Hudson River Watch, New York, NY, 2006 by Robert Vizzini

What can I say, I miss New York and can't wait to get back...

Born and bred New Yorker and aspiring Hot Shot Robert Vizzini on his submission:

New York has always been a place of change, and lately it seems to be increasingly and rapidly shifting, reshaping, and vanishing. Along with this, I personally have experienced the feeling that time is precious. Beginning about two and a half years ago, all the incidental work of doing photography weighed on me to the point where I stopped taking photographs. What I found, though, was that the images of New York continued to impress themselves on my imagination. I recently decided I had to get back to capturing them again on film.

For a long time, I have wanted to do a large-scale project on New York, my hometown. I have a sense of urgency, though, both with my feelings of getting older and with the rapidity of the changes in the city. Lately, I have been photographing feverishly, night after night, finding new aspects of the landscape to capture at every turn.

Less than one week remains to get your entries in! How about entering today?

Blue Moon Diner by Shane Lavalette

I cannot recall each of the exact places where I have run into Hot Shot hopeful Shane Lavalette around the web, so let's just say he gets around. At the ripe age of 19, he not only has a great name and considerable Google results, but an impressively cohesive body of work which you can see on his website or on his flickr stream. On his submission:

These images are a small selection from a larger on-going body of work currently titled Je Reviens (meaning "I Return" as well as "I Haunt"). The project, stemming from personal experience, explores my own attempt to find home, relationships with the landscape as well as domestic space, and a continued search for this sense of comfort, where worldly cares fade and the people and places that one loves become the focus.

Keep it up Shane. Everyone else, the clock ticks...

Enter here!

The Last Splash Made It by Mandy Sue Springer

One of my favorite parts of looking through the submissions is the variety in not just the work, but in the way artists choose to represent themselves through words. The statement can easily become the bane of any artist's existence, a frustrating yet necessary addition to the process. Sometimes they're in first person, sometimes third, short and sweet versus long and sprawling, a heavy handed academic tone or an informal blurb—each submission comes with a surprise. Luckily, there is not a mandatory method for writing about one's work or oneself—it's secondary support and only you can gauge how much is necessary. You know why you make the work you do, but oh how tricky it can be to convince others.

I give you words from aspiring Hot Shot Mandy Sue Springer:

I am from Kentucky. I like overalls and sometimes I don't wear shoes, but I wear makeup and love lace. I have dirt under my fingernails most of the time and I get pedicures. I stay up too late and don't have enough time to take naps. I love the beach and the mountains more. My favorite color is green and trees follow everywhere my art goes. I wonder when I will quit wondering what I will do when I grow up. After receiving a bachelors degree in studio art I realized that I didn't know enough and now I am finding out more at Savannah College of Art and Design. I am best at worrying, but tell others that worrying is useless because it doesn't solve problems. My mom always said I talk too much, but strangers say not enough. And pictures allow me to tell the stories that only I see.

You have a mere week to get your entries in. Surprise us, enter today!

Elk, CA by aspiring Hot Shot John Saponara

The Hey, Hot Shot! contender of the day: John Saponara.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF STRANGERS: I initially began making photographs of tourists photographing themselves in various places as a reaction to them. I wanted these people to be prescient and in the moment, rather than worrying about showing granny and Uncle Bob that they were in Yellowstone. I strove to create a quiet photograph no matter the chaos that surrounded them or me. With time, these images become less about the places in them, but rather a faded memory associated with being there, somewhat recognizable, but belonging to someone else. The places here have become a stage set, separated from reality: they exist only in the world that my photographs have created for them.

Enter today!

Red Popsicle by Robert Thurlow

Something warm and sunny for a cold winter day, I give you aspiring Hot Shot Robert Thurlow.

My photographs express feelings of humor and alienation. My autobiographically themed work uses repetition and narrative to enhance and challenge notions of pop culture and the banality of the everyday and the self.

Yes, the weather might have frozen us out of the gallery, but it is a prime day to submit your work—enter online!

A brief administrative announcement: Cold snap + Heat problem = Uninhabitable gallery!

NYC weather is cold with temps only in the teens for the day and the heating system's gone kaput. Rather than become human icicles, we're closed for the day. We'll resume regular hours tomorrow (Saturday): Noon - 6pm. Please come see us then!

