Before and After Room, Tribeca
by Cara Phillips

Hey, Hot Shot! (volume iv, edition ii)

It's time for an exhibition of photographs by second edition finalists! Please join us at the gallery this Friday, January 30th, from 6pm-8pm, at a reception for the artists:

John Mann
Hosang Park
Cara Phillips
Donald Weber
Yijun Liao

The show will be on view @ Jen Bekman Gallery from January 30 through February 14, 2009.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York City
The gallery is open Wednesday -- Saturday from 12-6pm or by private appointment

Okay, okay, so Stefan Ruiz is not a Hot Shot, but his photographs are pretty incredible. Spending time with the rest of his work, especially his portraits, brings light to all the crazy things people do to themselves (sometimes crazy-funny, sometimes crazy-sad) and to each other (often, unfortunately) for the sake of staking claim on some sort of significance. While I haven't had the good opportunity to meet Stefan yet, as Ms. Bekman has, his work appears to be sincere but intense, a tireless exploration of the best and the worst of us, on small and grand scales.

In short, he's excellent company for all of the other photographers on 20x200, many of which also happen to be Hot Shots. If you are a photographer and interested in showing your work to the thousands of collectors who check out 20x200, you're in luck, your opportunity to apply via Hey, Hot Shot! (it's the ONLY way Jen reviews photography for 20x200) is coming up...

We released a third photograph, Amish Horses, from 2008 First Edition Hot ShotColleen Plumb on 20x200 today. Amish Horses and the previous editions, Field Museum Sue and Tiger Rug, Cabrini Green, are from Plumb's series Animals Are Outside Today (she has a flash site so you'll have to click around a bit to get to the work). Immensely popular with 20x200 fans, work from this series has also been collected by the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

Hot Shots' work gets around. In addition to being featured on 20x200 (Hot Shots and Contenders featured here, on the HHS blog, have their work reviewed by Jen for 20x200 editions), Hot Shots exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery in a group show and are also in the running for solo exhibitions and representation. (Y'all know that the freshest crop of Hot Shots will be opening a show this Friday.)

From 2008's 10 Hot Shots, volume iv, edition i, including Ms. Plumb, and volume iv, edition ii, 2 will be selected as Ultras and slated for their solo exhibitions at the JBGallery. We'll be announcing 2008's Ultras very, very soon, stay tuned.

Another thing we'll be announcing sooner than I can type "hop to it"... the opening of the next round of competition!

Keep your eyes here or sign up for our low-volume mailing list to be automatically notified when 2009's first competition is open.

Image from Juliana Beasley's series Rockaways

Fall 2006 Hot Shot, Juliana Beasley, has an interview up over on the NYMPHOTO Blog. I recently wrote about Juliana's feature on Lens Culture earlier this month. Juliana's spare and touching photographs document white poverty in New York City.

From Juliana's statement:

I visit the Rockaway Park community, the site of my project, on a regularly basis and have been doing so for the past four years. During that time I have developed close personal ties within the community.

While it is less than twenty miles from Manhattan, Rockaway Park is another country. It is a place that many financially-strapped mental hospitals and nursing homes have for years used as a dumping ground for some of their indigent patients. This famed Irishtown is the last remnant of hope for many elderly and low income families living in fear of homelessness.

View Juliana's images on Lens Culture
Visit Juliana's site
Read Juliana's blog

Hi there and happy Monday! It you're already looking forward to the weekend, I have just the right thing to kick it all off:

Hey, Hot Shot! (volume iv, edition ii) Showcase Opening
Friday, January 30th, from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street (between Elizabeth and the Bowery), NYC

Thirteen works from our newest Hot Shots will be on view until Saturday, February 14th:
Yijun (Pixy) Liao
John Mann
Cara Phillips
Hosang Park
Donald Weber

Regular gallery hours are Wednesday - Saturday, from noon to 6:00 p.m. or by private appointment.

See you there!

Accolades abound for the talented Ms. Jen Bekman and her ingenious 20x200.com in the current issue of Domino Magazine. Hot Shot Matthew Tischler shares some of the limelight with fellow 20x200 artists Gregory Krum, Todd St. John, and Christian Chaize.

Earlier this week, Kara gave you the run-down on AI-AP's American Photography 25 contest. A month ago, she gave you ample warning about Center's upcoming deadline. And yes, I realize, you may have been stressed and fretting because all calls had the very. same. deadline. tomorrow. January 23rd. And stress makes you procrastinate, of course... Never fear, I have news for you.

The good:
AI-AP's deadline has been extended to January 30th.

