Untitled by Luca Zanier

CENTER, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting photographers, has just announced its 2011 call for entries. Photographers: take note! There are a whole bunch of amazing opportunities available through the numerous and varied CENTER Awards. From their website:

The 16th annual CENTER Awards provide contestants with a prestigious and worthwhile photographic awards program. The prize packages are designed to bring exposure to worthy photographers via exhibitions, publication, and career advancement.

Often judges will show interest in work that is not selected for the awards but that may be relevant for other purposes. To facilitate a relationship, CENTER provides contact information of all photographers who have advanced to the final rounds of judging. No work is eliminated by pre-screening. All contestants stand to benefit from the submission process by having their work seen by the judges.

Here's a run-down of some of the awards and events on offer through CENTER:

The entry deadline for all of these is January 27th, 2011. You've still got a little time, but start getting your submissions ready! More information—including entry details—is available here.

Same Difference - Teaser from Lisa Udelson on Vimeo.

Ever present in the news due to same-sex marriage legislation battles and the recent passing of Prop 8 in California, questions of childhood and family also come to the fore in contemporary photography. We've seen a range of interesting takes on these issues here at Hey, Hot Shot! Recently, contender Glen Erler's Family Tree project delved into the locales and personalities that inhabited the photographer's childhood to investigate "the loss and rebirth" of his family, Elizabeth Clark Libert's work investigated the complex dynamics of growing up extremely wealthy and Kevin C. Moore, whose father was an anonymous sperm donor, searches for his identity through a series of portraits and documents from his personal history .

While there are boundless examples of nostalgia and excavation of family history through photography, we hardly hear from children themselves about family and childhood. Photographer Catherine Opie has collaborated with filmmaker Lisa Udelson to create Same Difference, a documentary that does just that.

Catherine Opie became known for her portraits of California's queer communities, though she has trained her lens on a host of other subjects—Los Angeles' sprawling freeways, Minnesota's ice houses and high school football stars. Her portraits are inquiries into way that identities and communities are formed. This latest project asks children of same sex partners to talk about their family experiences.

A short clip from the film features several interviews with kids ranging from so-young-he-needs-a-booster-seat to 14 years old, speaking in casual, heartwarmingly mature and deadpan manner about their own family structures. The creators' website says of the project:

Renowned photographer Catherine Opie and award-winning filmmaker Lisa Udelson became interested in the lack of children's voices in California during the debate over the anti-gay marriage bill Proposition 8. Questions arose for these longtime friends. Do we want to get married? Raise macho men or boys in pink tutus? Observe traditional holidays? Do we want to fit in? Is it possible to celebrate our differences while yearning, even demanding, to be accepted and treated the same?

Same Difference focuses on the opinions of children with same sex parents...They speak with humor, insight, intelligence and passion about their lives and their families. The film includes their parents and grandparents, including the filmmakers, who daily navigate the landscape of queer family...This is a reflection on the modern American family, not only those within the LGBTQ community, but society at large.

Using the same website through which Zoe Strauss raised funds for her On the Beach project, documenting this summer's Deepwater Horizon disaster, Catherine Opie and Lisa Udelson are hoping to raise $15,000 in finishing funds. Rather than relying on museum and film festival screenings, they're hoping to reach an even broader mass:

Our hope is for Same Difference to reach the widest possible audience, particularly in light of the timeliness of debates over gay marriage...While the film will have a presence at museums and film festivals worldwide, we feel that broadcast television is the perfect venue, where audiences are more inclined to watch programming out of their comfort zone. There is access to deliver this thought-provoking message of recognition and encouragement to a wide array of viewers without asking them to go to a theatre or pay additional cable fees.

Please help them out with a donation, so that we can see this project hit small screens across the country and beyond!