Til then, spend time with the jb virtually:

+ Read up on all the Hot Shots

+ Check out jen bekman artists

+ Visit Jen's blog, Personism

The Sweater Incident, 1999, by contender Jill Frank

Jill Frank's Hey, Hot Shot! submission comes from a series of reenactments of fleeting incidents from her childhood. In caricatures of herself and family, or maybe even me and you, she does a decent job at summing up that feeling of painful reminiscence that we all seem to enjoy so much. Regardless of the nostalgic humiliation, her work is humorous and dare I say poetic, she puts it well. As does her accompanying project illustrating her childhood memories of others which you can see on her website here. Now I suppose I'll pass the mic to her...

My return home, after years of living on my own opened a flood of ideas about the idea of family, the absurdity that we experience when we are close to people, and my own memories of childhood that were almost forgotten. My goal became to record the moments that I felt had shaped my family history.

Jill too left New York and is now in Chicago at The School of the Art Institute, meaning neither of us were in attendance at last night's soiree. But thanks to all who went and helped make it the eventful evening that I hear it was!

Next time, be the guest of honor. Enter today!

Untitled, from the series Workspace by Joseph O. Holmes

Tonight Jen Bekman Gallery presents the second annual Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra, also known as the HHS! 2006 Annual, the creme de la creme of Hot Shots. That's four fantastic artists in one show! We've got Ian Baguskas, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Alison Grippo, and Joseph O. Holmes. Yes, that is quite hot. And the kicker: It's the top of the hill for the JBG, the 40th exhibition!

Come and help us celebrate the big day.

Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra
(2006 Annual)

Ian Baguskas | Kate Bingaman-Burt | Alison Grippo | Joseph O. Holmes

Opening Reception: Wednesday January 24 | 6pm - 8pm
Exhibition Dates: January 24 - March 3, 2007

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012 | +1.212.219.0166

Untitled (two people under a large tree) by contender Grady O'Connor

Perhaps you recall Grady O'Connor's work from the last round of Hey, Hot Shot! submissions. Today I unknowingly selected his work once again, only upon googling his name did I discover our paths had crossed before. And what a pleasant surprise it was! While still interested in pursuing the simplicity in life, Grady has been working on a new body of work which you can see on his flickr page here. On his submission:

Over the past few months I have been creating a body of work that is representational of my current views of the world around me. I live a life split between my apartment in the East Village, my parents house in the suburbs, and endless points along the way. While I have always had strong ties to home, travel has always been an important factor in my life. As contrived as it is, my travels truly are about the journey; gas stations, parking lots, roadside diners. I carry my camera with me to make documents of these places in the most literal sense. I find joy in the simple things, and have taken these photographs to reflect upon that.

Good work, Grady! Everyone else, less than two weeks remain, get 'em in! Enter online today. And while you're at it, join us tonight for the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual and let the hottest of the Hot Shots from 2006 get you in the mood.

Untitled 2 by Mark Diehl

Contender Mark Diehl submitted work from his Dream Series. Well-executed and, more importantly, well-edited night photography summing up the work, I must give him credit for his take on the process. He says, "I attempted, constantly, to grasp why I was so enthralled with sacrificing rest for photographing silently at the hours when so few are awake." Shooting in his hometown, he revisits his past haunts, the places he knew only as a child, taking the project beyond eerie light and long exposures into a personal jaunt with nostalgia.

To photograph at night, to suffice for sleep, is to equate this process to dreaming. Fittingly and surprisingly, I found myself with physical records of places I dreamt of wandering in night as a youngster. These photographs are a document of discovery for myself, both as the artist and what it meant as a child to transverse into the dreaming landscape.

You have two weeks to get your entries in. Why not enter today?

Untitled, from the series Concubines of New York by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Shen Wei

Fall 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! winner Shen Wei is one of those photographers who not only finds the time to make massive quantities of work that manage to remain cohesive and, well, good, but also is quite the man about town, with impeccable networking skills to boot. Oh,the juggle, he handles it well. Shen was recently awarded a Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for his documentary project Concubines of New York.

And some older news, Hey, Hot Shot! panelist and celebrity blogger Joerg Colberg named him a Photographer of the Year, along with Amy Elkins and Richard Renaldi. And at the same time our own Jen Bekman was named an Innovator of the Year, Shen received an Honorable Mention for American Photo's Images of the Year.

AND... Shen's work in the Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase received press in two Chinese periodicals, The Sing Tao Daily and The Ming Pao Daily.