The bad (and/or possibly ugly, if you're like me and still editing your portfolio):
Center's deadline is fast and firm. TOMORROW. JANUARY 23rd.

If you haven't yet, get your work together for three incredible opportunities: The Singular Image Competition, The Project Competition, and Review Santa Fe. As if the fame, glory, and cash already associated with winning the Singular Image Prize or the Project Competition, and/or participating in the Review wasn't enough, this year, selected participants will also have the opportunity to be featured on 20x200. 20x200 is a sponsor for this year's competitions and as a result of this partnership, Jen Bekman will select one image from the Project Competition winner's portfolio and one image from the entire pool of winners to create an edition for 20x200. The clock is ticking on these opportunities (TICK, TICK, TICK) apply now!

Wondering what you're up against? Smart, talented and motivated young artists tend to get themselves out there, and I mean, out there, all over the place, kind of like our friend Jen Bekman. See what Jen's been jurying (not mention who she's jurying with) and scope out your competitors (aka the tba winners) here: Center for Photography's Photography Now, here: PDNEdu's Student Photo Contest 2009, and your last and final reminder (maybe), make sure you're in the running here: American Photography 25.

An original Hot Shot (Spring 2005!), Matthew Tischler's time in the 20x200 limelight is long overdue. At the rate his prints are selling today, it seems as if the delay has not just starved fans old and new (thanks to the Domino Magazine spread on 20x200 that we just can't stop talking about!) but also made them rabid. So, if you're already sold, go Google checkout your Untitled #4 and Untitled #15 without delay. If you're all set, stay awhile and soak up the Sunday afternoon feeling of Tischler's filmic works.

In his statement, Tischler writes:

I shoot through window screens, netting, and scrims, creating grid patterns that become the sharpest focal element of each image. I employ these grids and barriers in order to dissect, pixelate, filter and flatten landscapes and space. Subjects and figures are broken apart and reconstructed in such a way that they are both integrated into their environments and isolated within them. None of the subjects in my photographs have any discernable features; rather they are faceless characters whose identities are defined by their surroundings. Although the photographs originate from 35mm negatives, I hope to reference both video technology and painting techniques.

These photos are so close to Burt Barr's low-tech videos, in particular, Summer 2005 Looped (2005) which debuted at PS 1 in September 2006. Barr's video of a bucolic Long Island afternoon employed a similarly simple technique to Tischler's shooting through screens, recording the reflection of his backyard from a mirror that was being hosed down, giving a likewise dreamy effect. In Barr's loop, very little changes other than the patterns of water washing over the glassy surface; if I remember correctly, you watch a man walk from one end of the yard to the other. Tischler achieves a consonant sentiment without leaving the single frame: an escape to the timelessness of pastoral summers. The work is smart but slow and steady, sure to put you at ease. See more of it on his website.

Jen Bekman will be part of a superstar jury at this year's American Photography 25 contest. If you are trying to get your foot in the door of the wild and wondrous photography world you first need to get yourself into AP 25's printed hardcover annual. Interested in applying? You should be! Hop to it! The deadline is January 23.

2008 Second Edition Hot Shot Cara Phillips (self-portrait from her project Ultraviolet Beauties)

Last but not least in our interview round-up of new Hot Shots is Cara Phillips. If you're a regular reader of photography blogs, her name and work might already ring a bell, or two... Jorg Colberg interviewed her for his blog Conscientious a year ago in February, Darren Ching interviewed her for PDNPulse last November, and she maintains her blog Ground Glass, and curates the site Women in Photography with Amy Elkins.

From:
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, MI.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I went back to finish my BA in my mid-twenties at Sarah Lawrence College. While I was there I found my way to photography and studied with Joel Sternfeld and Penelope Umbrico. Informally, I have been incredibly lucky as well, I met photo agent Marcel Saba at an ICP week long class as he was launching his agency, Redux Pictures. Our class was during the big summer black out in New York, which was a crazy time for me in my life, but out of chaos comes growth and I ended up interning and working there. I was privileged to learn so much there and meet some great photographers. I was actually there while Hey, Hot Shot! superstar, Nina Berman was making Purple Hearts. Nina is force of nature!

