We're pleased to announce that Guest Curator Nion McEvoy, Chairman and CEO of Chronicle Books, has selected Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie (who we previously featured on the blog for another body of work) as the recipient the 2nd Hey, Hot Shot! Curator's Choice Award. Kyoshi will receive a gift bag from Chronicle with a hand-picked selection of photography books, including Andrew Zuckerman's Bird and Linda Connor's Odyssey: The Photographs of Linda Connor. We'd like to extend enormous gratitude to Nion for judging this round of entries and for the generous award, and offer our congratulations to Kyoshi!

Our 3rd Curator's Choice Award will be judged by Lesley A. Martin, publisher of Aperture's books program. All entries submitted by Thursday, June 17th, are automatically eligible for a selection of outstanding titles published by Aperture.

And, for all of you who've not yet applied—every day we're inching a little closer to our deadline. Send us your best work, and put yourself in the running for the Grand Prize of a $5,000 honorarium, 2 years of representation from Jen Bekman Gallery and a solo exhibition. Five photographers will also be selected for a group exhibition at JBG and a $500 honorarium. Last but not least, every entry is reviewed for participation on 20x200, and we're featuring new contenders daily on the HHS! blog.

Untitled 1, May 19, 2010 by Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie

Guest Curator Nion McEvoy writes of Kyoshi's Hey, Hot Shot! entry:
In Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie's Untitled 1, a brown hand extends between two brown feet and seeks to pry the lid off a washing machine. Toes curl around the coin slot.  The soles look--it¹s even clearer in the next shot--dirty. The off-white metal boxes in their metallic regularity seem unaware of the invading spirit. (Only the repeated words "Speed Queen" suggest they might be willing to play.) But really, these are mundane, simply functional objects, while the hand seems to come from one of island-dwelling mischief makers of The Tempest.  And indeed, the job of this and the other dancers seems to be to mess with the obdurate machines of the Laundromat just as Prospero¹s servants mess with the dull-witted invaders of his domain.

In the next shot a really filthy sole is shown off in the foreground, perpendicular to a granite countertop. Steel dryers gleam and drift into darkness, displaying a sinister red dot at regular intervals.  Dancers lie on them, pose on them wearing colorful floral dresses. As the sequence goes on, the dancers propitiate the machines, enter them and climb back on top of them. When they climb inside the machines, the women are both sexual and clumsy, innocent and artful.  There is a delightfully anarchic spirit at work here amid the well-considered staging, costuming, and choreography. The cropping and the changes in perspective underscore a sense of cinematic motion. The sequence jumps. And the sure visual rhythms conveyed by the rows of machines provide the drums and bass that anchor and set free the pretty colors and impish Terpsichore of the performers.

Playfulness and impish effrontery are surprisingly hard to convey well.  So although Kyoshi Becker McKizzie¹s entry was surrounded by a great deal of excellent work, including many stunning images, his stood out for me.  And it seemed the perfect way to start the summer.

Untitled 2, May 19, 2010 by Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie

Untitled 3, May 19, 2010 by Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie

Untitled 4, May 19, 2010 by Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie

Untitled 5, May 19, 2010 by Kyoshi Becker Mckizzie