From blog.noahkalina.com

I admit, I'm not the most technical of photographers. So I am always happy to be given an explanation about what equipment any photographer uses. Here's a nice glimpse into Summer '05 Hot Shot Noah Kalina's Everyday:

On January 11, 2000 I started taking a picture of myself every day with the Sony DSR-PC100 (left). On October 1, 2004 I replaced that camera with the Kyocera Finecam SL300R (middle). On October 1, 2008 I will replace that camera with the Nikon Coolpix S10 (right).

Hot Shot Nina Berman on www.artforobama.net

Today was the kind of day that made me really thankful that Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish year, is in a few days. I think I need a new beginning. I think we all need a new beginning. Banks failing, jobs disappearing, prices rising, and so on. So I can't help but be a little bit enlightened/encouraged by those who are also searching for change:

On 20x200, Kara reports on Art for Obama, a photography auction initiative to raise money for the campaign. Some JB-related — Alec Soth and Nina Berman — are even involved.

And then there's this: The Great Schlep. It has nothing to do with photography, and when it was forwarded to me, I immediately assumed I would hate everything about it. But I don't. It is silly, but they have a point. I hope they help.

Also, Lipstick for Change. A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from an old friend asking if I wanted to take some photos for a new project she was about to begin. There was lipstick. And there was exciting thinking. There was hope. And there was, of course, Obama. You should shoot some photos for them too.

P.S. When I went to Flickr, just now, to upload the photo for to complete this post, I found this, from my talented friend, Carrie McClean. It's a photo, so it's related. And it's adorable. You should think about wearing one of her rings. And take photos. (I should stay more on task: photos.)

Needle-Needle-Nee by Coke Wisdom O'Neal on 20x200

I've had one of Coke Wisdom O'Neal's medicine cabinets hanging in my bathroom for years. I got mine, from Mixed Greens, for free. They sent it in the mail a long time ago; I wish I could remember exactly why. It wasn't a bribe; I wrote this sort of overblown blurb in The Village Voice about Coke's work all on my own.

That said, you need one hanging in your bathroom too. Visit 20x200 to see what, if any, of each edition is left. I was happy to see these two pieces in my inbox today. I still love how the cabinet serves as a perfect frame for his portraits. Also, his work makes me think about how I have pills all over my house and maybe I need some structure. Morning medicine near the front door, night medicine near the bed, mid-day pill cases in every purse, etc. It's like I live in a medicine cabinet; as such I'm afraid I'd be a terrible subject for O'Neal.

P.S. Do visit Mixed Greens. It was one of the first places I loved for its art-for-everyone ethos. I knew I'd found a good group when I used the bathroom, on my first visit, and in there they had a shelf lined with a Ryan McGinness work that consisted of tall gold plated sports-figurine topped trophies bearing phrases like "#1 Artist" and "Best Artist Ever in the World."

Katarina, from Hot Shot Karolina Karlic's Dear Diary series

Spring '07 Hot Shot, Ne Plus Ultra, and 20x200 contributor Karolina Karlic is in a show. Work from Karlic's Dear Diary series is up now through November 8 at the Independent Feature Project in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The IFP notes:

The lush large scale prints of ... Karolina Karlic radiate a sensuality revealing everyday lives longing for meaning and connection.

...

Intrigued by the motivations of those that post Internet classifieds through “Missed Connections” on Craig’s List, Karolina Karlic sought out the posters to create her images. Perhaps by helping to complete their need for connection she was able to draw them into collaboration to make photographs of vulnerability and longing in our contemporary world of impersonal Internet communication.

On the art-inspired-by Craigslist ads note, check out the songs of Gabriel Kahane's "Craigslistlieder." The music has been touted as, "His song cycle, Craigslistlieder, art-song settings of eight anonymous posts he found on the ubiquitous personals/classifieds website Craigslist, has won over fans and critics with its affiliation of raucous pop culture and deft high-art craft. " And it is true. Perhaps it's time for a music and photo show for Karlic and Kahane together.

P.S. Only one print is left from Karlic's 20x200 edition (pictured above)!

P.P.S. Full disclosure: I shot some photos for Kahane's recent album.