How you pay the bills:
Well, I graduated a little over a year ago, and for the past several years, like most artists, I have been working at part time jobs that don't pay a lot, but where I learned things of immense value. But recently, with the cost of making my work going up, I am doing some freelance photo editing, which is great. And I am doing some editorial work. I think figuring out how to support a career is actually one of the greatest challenges for artists.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
Focus on process, if you are not in love with making work, you will always be unhappy. Because acclaim comes and go, and you will always get criticism, if you live in your process, you can weather it all. An, to always wash your face before you go to sleep.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
I always find this to be an impossible question. When I nine I would have said: George Balanchine, Billy Wilder, Tennessee Williams & Degas. But for me now there are so many artists in various mediums I admire. If I could have three photographers work in my house right now I would say: 1. Sander 2. Frank 3. Evans. To remind me that what is revolutionary one day eventually becomes classical.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

I am afraid it is a cliche, but I would have to say Eggelston's Adam & Jasper. I could look at that image forever and ponder its secrets. And the first time I saw Rineke Dijkstra, Tecla, Amsterdam, Netherlands. May 16, 1994, I was so upset. The image horrified me, the blood dripping down her leg, the violence of it, it took me a while to understand the significance and beauty of it.

Reading now:
Sadly, I have very little time to read lately, I have been so busy. But I love to read the New Yorker on the subway. I also read the nytimes.com everyday. But to me, reading is one of the most relaxing and indulgent pastimes.

Favorite Book:
I don't think I could pick a favorite book. But I suppose The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton was the most devastating thing I have ever read, I don't think any other book ever made me cry. That book really captures the experience of women, and the ways in which society functioned as a prison for them for much of Western history.

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Lately, I have a hard time keeping up with the all the photo blogs, but my boyfriend has a lovely blog on furniture design called Brooklyn Modern, which I like to divert myself reading. Also, I like to collect information, so I often will spend hours researching things online, it is one of my favorite activities. For instance, I probably have a collection of 300 or so quotes from online forums of plastic surgery patients and lots of info from various related surgery sites, from my research for Singular Beauty. All of my work starts with intense information gathering followed by my visual and emotional response to the actual environment. I find intellect to be intrinsic to image making. If there is no thought process before, for me the images are never as strong. However, all thought and no emotion is equally lacking. Finding the right balance between the two is what makes the most compelling image.

New Year's Resolution:
I spent most of 2008, focusing on getting my work out into the world, I am looking forward to turning more inward this year and focus on making new work, and on my current UV project. I have a finished maquette of the surgery project and I would like to devote some time to developing it further. Also, hopefully find some spare moments to take care of myself. I am excited to see where the next chapter takes me.

We brag a lot about how great the Hey, Hot Shot! panelists are, but for good reason. The panel is really made up of some pretty amazing people, including photographer Kent Rogowski. Kent recently launched Scaffold, a non-profit that gives fellowships to emerging artists. Aside from its mission, inarguably a worthy cause, Scaffold is innovative in its foundation and fundraising approach. Run by artists and launched without an endowment, Kent is using the reach and power of the web to not only find applicants but also to fund their projects. He goes into detail about the project and his goals in the interview below. If you're excited about Scaffold already, you have the opportunity to support it right now by bidding on a signed Shepard Fairey Obama Hope poster (below) on ebay. All proceeds from the auction will directly benefit Scaffold. Auction closes on January 19th, 2009. So, read Kent's interview here and see why this particular poster is so appropriate for this endeavor, then go bid! (Poster not your thing? Donate here. Or, sign up for the mailing list by emailing hi@scaffoldfund.org to hear about the first grant deadline.)

Where/when/how did you decide to start Scaffold?

I started seriously thinking about starting Scaffold at the end of last summer. The original inspiration had been building for a while and came from a convergence of thoughts and experiences. After my book, Bears, came out last year and had such a strong presence and response online, I started to think about how drastically the Internet was changing distribution and creating opportunities for artists that did not exist a few years ago. This fascinated me, but I thought that it might influence my next body of work rather than motivate me to form a non-profit organization.

At the same time I started to think more about how the Internet was changing existing communities while creating new models and possibilities for organizations. Obama's presidential campaign is an obvious example of this, another would be a non-profit such as kiva.org that specializes in person to person mirco-lending to individuals. Both leverage the power of small donations with a large community of users. This led me to think about what opportunities were lacking for individual artists that could possibly be filled online, funding and distribution were the things that seemed most in need of innovation.

While I was on the panel for Hey, Hot Shot!, I was surprised by the number and quality of the submissions. It was then that I started to think an online organization such as Scaffold could be viable. Once it was clear that the financial markets were going into a recession, I thought that the need for an organization like Scaffold was even greater and decided to move forward.

What are your hopes for it this year?

If we can get enough small contributions, I am hoping to get the website and submission tool up and running and to announce the first fellowship deadline by early spring. After the first grant is given, I will evaluate the overall response and if successful, try to slowly scale everything up. Since Scaffold was started with an idea instead of an endowment, the number, size and frequency of the grants will depend on the number of submissions. My goal is for Scaffold to give away around $20,000 in fellowships to individual artists in its first year of operation.