A translation from The Sing Tao Daily:

Shen Wei focused most of his work on portraiture, his portraits are sensual and sensitive, fully expressed his idea about body, persona and identity. In this 10 artists photography group show, he showed works from his series Almost Naked, "I like to look at American society from a Chinese perspective".

Oh yes, how impressive our alumni can be! Congratulations Shen.

Uncle Dallas by Kirsten Kay Thoen

For a cold wintry day, I give you a sunny image by contender Kirsten Kay Thoen. Kirsten is interested in creating poetry and autobiographical fiction in her work. From her statement:

Since Thoen was raised in a family of adopted children, self-portraiture was an appropriate touchstone in her process of viewing and representing identity. These roots, as well as an intensive study of Dutch Art History in the Netherlands, have guided her approach, psychologically and formally, to her subjects. The delicate balancing between what is included and excluded crafts her images into lyrical moments that at times appear to be as intimate as they are elusive. Thoen's fascination with the poetry of everyday encourages the viewer to discover myths and icons in the ordinary.

While I too feel self-portraiture is an "appropriate touchstone" in handling the monumental topic of identity, I also think it is an unavoidable one, one that we all must reach in some form, for some duration of time however small it may be. I also think there's quite a difference in the everyday and the ordinary.

Enough from me for today. Now for you, enter while it's on your mind.

Untitled - When Light Leaks (Three Rivers) by Andrew George

Contender Andrew George doesn't remember when he took is first photograph and frankly doesn't care; that was long long ago. On his submission he says:

My intent with these photographs is to confirm a series of moments--entrancing and inanimate, yet fleeting--that are hidden in plain view. The work exposes the chance collaborations between light and man-made elements that are found in everyday waysides. My camera embraces these arrangements of forms amidst background. They are accidental still-lifes, and they exist only at that certain moment when I see them.

Deadline is Tuesday February 6—enter today!

Untitled (Two) by contender Tamara Umansky

Inspiration came to Tamara Umansky from the combination of a day in the park and a father's hobby. After moving from Mexico City to Houston at the ripe age of 13, she picked up her father's Nikon and snapped a shot of a park bench. Struck by her inability to articulate what the image was doing to her, her passion for the medium began. She admits her work has no overarching theme, at least that she can identify as of yet, but she is inspired by everyday objects, people, places and things. Since graduating she has worked as still photographer on various film sets. Tamara says, "the idea of documenting something that doesn't actually exist and authenticating it seems paradoxical, but it holds a special appeal for me."

Keep it up Tamara. As for everyone else, the clock ticks. Enter today!

Travis, 2005 by contender Molly Landreth

Submitted from Seattle, Molly Landreth's series Embodiment is an exploration and archive of contemporary queer communities and their ever-transforming roles within youth culture. She carefully constructs images of carefully constructed identities in hopes of revealing not only who her subjects are, but who they wish to become. From Molly's statement:

Coming of age witnessing rapid changes in how gender and sexual minorities are viewed, I began this project as an investigation into the ways this generation of young people is continuing to challenge traditional life narratives within both straight and mainstream gay and lesbian communities. Even with today's increasingly progressive attitudes, to be visible is to become both empowered and vulnerable. As a result, these images depict subjects who meet my gaze with a rare combination of forthright self-awareness and total abandon, like they are standing in for something much larger than themselves.

Less than 3 weeks remain to show us what you're investigating.
Submit your entry today.

Pink Dots by contender Grant Willing

Apologies for the barren blog as of late—there will be recompense, you can be assured. Like many Hot Shots and Hot Shot wannabes, I am still in pursuit of my luxurious degree, my BFA—and it is once again time to take care of business.

Yesterday, I flew into Chicago and was welcomed by freezing winds and snow. Leaving what was relatively mild weather in New York to find myself with nearly frostbitten toes and a beyond pink nose, aspiring Hot Shot Grant Willing's work struck a chord in me. Grant grew up in Colorado, another past home of mine, one where snow is quiet, clean, romantic, and for skiing and snowmen. Trying desperately not to slip on the sidewalks of icy Chicago, I am hoping to find inspiration in Grant's words: "I am trying to show the beauty in the smaller things that have not been concealed by the weather; they form an entire picture where the rest of the frame is void of considerable detail." Not always an easy task. He goes on...

My photographs represent a bleak and often empty scene of places that I have visited. Even though most of my photographs show a presence of life, they still have an emptiness that suggests a lack of involvement and care. This carelessness presents a subtle irony that I am trying to capture.