It's getting to be that time of year again—the time when you start filling the wishlists of family, friends and all of your loved ones for the coming gift-giving holidays. And, good news for you: TODAY only at 20x200, if you spend $200 or more on art and photography for all the luckiest people on your list, you get 20% off when you enter code CM200X before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

That means any combination of 8"x10" and 11"x14" prints adding up to $200 are now $160. Larger prints are even bigger bargains:

16"x20" prints, normally $200: now $160
20"x24" prints, normally $500: now $400
24"x30" prints, normally $1000: now $800
30"x40" prints, normally $2000: now $1600
40"x50" prints, normally $5000: now $4000

There are lots of ways to browse the 20x200 inventory--and there are scads of great prints to choose from. You can find work by your favorite artist or peruse our various (not to mention widely varied!) categories—including editions by Hot Shots! Looking to present the perfect present and need some inspiration? Check out the handy-dandy Gift Guide or take a gander at some of Team JBP's staff picks. Or, had your eye on a print for yourself, perchance? There's no time like the present to get it before it's gone.

A few notes about the sale before you start your spree:
- This offer may not be combined with any other discounts or promotional codes.
- A handful of editions are already too good of a deal and not eligible for this discount, including prints by Roger Ballen, Ed Baynard, David Byrne, Todd Hido, Mike + Doug Starn, William Wegman and LAWRENCE WEINER.
- The 20% discount applies to print price only.
- The sale ends at midnight (11:59 p.m. today, Monday, November 29).

Ready. Set. GO!

Untitled by Tracy Brown

Just hours after the Thanksgiving holiday comes to a close, another distinctly American tradition commences: countless shoppers gather—some in lines, some in disorderly masses—to partake in Black Friday. Stores open in the wee hours of the morning, boasting unbeatable and limited-time deals as Americans gear up for the winter holidays, and the response is often visually arresting.

Picture Black Friday, created by Jake Stangel and Joerg Colberg and juried by 20x200 edition makers Brian Ulrich and Amy Stein, among others, invites you to submit your own documentations of Black Friday for possible inclusion on the site. Of the contest its creators say:

Picture Black Friday is a photojournalism project that aims to revisit and analyze a combination of forces- a worsening economy, financial desperation, excitement, fear, and a distinctly American cultural tradition- that culminate the morning after Thanksgiving.

More specifically, Picture Black Friday is an open call for photographers throughout the U.S. to go out and produce images that document Black Friday- how you see it, on your terms. Imagine this project as an open assignment: you have freedom to approach this event from any angle you wish, returning with single images or even a mini-project that documents Black Friday like no other media outlet will. A selection of these images will be exhibited on this site.

Photographers are invited to submit up to 5 images of and about Black Friday, along with an optional artist statement. These submissions will be accepted for one week, between Sunday, November 28th and December 5th. Check out Picture Black Friday for more details and to browse a gallery of the work of last year's winner and runners up.

The Complete Edition by Jeff Wall

Given our particular love of photography, and of books here at JBP, we're especially excited when these two passions overlap. We could spend hours poring over photo books - and stunning examples are produced all the time.

Some really amazing publications have been released over the the past year. Just a few weeks ago, we drooled over thousands of them at The NY Art Book Fair and we keep coming back to Douglas Stockdale's fantastic blog, to follow his discoveries and exhumations in the vast and varied world of The Photo Book.

Though photography books are nothing new to the publishing world, they're increasingly recognized not just as accompaniments to, say, an photography exhibition—but as true works of art in their own right. There are an increasing number of awards given to outstanding photography publications: this year, Blurb's Photography Book Now competition honored Judith Stenneken's book of photographs taken at Berlin's Templehof Airport, titled Last Call and The And/or Book Awards' 2010 top prize went to Edward Burtynsky's stunning Oil - a compendium of photographs of "the world's largest oil fields, refineries, freeway interchanges and automobile plants" intended as "an attempt to comprehend the scale of production attending this most politicized of resources".

The most recent attention paid to the art of the photo book is by PDN; we're delighted to see that they have just released their run-down of 2010's notable photography books (they do one of these every year!).