From Interior Relations, by Hot Shot Ian van Coller

Next in a continuing series on Hot Shots' blogs: Ian van Coller. Ian is a Fall '07 Hot Shot who lives in Bozeman, Montana. He is Assistant Professor of Photography, Montana State University, Bozeman. And, of course, he has a blog.

From November 5 - December 6 he will show his work, Interior Relations: Portraits of Female Domestic Workers in South Africa at the Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco.

"Interior Relations explores the deep fault lines between the country’s public democratic ideals and the ongoing racial and economic inequality that circumscribes the lived experiences of many black South African women. Many of the contradictions evident in South Africa’s transition to democracy are encapsulated within white households that employ black and coloured domestic workers, often housing them in segregated living quarters on their property. These households, simultaneously private spaces for employers and public spaces for the employees, are ultimately political spaces where race, class and gender inequalities are negotiated. Interior Relations is a portrait series focused specifically on female domestic workers—nannies and maids—who continue to embody this daily repertoire of inequalities."

In 2009, Interior Relations will be shown at the Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana.

Visit Ian's blog for more on his work, The Cape Town Month of Photography show, work that inspires him, and his own experiments and side projects.

Thinking about applying to be a Hot Shot? Maybe you just think that you are a hot shot? Here is some news about two interesting opportunities for competitive photographers:

PDNedu Student Photo Contest 2009
Deadline: September 22, 2008 (I'm a little confused, because parts of their site say that the deadline is September 22 and other parts say to enter by December 7, 2008. I'm looking into confirming the correct date and will report back.)

Students can submit a single image or a series, up to six images per entry in the following categories:
FASHION/PORTRAITURE, DOCUMENTARY/PHOTOJOURNALISM, STILL LIFE, TRAVEL/LANDSCAPE, and FINE ART/PERSONAL WORK.

Prizes include a feature in the Spring 2009 issue of PDNedu and on pdnedu.com, some winners will be featured in a Web Gallery. Five Grand Prize winners, one per category, will receive a Nikon digital camera and a Crumpler bag. Student winners will also be displayed in an exhibit at next year's Society for Photographic Education Conference to be held March 26-29, 2009, in Dallas, TX. All winners and honorable mentions will get a one-year subscription to PDN.

Fraction Magazine Issue 4 Group Show
"Please read the following guidelines carefully. Deviating from these will make the work ineligible."

They continue:

The theme for the show is Typologies. The typology has become a major part of the history of photography as well as a major force in contemporary photography. We wanted to see what the current state of the typology is and how current artists are using it.
The show will include up to 20 artists and each artist will have 3 pieces of work up, a link to their website (if you have one), and contact information.

Here are the rules for submission:

1. Make sure your work actually falls under the category of Typology.

2. Send us three images that are 700 pixels on the longest side.

3. Make sure they are in a jpg format. No PSDs no TIFFs no GIFs.

4. Send them in an email to us at fractionmag@gmail.com Make sure the subject of your email is Group Show. Please include your name, website address (if you have one) and an email address where you can be reached.

5. The deadline for submission is October 10th. We will decide on the final artists by October 15th. Publication of Issue 4 will be in early November.

The ever helpful Rachel Hulin discusses "typologies" in the context of this contest. Go look and then go enter!

Today's 20x200 edition is from Fall '07 Hot Shot Shuli Hallak.

Shuli had this to say about her work:

I am compelled to understand, both visually and conceptually, how things really work, in industry and agriculture, from steel mills to farms. My work is an unveiling of nearly invisible networks that we depend on but of which we know very little.

Photography is my process of discovery and the expression of fascination with what I find.

And Jen Bekman had this to say in her newsletter this afternoon. Sign up for 20x200 news and be the first to hear about great editions like Shuli's.

Greetings collectors! Welcome to your Wednesday dispatch from 20x200 land. I'm a bit bleary-eyed today, having indulged in a night out on the town that kept me up past 2 a.m. One of my favorite things about NYC is that you can stay out till the wee hours on any night of the week; there's always something entertaining going on, usually lots of things, in fact. I might not do it all that often, but there's something comforting about knowing that it's there.