You keep it coming and so will I. Enter today!

Andre Zweig by contender Dina Kantor

Aspiring Hot Shot and SVA MFA candidate Dina Kantor submitted work from her series Finnish & Jewish. Initially intrigued by her family heritage and Finnish-Jewish blood, she has turned her eyes to an impressively small yet thriving population. In Dina's words:

Today, there are an estimated 1,500 Jews living in Finland. There is one synagogue in Helsinki, and one in Turku. A third synagogue, in Vyborg, was burned down during World War II. How does this religion survive in a country where there are only two synagogues? In a nation of 5.3 million people, how do 1,500 Jews maintain their cultural identity? In 2006 I began making portraits of the members of this small community. In addition to being a visual record, the photographs function as a sociological document exploring how Finnish Jews live, work and practice their religious traditions.

With these pictures, I am investigating the way photography contributes to the construction of identity and community. Today's society is increasingly complex and multi-cultural. As our heritages blend, our identities are no longer definable by a social stereotype of a community, but by our unique experiences and backgrounds. Photography has an exceptional ability to record details, and I am employing it to record cultural signifiers and traditions as they blend, as well as to depict physical characteristics of a hybridized community.

Enter today!

drei #21 by Christopher Young

Sometimes an artist's words are enough. I give you contender Christopher Young.

This image is part of an ongoing series titled drei (German: 'three') that addresses specific aspects of both my personal life & creative practice: people, place and props. It consciously develops ideas of context, implied narrative and space as components in the communication of associated concepts. These locations are loaded with long lost narratives and I make my images after the direct emotive connection has been severed. Often deserted, they are going through a process of decay, destruction and regeneration. By contrasting them in exhibition context with my portraiture and still-life work - often in diptych or triptych form - I hope to re-invent a deeply personal but at the same time completely fictional history. Any discovery is tainted by the subjective experience of the viewer projecting their own narratives into a scene. They are then left to clumsily read or even create their own mythologies.

Enter today!

Teressa by contender Jeff Elliott

It is fascinating for me to watch the entries come in; they really do pop-up from all across the board. I get to see the work of artists of all sorts, shapes, and sizes, from my peers and individuals just discovering their love of the medium to artists who give me something to aspire to.

Jeff Elliott aspires to Hot Shot status. He has been photographing for over 40 years. For him, photography started with Antioch College. He went on to get his MFA and studied at M.I.T., The San Francisco Art Institute, The University of Madrid, and The Universidad de Arte in San Miguel. And I thought one institution was confusing... In 1968 he found himself an apprentice for Minor White. He went on to live in several ZaZen Monasteries and taught meditation for 8 years. During his 30's and 40's he became a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and retired at a prime age. Ever since he has devoted his time and energy to his photography. He comes to Hey, Hot Shot! with a series taken while living in the mountains north of Mexico City.

Oh what will I see next? Enter today!

Katie and Andria, Indian Springs by contender Andrea Wallace

Here is my under-insightful observation of the day: a website is a very useful thing to have, especially if one happens to be a photographer. In addition, a blog to keep us up-to-date and generate discussion is often twice as nice. As Hot Shot Matthew Nighswander said in his interview, "Organizing a website is a great way to get to know your own photography and if I could live off that, I would be fine with never being published or exhibited again." I won't go as far as him, but as someone who's had a nearly complete website for an embarrassing period of time, let me reiterate how important a website can be.

Aspiring Hot Shot Andrea Wallace has put together a body of work worthy of a peek. Her submission comes from a series of bathers taken at Indian Springs—a historic site turned tourist attraction in central Colorado. While I enjoyed seeing her submissions, seeing the full series on her website was quite delightful.

The springs, once considered sacred by Native Americans, has been "rebuilt" to include swimming pools, cave rooms and motel accommodations. The contemporary "hot springs experience" demystifies romantic notions of soaking nude in natural steaming pools along side a flowing river. People now wear bright colored bathing suites and plastic armbands, which denote admission to enter specific pools. The natural desert environment is now home to a botanical garden of tropical plants, a 130,000 gallon dome covered swimming pool and Native American music playing over loud speakers.

The subjects she photographs are consistently peculiar. Any one of them would fit rather well into my extended family, leaving me with a good dose of familial embarrassment to stack on top of that lingering over my lack of a site. So for all of us struggling to get it live, let Andrea be an encouragement.