Where do you see it in 5 years?

Hopefully, Scaffold will grow into a focused but flexible organization that provides a dependable and frequent source of funding to visual artists. If the community using Scaffold continues to grow, I think it could be possible to provide other services and opportunities to its grantees. One natural progression could be to offer a form of fiscal sponsorship to recipients of fellowships that allowed them to continue to raise money for their projects using the Scaffold website and base of users.

How does Fractured Atlas come into play?

Fractured Atlas is a great organization that provides fiscal sponsorship and other services to artists. They don't have a direct role in Scaffold other than acting as my fiscal sponsor. They allow Scaffold to receive tax-exempt donations to help pay for operating expenses.

The Golden Pillow, 2008
From the series Sparrow Lane

Saturday, January 17th, Winter '07 Hot Shot Holly Andres will be showing her new series, Sparrow Lane, at DNJ Gallery in Los Angeles.

From the press release:

With a suite of fifteen color photos in a show called "Sparrow Lane," Holly Andres has marked off a brilliantly chromatic bit of cinematic turf for fine art photography. In some respects, Andres's narrative images amplify the aesthetic concerns first delineated by Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and Lauren Greenfield. Sherman's chameleonic self-enacted narrative deconstructed B-movie images of women and Greenfield's deceptively casual portraits of adolescent females critiqued a culture- wide consensus of sexual identity. In an atmospheric array of compelling photo images, Andres has combined both these conceptual issues and dramatically moved beyond them into a mysterious and starkly symbolic world. This realm seems to tap directly and powerfully into a collective, unconscious mind where archetypes loom and elide portentously through light and shadow.

Read the full release
View more of Holly's work

DNJ Gallery
154½ N. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA

Last Stop Diner
by Juliana Beasley

Congrats to Fall 2006 Hot Shot, Juliana Beasley, whose series, Last Stop:Rockaway Park, is featured on Lens Culture this month. Juliana's spare and touching photographs document white poverty in New York City.

From Juliana's statement:

I visit the Rockaway Park community, the site of my project, on a regularly basis and have been doing so for the past four years. During that time I have developed close personal ties within the community.

While it is less than twenty miles from Manhattan, Rockaway Park is another country. It is a place that many financially-strapped mental hospitals and nursing homes have for years used as a dumping ground for some of their indigent patients. This famed Irishtown is the last remnant of hope for many elderly and low income families living in fear of homelessness.

View Juliana's images on Lens Culture
Visit Juliana's site
Read Juliana's blog

We just released Gregory Krum's second 20x200 edition, Nymphenburg, above, from his series Hard Times, which might look familiar to regular readers. It's been a favorite on the blog. His first edition, also a regular around these parts, sold out in a matter of minutes.

Jen did a swell job of introducing the new work in today's newsletter. Read it and also check out the rest of Krum's work in Hard Times. Aptly subtitled, "Interiors considering varying degrees of failure," the work is poignant and sometimes funny, altogether charming and disarming if I do say so myself. We are forced to examine our own measurements of failure, and conversely, success, and pin them to the anonymous characters who might inhabit or use these interiors.

Hot Shot John Mann's New Year is off to a great start. His photograph Untitled (Libya) is up for grabs on igavel and he'll have work up at the JB Gallery with his fellow Hot Shots at the end of the month, adding to the list of exhibitions he racked up in 2008. What's next for Mr. Mann? We'll just have to wait and see....

From:
I did my growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, after a bit of time living in Virginia. I now live in Florida, but thankfully some distance from Disney.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I got into photography through skateboarding, mostly as a way to make images of what we were up to. I took classes during high school in photography and offset printing. I later got a degree in photography and printmaking from Arizona State University and an MFA in photography at the University of New Mexico.

How you pay the bills:
I keep the lights on with a job teaching photography at Florida State University. The job offers a great deal of time/support for making art, and this has been great for my production.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
"Remember to breathe."

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Dieter Appelt
Giorgio Morandi
Andrei Tarkovsky

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

Reading now:
Reading the New Yorker keeps me pretty busy, but Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent sits next to the bed with a bookmark in it.

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
The Year in Pictures - an interesting commentary on photography in the art world.
Photograph Mag - a great resource
Flak Photo - a great way to see who is coming up in the photo world

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Strange Maps
Ed Templeton's skate/art blog

Auditorium
by Hot Shot James Rajotte
Buy one now

Thursday Sara let you know about the 20% More Ridiculous Sale: The Sequel. You might have believed that the sale ended yesterday at midnight, but I'm here to tell you some good news: the sale has been extended to end tonight at midnight! Now you have a little more time to browse and fill your cart with absurdly discounted art (get 20% off your purchase of $50 or more). Just enter coupon code RIDIC when you checkout to claim your savings!