Publications by Lee Friedlander, Dayanita Singh, Collier Schorr, Jeff Wall and Robert Polidori—among others—are featured by the magazine as exceptional books from the soon-to-be-finished year, as well as catalogs from the MoMA and The Walker Art Center.

Blumen by Collier Schorr

You can read several terrific overviews of some of 2010's very best on PDN's website. The article in its entirety is only available online to subscribers, however, so unless you get the magazine, you'll have to settle for just the second part unless you sign up.

And now we open up the forum to you? What were your favorite photography publications of the year, both from publishers big and small? Whose photographs won you over on the pages of a delicately bound book? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Car thief. from the series Interrogations by Donald Weber

2008 Hot Shot and Donald Weber is fresh off of his five year photo project in Russia and Ukraine, and he's giving a workshop at the Roman School of Photography this Friday and Saturday, November 26 + 27th.

In addition to teaching attendees how to turn their aspirational longterm projects into reality, artists will get a sneak peek of Interrogations, Weber's forthcoming book about the way power is bartered and sold in the unjust interrogation rooms of Ukraine. VII Photo Agency has a slideshow of some of Weber's powerful images, which show petty criminals in the process of their interrogation. Weber carefully positions himself between the police and the accused, some of which he describes in a blog interview with Colin Pantall:

I saw some very terrible things and was quite disturbed by the whole process, still am, but I believe I am not a judge of their crimes nor of the methods. I am not there to intervene in the process, that would be a betrayal of my years of trust built up with the police. The work formed in this manner because I was not interested in the physical violence, but the psychological violence that we as humans seem to have a special affinity for.

On the first day of the workshop, Weber will offer a big picture view that explains the process of successfully executing a longterm photo project both economically and logistically. Saturday's agenda will then push into more tactical instruction about writing successful proposals that make future dream projects a reality.

To learn more about the upcoming workshop, please contact the secretary at the Roman School of Photography at 064957264 between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Donald Weber Workshop
Roman School of Photography
Friday November 26, 4:30pm - 8:30pm
Saturday November 27, 10:00am - 2:00pm

O and H Auto Repair by Joseph O. Holmes

We've been thinking a lot about work-spaces lately—more specifically, how they correspond to creative production. Only last week, we got a glimpse of Carrie Marill's beautiful new Phoenix studio, which was featured on Kate Donnelly's blog series From Your Desks, dedicated to visiting and considering the places where artists make art.

Interior design website Apartment Therapy, as well, has keen and very understandable interest in the office, and this week—despite their admitted tendency to focus on spare and modernist spaces—they've made an excellent exception for Joseph O. Holmes. They feature the Fall 2005 and 2006 Hot Shot (and 20x200 superstar!)'s navigation of cluttered but moving and intensely personal places where business, (both artistic and otherwise), is done, featuring photographs from his aptly-titled Workspaces series on their site Unplggd.

Joseph himself describes Workspaces as an "impossible amount of work in an impossibly small space"—and the photo tour reveals this statement as certainly-not-inaccurate. In spite of the seeming chaos of the depicted offices, studios, and bars, there emerges a purposefulness to the spaces Joseph photographs. His aesthetic sensibility is revealed in these places—not mess, not clutter—but rather an unexpected sense of order and beauty. (Note for example the beautifully balanced signs/photographs/post-its/etc. on walls/desks/bulletin boards/etc., or the four matching mini-lamps perfectly framing the bar at CBGB). Unplggd writes of Joseph's photographs:

These spaces are the antithesis of what we propose and promote here on the site, but the Where's Waldo effect of the layered textures of places where everyday people get their work done is arguably inspiring in itself. Joseph has been kind enough to allow us to share the worlds where work is done without regard for those damn minimalist sensibilities (aka the "mess is mine and I know where everything is" system)!

CBGB by Joseph O. Holmes

If you're part of the art world that'll be flocking down to Miami the first week of December, then be sure to stop by Jen Bekman Gallery's booth at PULSE Miami 2010!

