Spring '07 Hot Shot Daniel Traub reports that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has acquired four images from his City's Edge series. The very series that won him a spot in Hey, Hot Shot!
Traub was also recently included in the PDN 30 2008 - one of 30 "new and emerging photographers to watch," by Photo District News.
And he's not the only Hot Shot featured on that illustrious list. Fall '07 Hot Shot Birthe Piontek and Fall '06 Hot Shot Shen Wei are honored there too.
But the film trope is an obvious one, and with two entries in two days making filmic work, I'd love to see the camera used in a totally different way.
That's my challenge to you, would-be wide-anglers. And as soon as I buy myself one, I'll play along too.
Here's where we really get into it. Inside Hey, Hot Shot! Yiftach Belsky entered this competition, just like, I hope, you have, or will. He selected three images and wrote a brief statement and I found it all earlier today, while looking through entries, while combing for Contenders. Belsky's three images were strong, and his statement intriguing, but it felt like something was missing. Like there had to be more to it than what I was seeing. And there is more, and because he has a super website, I can see it. A lot more. Great images. A more complete picture, entire stories even.
So, DO be sure to include your website when you enter. If you don't have one, make one. Not just for us, obviously, but because there are people out there, people like me, who want to pour through more.
Untitled (Bicycle) and Untitled (Girl) by Bradford Daly
I didn't have to read it in his bio to know that Bradford Daly is inspired by the movies. You can see it in his photos, and not just because of the wide angle frame. This is a good thing. I recently (okay, one year ago) bought a Lomo Horizon Kompakt Panorama Camera and, I'll be honest, it's still sitting, sadly, in its case, used only once, and it's holding my roll of film captive. I have no clue how to use it. The instructions didn't help. I am intimidated and it's winning. Does anyone want to give me a lesson?
Back to Bradford. Bradford shoots primarily with a Hasselblad Xpan camera. Go to his site to see more.
Now I can't get the Will Oldham song, "I Am A Cinematographer" out of my head...
Zack Seckler, Untitled (grass roof).
"I didn't get the Brownie camera on my 10th birthday. I never always knew I wanted to be a photographer. In fact, I used to think taking pictures was boring," says HHS contender Zack Seckler. What fantastic honesty.
Zack wants the viewer to be drawn in by graphic elements and then dwell on meaning. With this image, he's done a good job of that.
Kent Rogowski, from Love = Love
Hot Shots and would-be Hot Shots and regular people alike: go see Kent Rogowski's show, Love = Love, at Jen Bekman Gallery.
Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to present Love = Love, an exhibition by Kent Rogowski, comprised of six large-scale photographic prints based on altered puzzles, as well as a selection of the original objects. Love = Love will be on view until Saturday, June 14, 2008.
Rogowski’s collages are created with pieces of puzzles which are cut from the same die but depict different, unrelated images. Using these photographic fragments as his palette, Rogowski creates entirely new compositions by his careful mapping of their collisions. The intermixing of these glossy idealizations of flowers, bucolic scenery, and man-made wonders results in disorienting and wholly unique fractured fantastical landscapes. In photographing his completed objects, Rogowski transforms them yet again. Shifting the scale of the photographic image modulates the grid-like uniformity produced by the borders of the puzzle pieces, diminishing or increasing the order they exert over the chaos of the constructed image.
James Danziger, of Danziger Projects, thoughtfully wrote,
"Mixing flowers, blues skies, puffy clouds, and idyllic scenery, Rogowski creates his own alternate fractured universe, one that undergoes yet another transformation when he photographs the finished object. Humorous and cheery, they are not without their own sly commentary on the commodification of happiness and idealism.Whether they’re photography or re-photography or collage (or a combination of all three) is beside the point. Kent Rogowski’s work demonstrates yet again that although it may be increasingly hard to come up with new ideas, where there’s a will there’s a way."
Untitled (snow-trees) from the series "Broken Cinema" by Chris Bennett
In Chris Bennet's entry statement, he first quotes Jonas Mekas, which is nice, but tells me far less about his passion than his own great explanation that follows.
“It is not my business to tell you what it is all about. My business is to get excited about it, to bring it to your attention. I am a raving maniac of cinema. I capture what I see with my eyes into my camera, and in doing so, I use all my body – not only my eyes but my brain, my heart and each and every cell in my body. In addition, I think both memory and oblivion are important. Filming is a contradiction; I am very much stressed and focused at the very moment of shooting, but at the same time, it is a very relaxed moment.” -Jonas MekasThis quote both captures how I feel about artist statements and how I truly feel about my work, but I know I can't get get away with that so here is what I have to say. ...
"Broken Cinema" contains images with a forward motion and a passing of time similar to that of a cinematic projection. Through these extended sequences of still images I hope to create an experience that could be considered cinematic in conception.
I'm not wagging a finger, but this is a good lesson, entrants: your words are really important. It's your statement. We want to hear what you have to say.
Minor Adjustments by Katherine Morgan
Wedding photographs are hard work. I'm not sure if this image, by Katherine Morgan, was made as hired help or simply shot as a guest/observer, but it's good. It tells a story far more interesting than plastered smiles and straight shoulder-to-shoulder poses ever could.
Motel 02 by Finn O'Hara.
Look at that light!
"I believe that the space that one keeps," says HHS! contender Finn O'Hara, "is as telling as one's personality."
We're still accepting entries for the current edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Apply now!