Viva affordable art!

Untitled (Libya), 2007
by John Mann

One of our newest Hot Shots, John Mann, currently has a photograph up for auction on iGavel.

Come see more of John's work at the opening reception for the Hey, Hot Shot! (volume iv, edition ii) Showcase on Friday, January 30th, 2009, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Edition ii Hot Shots
John Mann
Cara Phillips
Park Ho Sang
Donald Weber
Yijun Liao

Work will be on view through Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Well before I worked for Jen Bekman Projects, the thing I liked about 20x200 was that, even as an art student, I could afford to buy an occasional print from and support an artist I admired. Prior to that, all of my art acquisitions were the result of trading with other artist friends and/or the occasional birthday gift. These, of course, are some of my most prized possessions. But, with 20x200, I could collect the work of artists I hadn't even met, which is something entirely gratifying on its own level.

I remember reading Liz Kuball's reaction to receiving her Karolina Karlic's Katarina and identifying entirely with her really, indescribable, reaction:

I do have to say that I wish the first 20% more ridiculous sale had first rolled around when I was still in school. Read Jen's newsletter for all the details and fine print (sale ends Saturday at 11:59 p.m., coupon code below, minimum $50 purchase). Even on the purchase of a few $20 prints, the extra $4/print would have allowed me another beer (er, PBR) on a night out. But alas, it didn't, and I still managed to purchase the occasional print. Once I received my first, Time Machine by Echo Eggebrecht, it was all over, any willpower I held over my budget diminished - but if and how my prints were framed, is another story!

You all, are a little luckier than I, and now's your chance to acquire some even more affordable art. All inventory is 20% off! As a working girl, I'm thinking this might be the time to splurge on a larger print, like this one:

If you've been following the career of any of the Hot Shots, you know that a lot of them have had editions on 20x200 and a lot of them sell out quickly. But, you can find all of the Hot Shots' work in inventory (and there's still a LOT of good stuff, including all of the photographs featured in this post) here. So go now, before it's too late!

Seoul-based Hot Shot Hosang Park is the most far flung photographer in this round-up. I'm pretty far flung myself these days, about as far away as a girl can get from NYC while still being in the U.S. of A. So, I'll be short and to the point here, just like Hosang:

From:
I'm from Korea, I live in Seoul.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
2009, M.F.A, Dept. of Fine Art Photography, Graduate School of Art & Design, Sangmyung
2004, B.A, Dept. of Fine Art Photography, Undergraduate School, Sangmyung

How you pay the bills:
I teach and sell work.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
Jai guru de va om.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Edward Ruscha, Edward Hopper, Suede

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
I haven't found it yet, I'm looking for...

Reading now:
Art Since 1900

Favorite Book:
Patrick Suskind's The Story of Mr. Sommer

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Lynne Cohen, Thomas Demand and Michael Reisch

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Beautifully, neolook, and Res Artis

New Year's Resolution:
Keep going on photographic works and new project - commonplace series

If you had a chance to read the Nymphoto interview with Yijun (Pixy) Liao, you know that dropped a career in graphic design to pursue something she's "truly interested in," she's just finished her MFA at the University of Memphis, and has recently relocated to Brooklyn. A few more things about Yijun (Pixy) Liao:

From:
I'm from Shanghai, China.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I went to grad school for photography, but before that I didn't have any art training.

How you pay the bills:
Well, I don't know yet. I just graduated & am looking for a job.

Best advice received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
Be true to yourself.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Bjork, Edward Hopper, Cohen Brothers (if I can call them artists)

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
Hannah Starkey's Untitled March 2002, a woman with long silver hair sitting in a restaurant.

Reading now?
I avoid reading. It's gonna mess up my mind.

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
nicolas cage vampire teeth's photostream, design-milk, ffffound

Image from Yijun Liao's series Stills From Unseen Films

One of our brand new Hot Shots, Yijun Liao, was interviewed for the NYMPHOTO Blog. Liao's work will be on view at the gallery starting January 30th along with our other newly minted Hot Shots:

John Mann
Cara Phillips
Park Ho Sang
Donald Weber

Hey, Hot Shot! (volume iv, edition ii) Showcase
Opening reception: Friday, January 30th, 2009,
6-8 pm at Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street, NYC.

Work will be on view until Saturday, February 14th, 2009