The gallery will be bringing work from a number of their artists, including Hot Shots: Ian Baguskas, Nina Berman, Derek Henderson, Joseph O. Holmes, Gregory Krum, Brad Moore, Colleen Plumb, Mike Sinclair and Kurt Tong.

Pool, Palm Springs, California, 1983 by Mike Sinclair

PULSE is located at the Ice Palace, 1400 North Miami Avenue (at NW 14th Street) and will run from December 2nd to December 5th. JBG will be in Booth B-403, so if you're in Miami, swing by and visit us.

Fair hours are as follows:
Thursday, December 2nd: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. (VIP Brunch and Preview); 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. fair opens to the public
Friday, December 3rd: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, December 4th: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, December 5th: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is $15, $10 for students and seniors and $10 for groups.

Hot Shot Colleen Plumb also has work on view in the Wynwood Art District's Dina Mitrani gallery through Christmas Day—December 25th—from her series Animals Are Outside Today. Be sure to catch her in at least one--if not both--of these spots.

The camera is often a tool for attempting to capture reality, but it is also a great instrument in creating optical illusion. 2009 Hot Shot Jessica Eaton repeatedly questions our grasp on visual perception, using light filters and properties of reflection, refraction and multiple exposures to great effect. In her fourth solo exhibit, STRATA, Jessica presents new works from her series Cubes For Alberts and Lewitt, for the very first time. The exhibition opens tomorrow night at Red Bull 381 Projects in Toronto, from 6-10 p.m.

Red Bull 381 writes:

The cube appears variously as a three dimensional model of classic optical illusions, as a metaphor for a pixel, as a subject submitted to motion blur, colour separation, in-camera masking and out of camera masking via the reflective values of monochromatic elements. Ranging from a single exposure to many exposures, all of the images are composed on sheets of 4x5 film. This precarious and experimental process results in a body of work that frustrates the representational nature of the image through seemingly impossible compositions.

In addition to the opening tomorrow night, if you're in Toronto on December 9th, Jessica will also be on site for an artist talk from 7-9 p.m.

STRATA
Red Bull 381 Projects
Suite 200 - 381 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 2A5
Hours: Thursday & Friday, 5-9 p.m.; Saturday, 12-5 p.m.

Artist Talk:
Jessica Eaton artist talk with Nicholas Brown
Thursday December 9, 7:00 p.m

Untitled, 2010 by Jordan Tate

Just a few days ago, our friends at Aperture announced the finalists for this year's edition of their prestigious Portfolio Prize. A little more about the competition from their website:

The purpose of the Aperture Portfolio Prize is to identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists whom we can help by bringing them to a wider audience. In choosing the first-prize winner and runners-up, we are looking for work that is fresh and that hasn't been widely seen in major publications or exhibition venues.

In 2010, first prize is $5,000 and an exhibition at the Aperture Foundation. The first-prize winner and runners-up are featured in Aperture's website for approximately one year. Winners are also announced in the foundation's e-newsletter, which reaches thousands of subscribers in the photography community.

The jury from Aperture's editorial and limited-edition print departments reviewed nearly a thousand portfolios, and narrowed these down to five finalists, from which one will be selected for the top prize, to be announced this coming December. We're excited to see that this talented five includes two of the stellar semi-finalists from this-just-past 2010 edition of of Hey, Hot Shot!: Julian Röder and Jordan Tate, (for their respective series Lagos Transformation, and New Work).

Earlier this year, Youngna wrote about Jordan's work:

The works, including images of other images, captures of computer and television screens, and visual puns of faces within other objects of faces, suggests that seeing (the act) and what we're looking are not simply the sum of 1 + 1 (the looker and what's being looked at), but poses a new question unto itself: what is the relationship between the two parties? In the act of looking at a medium in which other objects are projected--we are not seeing the object, but the screen or device which contains it, whether this is an iPhone, iPad or television. Our relationship to said objects is then a relationship to the representation--and in our age of ever-increasing technological dependency (and growth), Jordan might suggest that our "experience" with what we see is also an increasingly mediated one.