I have a long leisurely week ahead to spend in front of my computer, so keep it coming and submit today!

Untitled (Fishkill, NY) by contender Jennifer Loeber

Not only do I plan to continue bringing you news from the past, present, and future; starting today I will humor your curious sides and spotlight selections from the entry pool. And it will be just that, a selection by yours truly, one that will hopefully give you an idea of the wide variety of work sent our way.

I'll start with Jennifer Loeber. Jennifer recently completed a feature length documentary on a fading flea-market community in Fishkill, NY. When not behind the camera, she also enjoys dancing, in her words, she "fell in love with photography while being forced to wear pink sequined gypsy pants as a stand-in model for a high school photography class. The other side of the lens looked infinitely more appealing." Any of us who studied photography in school can surely relate.

The goal of my work is to eavesdrop on the everyday anxiety of living. Whether my subjects are people or landscapes, the focus echoes our overabundance of choice, our daily expectations and the hidden dangers of the unknown that threaten us profoundly yet internally. It's in these glimpses of trepidation that tell the real story of any given moment. I aim to expose my own insecurities and unanswered questions through imagery that reveals its true spirit without giving away its secrets. The three images I am submitting are from this ongoing larger body of work.

Check back daily for your entry fix. Maybe tomorrow we'll be looking at you. Enter today.

The news keeps on getting better and better... I am thrilled to announce that Aperture's own Lesley Martin has joined our ranks as a Hey, Hot Shot! Panelist for 2007. As the Executive Editor of Aperture Books, Lesley is much to blame for tempting my book lusts towards many a guilty indulgences. One need only glance at Aperture's recent releases before going on a wild bibliophile-photofanatic spending rampage. Lesley, we have much to thank you for. And I must mention again, along with our very own Jen Bekman, Lesley was named one of American Photo's Innovators of the Year.

Lesley A. Martin is Executive Editor of the book-publishing program at Aperture Foundation, where she has worked on-and-off for the past eleven years. In between stints at Aperture, she pursued graduate course work at Columbia College and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and also served as Senior Editor and Production Director of Umbrage Editions. Her writing on photography has been published in Aperture, American Photo, and DoubleTake, among other publications and she has edited over fifty books of photography, including Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer; An-My Lê: Small Wars; My Life in Politics: Tim Davis; and Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names by Alex Webb. Martin is also the coauthor of two volumes on design, Graphicscape: Tokyo and Graphicscape: New York and contributing editor of Full Vinyl: The Subversive Art of Designer Toys.

It truly could not get any better. Lesley joins Joerg Colberg of Conscientious, Photographer Christine Collins, Photographer and SVA Photo Department Chair Stephen Frailey, Eileen Gittens, Founder and CEO of Blurb, Amit Gupta founder of Photojojo, Jenni Holder, previous Director of Edwynn Houk Gallery, The Ultras, and, of course, Jen Bekman herself on the panel. You have less than one month to get those submissions in and show off your stuff to this beyond amazing panel.

Get it in, get it out there: Enter today!

The fabulous Jen Bekman taken by John Von Pamer for American Photo

American Photo has dubbed our very own Jen Bekman as an Innovator of the Year! A well earned title, if I may say so myself, and right in time for some major mile stones. The gallery is about to hit its 4-year anniversary and, if you glance at the past exhibitions, about to climb right on over the hill. Impressive, naturally, it's the JBG! And Jen stands in excellent company, other innovators (and Hey, Hot Shot! Panelists, of course) include Joerg Colberg of Conscientious, Caterina Fake of Flickr, and Lesley Martin of Aperture.

What will our innovator pull from her sleeve this year? Only time will tell, but the track record promises it will be nothing but fabulous!

Read more here.

Left: Hot Shot! Matthew Nighswander. Right: Chandelier, Chicago by Matthew Nighswander

Summer Hot Shot! Matthew Nighswander came to us from Chicago. While he recently relocated to Brooklyn, he definitely soaked up some of that communal energy I have mentioned before. Let's jut say it's a good time to be a photographer in the Midwest. This Fall his work was published in the Nov/Dec issue of Adbusters along with fellow Chicagoans and friends Paul D'Amato and Brian Ulrich. And, he was featured in a group exhibit in the online F-Stop Magazine. If you find yourself in the Chicago area, make a point to pass by 33 E. Congress and see his piece above at a colossal scale.