This need for 24 hour living is integral to my city girl identity, which means that all my country living fantasies are just that. I must confess, however, that today's photographs are gorgeous enough to make me consider turning in my night owl wings for a more bucolic life.

Hay Harvest, New Jersey and Cotton Field, Mississippi are from Farms, an evolving body of work by Shuli Hallak. Shuli is a Summer '07 Hot Shot, a recent SVA MFA Photo grad and someone who I happily run into out and about at various photography events in New York City and beyond.

Visually, this new body of work might seem like a dramatic departure from the hard-edged nighttime shots of her Cargo series, but it is gorgeous and monumental evidence of Shuli's ongoing investigation of what she describes as "nearly invisible networks that we depend on but of which we know very little."

The Farms series is particularly resonant for me right now since my literate lefty leanings having me thinking, reading and talking a lot about Slow Food, sustainable agriculture, CSAs and really getting to the bottom of where bacon comes from. Being a city girl makes all of this stuff that much more of a mystery, giving me a voracious appetite for words and images on such matters, not to mention its delicious results. (Although I'm not unquestioning about the inherent privilege of being able to preoccupy myself with such things.)

Many of the photographers that I work with are developing projects related to farms, sustainability and the environment. It's been interesting to see how each artist's individual style is manifested in the results. One of the things that I like so much about the images of Shuli's series is that they are hers, clearly kin to Cargo in spite of the very different subjects, colors, light and environment. To me, being able to establish a distinctive visual style and carry it across a diversity of subjects is one of the true indicators that a photographer is talented.

All this talk of farms and food has given me a hankering for some fresh air and fancy treats. With the editions explicated, that's my cue to take my leave and head out into the sunny afternoon to sniff out some sustenance. As always, you won't have to miss me for long; there's lots of good art in the hopper and I'll be back soon to share it with all of you.

Wednesday's 20x200 edition is by Shuli Hallak, a Fall '07 Hot Shot.

"Two men prepared to get married in San Francisco on June 17 after a California Supreme Court ruling in May allowed same-sex marriages." in a photo by Hot Shot Erin Siegal in The New York Times.

I missed this one: Winter '06 Hot Shot Erin Siegal, who shoots for Reuters, had a photo in The New York Times. A great, illustrative photo. Bonus points for capturing another photographer in the image. And those belts!

Erin is currently on a full scholarship to the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She will graduate in May 2009. Recently, her work has also appeared in U.S. News and World Report.

By Spring '05 Hot Shot Rachel Hulin

I am going to guess that if you are reading this you are an "emerging photographer," or someone who is interested in "emerging photography." And if either of those applies to you then you probably already know about Rachel Hulin and her fantastic blogging about photography (emerging and otherwise).

But did you know that Rachel is a Hey, Hot Shot winner? Spring 2005.

Did you know that Rachel has a new blog?

Bookmark it. If you fall into one of the two categories above then hers is one of the most important voices you should be listening to about photography each day.

Untitled 5 (wallpaper) and Untitled 2 (raft) by Summer '07 Hot Shot Dan Boardman. Pay no attention to those numbers, prints are moving fast. Check out 20x200 to see what's left.

You're not signed up for the 20x200 newsletter? First, sign up. Then, read this, from Jen's latest note about Summer '07 Hot Shot Dan Boardman's edition:

"... Untitled 2 (raft) and Untitled 5 (wallpaper): These quiet and lovely photos are by Dan Boardman, another member of the JB family by way of his participation in the Summer '07 edition of Hey, Hot Shot!, where he also exhibited work from this series, Home. His statement, much like the work itself, is simple and charming and (dare I say it?) sweet:

To grow up in a small town is to always be looking for something bigger, to be looking out to the next chapter, waiting, daydreaming. To move away from a small town is to long for its innocence and its comfort.

As it has been amply evidenced here, I am a fan of the square format for photography. My enthusiasm about the opportunities for elegant composition within an equally sided image are apparently infectious. (Not to mention alliterative, I see.) A friend is newly fixated on getting himself a Hasselblad and has rented one for the upcoming weekend, just to be sure. I don't even need to see the results! I am sure already.

