Bruce Gilden, Jim Goldberg, Bill Owens, Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank....plus many others....the Magnum crew.

Bio:
I am a painting contractor in my everyday non photo life.. Its a family business. My 6 uncles are painters, my father, and the grandpa owned a paint store. I was born in Van Nuys, CA. (somewhere in LA?). My father gave me his Pentax k1000 it was my first camera. I think I was like 17 ? I had used it for years after that. I grew up mostly all over California, southern to northern. I went to school in WA and lived there for years. I never took a photo classes in school. I have a degree in electronic media??? (kinda like an engineer in a creative realm). I took a color photo/ studio and printing class after I graduated. The teacher let me "sit in." He was a cool guy. I just had to pretend I was a student.

I am also co founder of hamburgereyes photo magazine. It keeps me inspired.

Pappa Sleeping, by Sarah Small

Sarah Small
Born in Washington, D.C.
Currently resides in Brooklyn, New York

Website: www.sarahsmall.com

Work Statement
I make photographs that capture spontaneous, theatrical moments. These images serve as a serio-comic dreamscape featuring vivid candy colors, tight cropping and cinematic rhythm. Although each image can stand alone, they are meant to flow together like a line of film stills captured at climactic moments.

I explore the dichotomy between the severe and mundane, the odious and humorous, the grotesque and terrifying, the filthy, the erotic, the sexy, the uncanny, and the primal. This process yields work that is bound thematically by psychological content and emotional interplay.

The images provoke ambivalent and contradictory responses in the viewer--an enjoyable, yet mysterious imbalance, a rocking back and forth between projection and introspection. Viewers are unbalanced, but not out of sync.

Previously, I have focused on intimate subjects within my personal circle. As I refine my working methods, I find that I'm venturing beyond these bounds. Instead of waiting for pinnacle events to happen, I deliberately seek out and construct these moments in public life.

Bio
Sarah Small was born in 1979 in Washington, D.C., to two musicians. She spent her high school years photographing her freckled and (usually) cooperative younger sister, Rachel. In 1997, Sarah began her studies at the RISD where she was awarded a merit scholarship. Since graduation in 2001, her images have been showcased in publications including Life Magazine, The New York Times, Visionaire, Surface, Planet, Psychology Today, Playgirl, XLR8R, Resonance, Topic, and Shots Magazine. Sarah has received numerous photography awards and has exhibited in group and solo shows nationally and internationally.

When not photographing, Sarah spends her free time singing and performing with Yasna Voices, a small, Brooklyn-based Bulgarian Women's Choir. Every day for the past eight years, Sarah has taken a Polaroid of herself. She plans on pursuing this project for life.

Sarah's ambition is to carry on her search for images that move her, eventually nurture a family, and continue to engage all her musical interests.

Whiskas, 2005, by Floriane de Lassee

Hot Shot Floriane de Lassee took a road trip across America last August before returning to France; she documented gas stations thoughout the country. Since then, she has had three shows: Nightviews, Supermarkets, and Gaz Stations. She recently returned from Shanghai where she exhibited her Nightviews series, and in June, HSBC + AD magazine will sponsor her Nightviews solo show in Moscow.

In July, Floriane will participate in the Voies Off Fringe Festival during the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles. To boot, Floriane was recently featured as the "Young Talent of the Month" in Photo Magazine. I'd say she's doing well.

Rachael Sudlow, a Fall 2005 Hot Shot, claims, "I'm still running around the Kansas prairie, shooting landscapes, cowscapes and the like." Lucky.

In February, Rachael was was awarded first place in the Five State Photography Competition and Exhibition based out of Hays, Kansas. She also hung a show in Lawrence, Kansas, at the Bourgeois Pig and has been sending her work wholesale to galleries across the country.

You can see more of her photos and the jewerly she's been making on her site as well as on Etsy.

Michael Taglieri, a contender from Ontario, submitted some photos from his series Wearing a Raincoat in Case it Begins to Rain. I think these photos are just swell.

forming a bridge (S19 E110) by Michael Taglieri

taking a picture with one hand behind my back (N51 W278) by Michael Taglieri

forming a bridge (S26 E140) by Michael Taglieri

About the series, Michael writes:

"In the series 'wearing a raincoat in case it begins to rain', the landscape is appropriated as a site for performance. I am also engaged by the tropes of landscape photography, creating works that reintroduce the figure into the melancholy blankness of familiar ruralscapes in playful and engaging ways".

Good news for all the folks who didn't make the Monday, May 8th deadline. We have extended the deadline as we have a few times in the past. So, the new deadline is MONDAY, MAY 15TH, at NOON.
Submit your work! We're waiting for it!

Ariella and Crow by contender Sarah Small.

A lot of people seem to be scrambling to get their entries in, so we're keeping the competition open for the rest of the day. You now have until 9pm Eastern Time today (Monday) to get your entry in. Don't delay: Apply Now!

Sometimes people come by the gallery, introduce themselves, and start talking about how they're planning on entering the upcoming round of Hey, Hot Shot!. I'm always happy to put faces to names of people who have entered the competition. If I'm sweating a deadline, as I so often am, I might not be as attentive and engaged as I'd like to be, so it goes, but this kind of interaction gets to the heart of the matter for me: the whole reason I started the competition is because I really do love looking at new work and meeting and working with emerging photographers. Hey, Hot Shot! allows me to engage in this process regularly in a manageable way.

Anyway, these aspiring Hot Shots usually ask me for some pointers about what kind of work they should submit. My stock answer is this "Think of it like a haiku." Meaning: you get three chances to express something and although each expression might be wildly divergent from the next, there's something that ties them all together. OK, maybe it's kind of corny, but it's how I see it.

