Contender Jeff Seltzer caught my eye with his new series because it conveys my exact feelings on this blustery fall day. It's slightly eerie, melancholy and desolate, though the presence of chairs and empty bike racks, in some of the images, leave a sense of nostalgia and longing for the warmer months and good times we just left behind.

Jeff intends the series to reveal socialized structured space and how it imposes societal norms upon its inhabitants—an idea that has become of interest to me as a recent immigrant to New York City, exploring the nooks and crannies of its underbelly. There are grand buildings and streets intended to be viewed, to have us take something away and leave us with the feeling of awe. We create our own spaces of comfort to feel familiar and confident, but much of this is based on the aesthetics that have already been laid out before us. In photographing an educational building, Jeff is revealing the constructed experiences that channeled most of us through our childhood and created our perception of the use of space.

Jeff describes his series:

The series of images taken at Los Angeles Valley College (L.A.V.C) is a study of contradictions between the perceived benefits of formal and structured educational environments, and the reality of order as a potential repressive tool. The images, which in each case represent a pre-set state of conditions determined by the institution, seek to show an inherent rejection of these state affairs by the photographer, by portraying either their distinct abandonment, state of repair, or isolation.

His work reminds me of the work of performance artist Alex Villar that was part of The Interventionists at Mass MoCa in 2004. The series, titled Other Spaces, documented Villar intervening and reclaiming spaces in New York City that normally go unnoticed. This included the tiny crevice between two buildings, an empty concrete alley behind a gate that normally went un-tread, and the space underneath a stoop. All of his actions, as well as Jeff's, inspire viewers to look at what is not in front of us, to step off the beaten path and take in the forgotten and unused.

Jeff Seltzer is based in Los Angeles and was educated at San Diego State University, receiving a BA and an MA in Rhetorical Theory.