Where were you born, where were you bred?
I grew up in a small town (Gilmanton) in central New Hampshire, near Lake Winnipesaukee.

Age?
36

How do you pay the bills?
I'm currently the Archivist for VII Photo. I worked previously for 6 years as an international photo editor at The Associated Press.

What's your formal background (if any) in photography?
I have an M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago.

What artist drove you to make the work you do? Who inspires you now?
Garry Winogrand originally inspired me to want to be a photographer. Right now I'm pretty into Alec Soth's "Niagara." I like work like Soth's that incorporates many different approaches to photography. Alessandra Sanguinetti's On the Sixth Day, Paul D'Amato's Barrio, and Brian Ulrich's Copia are three of my favorite photo books from this year.

What camera do you use? Is it always with you?
When I'm going out shooting my main camera is a Mamiya 7. Because of its size and fragility I don't keep it with me most of the time, but I will almost always have my Leica M6 or my small Contax point-and-shoot with me.

Do you shoot with a plan or on a whim?
When I set out to shoot, I usually have a plan for an area or subjects that I want to photograph. I try to impose some sort of discipline on myself but only to a point. I want to remain open to any distracting influence that might pop up because this will often lead to the best pictures. Also, it's this kind of open-ended wandering that makes photography so enjoyable. I'm not curing cancer so if it's not at least enjoyable I'd rather spend my time doing something more productive.

What images are superglued into your mind for all eternity?
Helen Levitt's picture of the kids walking down the street with the bubbles floating over the road next to them.

Untitled, New York (soap bubbles and girls) by Helen Levitt

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I'm pretty satisfied with the equipment I have for my own personal work but I would like to eventually get a digital setup (maybe the new Leica) to do assignment stuff.

What are your loftiest goals?
I would of course love to have a book but my craziest fantasy is somehow turning my website into something that could support me. Organizing a website is a great way to get to know your own photography and if I could live off that, I would be fine with never being published or exhibited again.

Do you have any other talents, hobbies, or favorite pastimes?
I played for many years in a rock band called Monobrow. Look for our reunion tour in 2012.

Any big plans for 2007?
My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks.

If you had to choose only one film to watch for the rest of time what would it be?
Michael Mann's "Heat"

Name three songs that would be on your soundtrack?
The Breeders covering "Happiness is A Warm Gun"
Judas Priest's "Heading out to the Highway"
Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony."

Favorite director/composer/author/artist/musician/etc?
Jose Saramago's Blindness--a thrilling combination of brutal, violent realism and the fantastic.

City you would most like to escape to?
Prague or a small town in New Hampshire.

What do you look for in a mate?
I got me one. Ain't looking.

If you had to choose any object/service to be branded with your name, what would it be?
Matt's Guitar Wax.

How do you spoil yourself?
Plugging in my electric guitar.

It was a busy Fall for Summer Hot Shot Sara Macel. A participant in the DUMBO arts festival through The Rider Project, her work was seen in two group shows in October, all while continuing to make new work, and it doesn't seem like she'll be getting a break anytime soon. Sara's work is to be included in Kiss & Tell curated by Kate Menconeri at The Center for Photography at Woodstock opening later this month. Keep it up, Sara!

Where were you born, where were you bred?
Born and bred in Spring, Texas, a stone's throw outside of Houston.

Current place of residence?
Brooklyn

Age?
25

How do you pay the bills?
I'm a photo production assistant and I do my own photography on the side.

What's your formal background (if any) in photography?
I studied photography at NYU where I learned almost everything I know and had some really amazing teachers. But the best way to learn technique is just by trial and error. After school, I worked as Bruce Davidson's assistant for 2 years and he taught me all kinds of nifty tricks.

What artist drove you to make the work you do? Who inspires you now?
Being from the south and a color photographer, William Eggleston is a definite hero. I love Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, and Alec Soth. Christian Patterson is great and other young photogs I know inspire me to keep at it. But most of my inspiration comes from music and books and my personal life.

What camera do you use? Is it always with you?
I mostly shoot with a Mamiya 7II, but I prefer using the RZ for portraits. I'm looking to make the jump to 4x5 in the near future.

How would you sum up your photographic process from start to finish?
I'm an old-timer in the sense that I sort of like bulky equipment and film and printing your own c-prints in the darkroom with weird little cut-out dodging tools.