What could be better than a square photo? Why, two square photos, naturally, especially two that go together as well as these do. All of the images from Home bring out the tender-hearted sentimentalist in me*, but I love how these two are the same and different all at once.

The compositional similarities practically hit you over the head, so much so that I was slightly sheepish when suggesting the pairing to my JBP cohorts. The counterpoints are perhaps a little more subtle — the opposition of the expansive outdoors against the intimate interior, the bright, cool blues and greens vs. the creamy intimacy of the domestic tableau. It's divine, if you ask me, and the sum of them is better than either on its own."

Democratic National Convention 2008: Attendees at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, on August 28, 2008. Joe Fornabaio for The Wall Street Journal . Fornabio is a Fall '06 Hot Shot

The Wall Street Journal puts it simply: "Joe Fornabaio photographs Democratic and Republican heavyweights," in their caption to Fall '06 Hot Shot Joe Fornabaio's slide show. Click through "Power Players" for Joe's portraits of Karl Rove, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mark Warner, Democratic Senate candidate and former governor of Virginia, and New York Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson.

Fornabaio has been doing lots of on-the-road political reporting recently. Keep an eye out for his work throughout the remainder of the campaign season.

See Joe's website section "Conventional" for more of this great work.

Summer '07 Hot Shot Shuli Hallak's photo appeared in The New York Times Magazine's "The Way We Live Now" column on June 15, 2008

Okay, she definitely does not belong in the trash, but that's where I found her work today. Or, more precisely, I came across one of Shuli Hallak's photos in an issue of The New York Times Magazine in a pile that I was building as an alternative to the trash. The pile is small, but it's been growing for some time, and it's made up of articles and entire magazine issues that I plan to read. "Plan" being the key word.

So, it's a good thing I decided to flip through a few as I attempted to throw out some of the pile. Because luck granted me this gorgeous photo I'd originally missed by Ms. Hallak, who happens to have been a Summer '07 Hot Shot. Her photo is stunning. A good fit for the "The Way We Live Now" column it illustrates.

I can't stop staring at the photo. I can't believe it lived so long in my trash.

Untitled (Max) by Fall '05 Hot Shot Dorthe Alstrup

Dear Jen,

The next time you receive a 20x200 newsletter that contains a piece of art you really really want to buy, you need to just buy it. You do not need to first e-mail Jen B. to say, "OMG. I really really love today's 20x200 edition! I am going to buy it right now! XO, Jen S."

When you write notes like that and then click back to 20x200 to buy the edition in question it might be sold out in the size you want. I'm just saying. For next time, remember: purchases first, exclamations second.

Love,
Jen

P.S. I bought this one instead.

Hot Shot Jennifer Boomer's zine The Uncommon Vantage Point

Fall '07 Hot Shot Jennifer Boomer makes a zine, The Uncommon Vantage, and it was featured in the July issue of PDN. The zine includes images from Boomer's Dutch Harbor, Alaska adventures. Each is Ssgned and numbered and includes a 4X6 C-Print and a "cute" sticker designed by Leslie at Pancake Meow.

The PDN article, titled, "The New Portfolio" explains that, "Photographers are marketing themselves online and in print to potential clients in all kinds of new and interesting ways that are more portable and less expensive than traditional portfolios." It cites Boomer's zine as a particularly interesting mode.

The article, by Jay Mallin details:

"Smaller printing projects—still larger than the traditional promo postcards—are gaining some attention as well. Jennifer Boomer (28 and currently traveling, according to her MySpace entry) created a new portfolio by moving to Alaska and, photographing while working for a few months in a fish-processing plant. When she was done, she created a 'zine' to present her work to potential buyers.

As zines go, it's definitely upscale, with four-color reproduction and professional design in place of mimeographed monochrome. She sent it to 125 people she'd like to work with, from reps to editors to gallery owners. Again, no immediate jobs, but Boomer says she got a good response. "I felt like it was a good, positive step."

'I remember Jennifer's booklet, and I still have it,' reports Anne Lyse Tardivat, an editor with Agence Vu in Paris. 'I rarely receive such material. I guess it's not in the European style—yet.'"