Panelist Eliot Shepard was less corny and more specific in his very thoughtful post on the slower.net weblog, Advice for those considering entry into the Hey Hot Shot competition at the Jen Bekman Gallery. His post caused quite a stir a while back - it got Kottke'd and then in turn inspired another post on the Signal vs. Noise blog entitled Art statements, Pitchfork, and fancypants analysis, which was a broader meditation on "fancypants, look-at-me analysis has nothing to do with good art or good rock 'n roll." It was all good stuff, and the discussion threads on both posts are interesting reads. Jen says: check it out.

Also, and for the record, I'm not one for a lot of flowery prose when it comes to statements, but I do like to know what an artist has on their mind when they go about doing what that they do. It's just about that simple.

Jen Williams, a HHS! contender, submitted these images:

Happy Kens by Jen Williams

Barbie Bakes a Cake by Jen Williams

In her statement, Jen writes:

"My recent constructed narrative series, 'Pastic', takes on the infamous icons which have ingratiated themselves into our collective psyche, bombarding generations of girls and boys with their insidious vision of plastic perfection - wanting us all to believe that we too should strive for the perfect figure, the perfect wardrobe, the perfect home and, of course, the perfect man. To achieve anything less, they implied, was tantamount to failure. Plastic offers a glimpse behind the facade to reveal a version of Normal that's closer to our collective truth."

Dolls, Sylvie Buchler

Sylvie Buchler, a HHS! contender, grew up in Paris, France, and currently resides in Manhattan. She prints her photographs on matte paper and paints over the images with oils. Sylvie combines the immediacy of photography with the time-consuming process of painting.

Tres chouette, Sylvie.

The book that Andrew Long, a Winter 2006 Hot Shot, has been
editing for the past two years finally hit the stores. It's called Fotolog.book, published by Thames & Hudson. It's "a brand-new collection of pictures by, about, and for the members of Fotolog."

Here are some sites you can visit to get the whole scoop...or a copy:

The Fotolog website
The Fotolog.book webpage.
The Thames & Hudson book info page
The Amazon page

Harbor by Andrew Long

Jenni Holder, previous director of the
Edwynn Houk Gallery, was a contributing editor and has several photos in the book.
Both Laura Holder and Eliot Shepard have their own chapters in the book.

Currently, Andrew is working on a startup blog for and about Fotolog, which is scheduled to launch in June. Soon friends, soon. Here's Andrew's Flickr site where you can see more of his work.

Also, Jen has been on fotolog for forever, so check out her stuff, too:
jenbee on Fotolog.

Rachel Sussman, a Spring 2005 Hot Shot, will be in two shows this May. In fact, one of them opens tonight and will be up until May 23rd (the opening reception is *tonight* from 6pm-9pm); it's a solo show at the galapagos art space in Williamsburg called Natural Selection.

70 North 6th Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

She'll also be in a a group exhibition called Voxumenta in Philidelphia at Vox Populi from May 5th to May 28th.

1315 Cherry Street, 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Galapagos Art Space writes:

"An internationally exhibited artist, Sussman creates work that displays a stunning eye for the overlay of human and natural architectures. 'My work is an exploration of man's complex relationship with nature, and thereby, himself,' says Sussman. Sussman's work has been shown recently at Jen Bekman Gallery, Photography 2005 at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Momenta, White Columns, and was featured in the "Picturing Central Park" auction at Christie's. She holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and has been an artist in residence at the MacDowell Colony and Cooper Union. Sussman's work will also appear in Voxumenta at the Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia from May 5th through 27th."

Since she was named a Hot Shot last spring, Rachel has also been an artist in residence at the Macdowell Colony and was in the Central Park Conservancy Benefit Auction, Picturing Central Park, in addition to Photography 2005 at the University of Chicago's Renaissance Society. More information on these events can be found in Rachel's CV.

Bethany Fancher submitted these photos to the Hey, Hot Shot! competition.

Rio Grande

Fourth of July

She has taken many photographs such as these of model horses from her childhood in found landscapes. She also makes sculptures and does the same with them.

See more on her website: http://www.bethanyjean.com.

pray for surf by Stefan Simikich

In the spirit of the approaching Hey, Hot Shot! competition***deadline: May 8th at noon***, I'll be posting photos received in the Spring submissions.

Sidenote: These photographs were chosen by me and only me (sidesidenote: I'm just a powerless intern boohoo). None of the panelists were involved. I chose images I found interesting as well as ones that reveal the diversity of the work we have received in this round of entries. So, don't be scared to submit your work. You still have a week to give us stuff. Well, almost a week. So, come on.

Stefan's the co-founder of hamburgereyes. R-A-D.

It's that time again -- the deadline to enter the latest edition of Hey, Hot Shot! is upon us. The deadline for the Spring edition is next Monday, May 8 @ noon.

The competition has been getting lots of good play this week (and it's barely Tuesday!) -- first there was opening reception for jen@joe which features loads of excellent work from 2005 Hot Shots. You can see photos of the event over on Flickr: jen@joe Reception: Sunday April 30th.

Then, there's that article in the May issue of Art in America that talks about Jen Bekman Gallery, leading into it is a description of Hey, Hot Shot! We've posted excerpts on the JBG Blog, which you can read here: JBG in Art in America's May Issue.

Finally, yesterday evening, American Photo magazine posted an item on their website about the upcoming deadline: Hey, Hot Shot! Deadline Approaching. (But you knew that already, didn't you?)

OK, so that's the news, hot shot. Don't delay: Apply Now!.