We are pleased to announce that the first Hey, Hot Shot! Curator's Choice Award, chosen by founding editor of Radius Books and HHS! panelist Darius Himes, goes to Phil Underdown. Phil will receive a gift bag of three exquisite books published by Radius, including Transfigurations by Michael Lundgren, The Spirit & The Flesh by Debbie Fleming Caffery and Domestic Vacations by Julie Blackmon. "Thank you to all the photographers that submitted work. There was an amazing range of talent and it was a joy going through it all," writes Darius.
Our Curator's Choice Award for May will be chosen by Chronicle Books publisher and HHS! panelist Nion McEvoy. All work submitted by the 20th of May will be personally reviewed by Nion whose pick will be featured on the site and recieve a gift bag of five books published by Chronicle.
Without further ado, we present all five images from Phil Underdown's HHS! submission accompanied by words by Darius Himes about his selection. After the break are Darius's notes on the judging process—wise words of advice for those thinking about entering the competition—and Phil's artist statement.
The Trapper's Lament 4506_1, October 2008, by Phil Underdown
Guest Curator Darius Himes on The Trapper's Lament by Phil Underdown
Using the visual language of a Shore or Struth, Underdown presents the viewer with a record of his tramping through the gentle woods of upstate New York with his view camera and film holders by his side. Dense undergrowth, meandering creeks and a carpet of browned and decaying autumn leaves are stoically pictured in exquisite detail, the trademark of a large format camera. I can almost picture him in his wellies and khaki pants, red-checked flannel shirt loosely tucked in and a spot meter draped around his lightly bearded neck. But there is murder and betrayal lurking in the bucolic settings of Mr. Underdown's photographs. All is not what it seems.
Take, for instance, the dead snapping turtle sprawled on the muddy banks in the first image, or more damning still, the bloated and floating adult beaver spied through the yet-to-bloom branches of riparian foliage. Who's to say that Mr. Underdown himself didn't hunt these innocent creatures down merely for the sake of photographing them? Perhaps they are the trophies of a very sick game of photographer and prey.
This is actually not far from the truth. Underdown moved to a piece of property abutting the Adirondack park precisely out of a deep-seated love of natural settings. But, as he states, "Here is a landscape where our mythologies of nature and the realities of our daily lives combine in an uneasy confusion." Invaded by squads of beavers who were so industrious that they threatened the home's entire septic system, he reluctantly hired a trapper to come and remove the recalcitrant beavers. (What most city-dwellers don't know is that "trapper" is synonymous with "hunter" in that the animals are killed in the process.) Underdown, burdened by the weight of his decision, began to photograph the aftermath, standing as witness to a cause and effect scenario he put in motion. "I recycle, I drive a Prius, I give money to environmental organizations ... and I kill beavers. This is the landscape of that confusion, the trapper's lament." His images, quiet and formally elegant, inject a sense of foreboding and mystery that draws you deeper into the frame.
The Trapper's Lament 4506_2, October 2008, by Phil Underdown
The Trapper's Lament 73_2, May 2009, by Phil Underdown
The Trapper's Lament 87_9, July 2009, by Phil Underdown
The Trapper's Lament 4519_3, November 2008, by Phil Underdown
A Word About the Judging Process by Darius Himes
The most exciting thing for a curator or editor--whether of books or magazines--is to see images from a coherent body of work, displaying not only technical skill but a unique vision creatively manifested by the artist. Granted, that may seem like a difficult if not impossible task in the space of 5 single photographs. But that is your task in this contest.
Generally speaking, selecting your 5 "best" images, from a smattering of bodies of work, is not what I'm looking for (I'll speak only for myself and not for my co-judges on the HHS! panel). However, selecting 5 strong images from one body of work is exactly what I'm looking for. For some of you, this may legitimately raise the question, "What IS a body of work?" I'll use an analogy. Let's say you're a writer and you've written 10 short stories that you're really proud of. Selecting 5 of your "best images" would be equivalent to taking 5 paragraphs, each strong on their own, but each from a different story. As the viewer, I would necessarily be lost. Give me 5 strong paragraphs all from the same story and I will start to get a sense of your craft and coherent artistic vision.
Thank you to all the photographers that submitted work. There was an amazing range of talent and it was a joy going through it all.
Phil Underdown's Statement
"The Trapper's Lament" During the course of the last year a large number of beavers established themselves along the small, crooked creek that winds along one side of my property in the Adirondack park in upstate New York. As they built more and more dams and eventually began felling trees adjacent to the house, threatening access to the fields as well as the house's septic system, a trapper was reluctantly called in. I am still wrestling with this decision, and decided to photograph what was left behind after the beavers were removed. These images of the aftermath of that decision depict a landscape where a variety of forces and impulses collide, photographs of a crime scene where I am both chronicler and perpetrator. Here is a landscape where our mythologies of nature and the realities of our daily lives combine in an uneasy confusion, an analogue to our relationship with the environment on a cultural as well as a personal level; I moved to the Adirondacks because of my love of nature and I try to live my life with respect and concern for the future of our planet. I recycle, I drive a Prius, I give money to environmental organizations... and I kill Beavers. This is the landscape of that confusion, the trapper's lament.