Clothesline by Aline Smithson

It was difficult to find an image befittingly momentous for today, the the final day we are accepting entries for Hey, Hot Shot! in 2009. (If you are reading this on Tuesday, October 27, before 11:00 p.m. (EDT) you still have time to enter). The range of submissions this round has been eye-popping, and for those of us who care about the state of photographic practice in this ever-fluxing world, that range is also deeply encouraging. Judging by the cross-section of innovative, accomplished, and totally engaged contenders we've seen, the state of photography is very good indeed.

I was drawn back to an image by Aline Smithson—the Los Angeles-based photographer, educator and mind behind the excellent photography blog Lenscratch. At first look it seems to be a quiet picture. What's more, it's unapologetically nostalgic. As Aline says,

We live in a world full of technical distractions. I see my children gathered around their computers as though it's a summer campfire, faces aglow, as they peer into a world of friends and fantasy, participating in a new forms of entertainment that further remove them from the childhood that I experienced....it's because of this that I have been looking at bookshelves and untouched childhood pursuits with a new eye. With great sadness, I realize that these objects will someday be obsolete, at least in their current incarnations. And like a curator of antiquities, I see them now as beautiful objects to be admired and preserved, if only on film. I can only hope for rain, a heavy rain and maybe a power outage.

Aline's heartfelt admission acknowledges that progress flows in one direction and that the days of children doting on non-electronic toys may be behind us. For some of us (even we who didn't grow up playing with dolls) these paper dresses, hanging on a string as if on a clothesline, recall the intensity of feeling that simple playthings can evoke in children. These objects could once nurture sustained attention, maybe even a childhood form of obsession; they were the analog interface for overwhelming fantasy worlds. Absent of this devotion, the dresses are now simply suspended in time.

We'll continue to blog contenders until the newest Hot Shots are announced on November 30th. Thank you for being part of this round of Hey, Hot Shot! and stay tuned for much more to come!