Do you shoot with a plan or on a whim?
I try to have a general plan or project idea, even if it is just a song that I'll listen to over and over while I'm wandering around looking for something to shoot. There's a Big Star song that really inspired the project I'm working on now.

What images are superglued into your mind for all eternity?
I find old family photos of my parents and grandparents when they were my age a little haunting. And then, there's Joel Sternfeld's photo of the beached sperm whales; Davidson's Brooklyn Gang; Robert Frank's elevator girl from The Americans; Alec Soth's photo of Johnny Cash's boyhood home just floored me when I first saw it. There's just so many.

Elevator - Miami Beach, from the series The Americans by Robert Frank

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I'm a total camera nerd. I am currently lusting for a cherry wood 4x5 Wista- and not because it is the best 4x5 but just because is so damn pretty. And 8x10 is just the cat's pajamas.

What are your loftiest goals?
Just to shoot and wander around and have some nice folks like the photos and want to buy them so I can keep on wandering around.

Do you have any other talents, hobbies, or favorite pastimes?
I like to knit. I can make beer bread from scratch. I won a trophy for pantomime in the 7th grade, but I don't think that really qualifies as a talent. That's really more of my ace card up the sleeve whenever I get into discussions about embarrassments from adolescence.

Any big plans for 2007?
I have a show opening at the Center of Photography in Woodstock in late January. I'm thinking of doing a road trip through Texas with my best friend in March. And my sister is getting married in July. Beyond that, just to find some time to make a couple nice photos.

If you had to choose only one film to watch for the rest of time what would it be?
Big Lebowski

Name three songs that would be on your soundtrack?
Say Something Nice to Sarah - Ernest Tubb
These Days - Nico
Deep in Your Waters - Sonny Oaks
Days - The Kinks
Everyone - Van Morrison...Okay, I'll stop now.

Favorite director/composer/author/artist/musician/etc
Director- Billy Wilder
Author- Salinger and Steinbeck
Artist- Edward Hopper
Musician- Sam Cooke

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
NYTimes.com, Tiny Vices, Conscientious, Modish, HopStop is a Godsend.

City you would most like to escape to?
Every day when I leave for work I wish someone would drive up and say, "Hop in, we're going to Memphis."

What do you look for in a mate?
A goof, a rascal, a good time, a Scrabble opponent, a shared love for aquatic animals (or at least the ability to find my love for them bearable), a bookworm, and a handsome devil.

If you had to choose any object/service to be branded with your name, what would it?
If I could put a copyright on my homemade Chex Mix I would.

How do you spoil yourself?
Bubble baths with my rubber ducky.

Favorite beverage of choice?
Unsweetened iced tea or whiskey when I wanna get messy.

New Year's resolution?
No more whiskey (not really).

Untitled, from the series The Cloverfields by Andrea Chu

Hot on the heels of the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual Exhibition and the release of the yearbook, before we get too buried in 2007, let's check in with some of our recent HHS! winners. It never ceases to amaze me, the endless array of possibilities and activities as an artist and a photographer, yes, life can in fact be grand. With 40 photographers in our 2006 Alumni pool, we have witnessed some pretty amazing achievements over the course of the year. Myself on the brink of graduation, it eases the pressure to see so many emerging photographers doing so many impressive things. Oh how easy they make it look...

For instance, since last hearing from Spring Hot Shot Andrea Chu she has lived out a photographer's dream and traveled to Japan to shoot for Getty Images. And 2007 holds many more international adventures for Andrea. We'll be sure to keep you posted, in the meantime read an interview with her here.

So get ready. In the days leading up to the Annual's opening and the initial days of the competition's Winter Edition, I'll be posting more juicy interviews and tidbits of information on past winners. Hear life stories, explore some links, and find out what it takes to win the heart of a Hot Shot, all here on the one and only Hey, Hot Shot! Blog.

Misty Maiden by Ian Baguskas

And we are off here and what a year it promises to be! Let's not waste a single moment. You heard it here first, the Winter 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! is officially open.

Deadline: Tuesday February 6, 2007
Put your new year's resolution to work and enter today!

Exciting times are on the horizon @ the Jen Bekman Gallery! We are only three weeks away from the opening of the 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, showcasing the work of the hottest of the Hot Shots from 2006 and our newest additions to the Jen Bekman Gallery family. And then there is the release of the first of its kind HHS! Yearbook, the gallery's 4-year anniversary, four rounds of action packed HHS!, and that is just the beginning! Stay tuned...