Untitled by Matt Dallos

Contender Matt Dallos returns to us in this round of competition with work from his series, I Want The Red One. The images, taken at a carnival-like scene full of burly men examining muddy fields full of tractors, pays homage to one of America's most trusted pieces of machinery. The tractors here are the reason for celebration; they are being examined, fixed, rode upon and raced, with swaths of onlookers concentrating on the vehicles. On the neighboring fairgrounds families en masse gather to watch fireworks, sparklers, and nighttime tractor riders creating an aura reminiscent of some of 2009 First Edition Hot Shot Mike Sinclair's large-scale portraits of fairgrounds, rodeos, and carnivals.
These large-scale celebrations bring about the opportunity to observe both individuals, and individuals as a dynamic group, who are often focused on a specific spectacle—in this case, it is the tractors.

This work is a departure from Dallos' previously submitted series of triptychs, which examined intersections of man and nature on the South Island of New Zealand, but both are entrenched in the connection of humans to the land. Of his work, Matt writes,

I constantly immerse myself in topics such as our relationship with the land, the idea of human scale, agri-business, the dichotomy of wild and civilized. But in my life I am unable to separate these abstract ideas from the reality of topography, geology, ecology. In the end I am bound to the rock, to the pavement, to the trees, to the land.

See more from I Want The Red One and other series on Matt's website.

p.s. You can see more photos from our first-ever Hey, Hot Shot! Confab + Print Trade on flickr!