Pete and Friend by HHS contender Rachel Graves
I tend to be drawn to conceptual work and often to work that examines the medium itself. So I was immediately interested in aspiring Hot Shot Rachel Graves's work with found/family photographs. Full disclosure: I, too, sometimes work with family photos. Whereas I isolate details in order to explicate all I can from a single image, Graves reports,
"For this I am working directly with the family photographs my parents have - every single one of them, and rephotographing each one until it is so disintegrated and so far removed from what it was that I can no longer find anything familiar in what I see."
What great work.
With that, and with my confessional, I inaugurate this cycle's round of Contenders posts. Check back every day for a quick peek inside the submission portfolio of one of the entries for the current edition of Hey, Hot Shot! And, also, you should enter now!
Marine Wedding, by Sping '07 Hot Shot Nina Berman, installation view.
Spring '07 Hot Shot, and all-around hot shot, Nina Berman will speak on an Aperture panel at this weekend's New York Photo Festival. As I've already implored, you MUST go to the festival, and when you're there, be sure to catch Nina talking with Vicki Goldberg and Claire Beckett at Aperture Presents: Picturing Iraq. There should be more public discussion of images of this war; I expect a great conversation with this trio.
I know where you should be this weekend: the New York Photo Festival.
Lesley A. Martin, a HHS panelist, is one of the curators, and it looks to be a tremendous affair. Jen Bekman gets in on the action too, sitting on a panel about curating tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.
The festival was created because "New York City, home to the most influential commercial and fine art photography community, has lacked—until now—a large-scale event dedicated to photography."
This year, powerHouse Books and VII Photo Agency launched the New York Photo Festival, which is the first international-level festival of photography to be based in the United States.
Visit the festival's site to see the great schedule and report back about what you go to see.
CSAV Chicago, New York by Summer '07 HHS winner Shuli Hallak
Summer '07 Hot Shot, Shui Hallak, has a show at Chelsea's Moti Hasson Gallery. The gallery will show work from the same series that won her a coveted HHS spot.
CARGO, a solo exhibition of photographs by SHULI HALLAK is up from MAY 8-JUNE 29, 2008 at Moti Hasson.
Congratulations, Hot Shot!
Shuli Hallak's recent photographs document cargo in its state of transit between production and consumption. Almost every manufactured product humans consume spends time in a shipping container, yet consumers remain largely unaware of the process by which goods are actually transported. Hallak describes a cargo ship as a "sublime, moving city" and finds beauty in the fundamental necessity of the shipping industry, in the romance of travel over sea, and in the raw, precise, purely functional architecture of ports. In "Cargo," Hallak unveils an essential stage in the delivery of goods from manufacturer to consumer and invites viewers to share in her process of discovery and in her fascination with what she finds.
Tonight, the Griffin Museum of Photography will present Jen Bekman with its Rising Star Award at its 3rd Annual Focus Awards its annual Focus Awards. The Griffin Museum of Photography recognizes the work of people who are not photographers, but who have been instrumental in increasing awareness of the photographic arts among the general public.
Awards are presented in three categories: Lifetime Achievement, given to an individual whose ongoing commitment to photography has far-reaching impact; Rising Star, awarded to an emerging force the photographic community is watching with interest; New England Beacon, recognizing an individual whose work brings prominence to the local photographic scene; and the Spotlight Award, given to an entity that consistently shines a light on photography and enhances the art form. Ms. Bekman is this year's Rising Star.
The museum says,
"An innovative gallery owner, Bekman has used her knowledge of the Web to change gallery culture. After years of managing Web development teams at Netscape and Disney, she used her Internet skills and interest in photography to create a vehicle for connecting emerging photographers with potential buyers on the Web. She writes a blog, Personism, and is founder of the international photo competition, Hey, Hot Shot! Her latest endeavor is 20 x 200, a place to buy editioned prints and photos at affordable prices. She has been featured in many publications and was named Innovator of the Year by American Photo."
We're so proud of Ms. Bekman. Visit the museum for more info.
It's time! We are now accepting entries for 2008's first edition of Hey, Hot Shot! We're all super excited about the great changes in store for applicants and winners. And, remember, all applicants are also potential contenders for features on this very blog.
Hey, Hot Shot! offers unrivaled opportunities for emerging photographers to have their work promoted online, reviewed by top-notch panelists and exhibited in our New York gallery. Now entering its fourth year, the international competition has been lauded by curators, critics, educators and journalists. This year we'll sharpen our focus on fewer hot shots, giving them even more exposure. Read on for the details.
Fewer hot shots + longer exhibitions = more exposure
The competition will now be bi-annual. In each competition 5 photographers will be selected to be part of a two-week showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery.
Cold hard cash
All winning photographers will be awarded a $500 honorarium.
Ultras go solo
At year's end 2 Ultras will be selected from 2008's 10 Hot Shots. The Ultras will be represented by Jen Bekman and slated for solo exhibitions at the gallery.
In it to win it
As always, we'll be selecting contenders to feature daily on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog throughout the entry period. Contenders will also be considered for 20x200, Jen Bekman's newest online endeavor which offers limited edition prints at affordable prices.
So what are you waiting for? Get your work out there: apply now!
We are only accepting submissions online, via this web site.
The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, June 17th @ 8pm(EDT).
Winners will be announced on Wednesday, July 9th @ 1pm (EDT).
There is a $60 handling fee for your entry.
Submissions are open to everyone (from anywhere in the world!).
The competition is open: APPLY NOW!
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