Central business district on Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria, 2009 by Julian Roder

Roder's work, in contrast, captures the crowded metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria, creating order out of the cacophony of buses, tin-roofed shacks and marketplaces that exist on a fragile and rapidly changing infrastructure. Taking large-scale portraits of a city that is the fastest-growing in Africa, and one of the largest in the world, Roder confronts the duality of a growing city that geographically, has no place to grow.

He describes his experience of photographing in Nigeria as such:

What interested me about Lagos was the interchange of chaos and order in such a rapidly growing city. I already got a sense of this on my very first day there. I went to the Ministry of Information in order to obtain an official permit to photograph. There were goats in the hallways; noise was coming from a flat-screen TV on the wall; there was music playing somewhere. The only time it was quiet was when the electricity went out. I wandered through the building until I ran into the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, who told me to go see the Director for Public Enlightenment. Luckily, the director was immediately willing to write me a permit by hand, but when he finished, the secretary who was supposed to type the text had to go home. I gave her money so that she could take a taxi later. As she typed the text, her boss suddenly realized it would be better to use the wording from an official master copy. As it turned out, this master copy was on the computer of a colleague, who was no longer there. Then someone suggested the director simply sign his business card, but he did not want to do this without talking to his supervisor, the ministry's Public Relations Officer. When he finally reached her, she asked why the permit hadn't been issued already.

As a photographer, this is a system Roder must participate in, despite its many obstacles. On his website, be sure to read his "commentary" on his experience and observations photographing in Lagos.

Kathryn Parker Almanas, David Favrod, and Anne Golaz were also among those selected as finalists. Big congratulations these five photographers. We can't wait to see who will take home first prize—and will of course keep you posted!

We recently awarded each of our five 2010 Hot Shots $1,000 towards making their own photography books at Blurb. But, what does publishing a photography book really entail? The task can be daunting, starting from selecting the images that will be included in the publication, all the way down to details like which typeface to use, what paper weight is best, and how many pages the book should be.

On Wednesday, December 1st, photo book experts Darius Himes (Founding Editor of Radius Books) and Mary Virginia Swanson will offer a free lecture at the New York Public Library: Publish Your Photography Book. They'll offer pointers about the current temperature of the photography book publishing industry, address how to market a book, and offer insights into what they've learned from their years in the publishing world. The talk shares a title with their forthcoming book from Princeton Architectural Press, to be published in January 2011, which you can pre-order now.

Princeton Architectural Press writes of the book:

For the students and working artists who have chosen photography as their primary means of expression, having their own photography book is seen as a passport to the international photography scene. Yet, few have more than a tentative grasp of the component parts of a book, an understanding of what they want to express, or the know-how needed to get a book published. Publish Your Photography Book is the first book to demystify the process of producing and publishing a book of photographs. Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson survey the current landscape of photography book publishing and point out the many avenues to pursue and pitfalls to avoid. This expert guide is organized in six sections covering the rich history of the photo book; an overview of the publishing industry; an intimate look at the process of making a book; a close review of how to market a photo book; a section on case studies, built around discussions and interviews with published photographers; and a final section presenting a wealth of resources and information to aid in the understanding of the publishing world.

If you're a photographer who's trying to make the move to bound, printed matter, or curious about the publishing industry, be sure to head to NYPL next Wednesday and hear about the art of photo book publishing from a few seasoned experts.

Publish Your Photography Book
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum, 2nd Floor, Rm 227
Wednesday, December 1, 2010: 6:00 p.m. (doors at 5:30 p.m.)
First-come, first-served

When learning to paint, artists often create tonal scales, mastering the infinite shades of gray that exist between black and white. In photography, mastering these tonal scales requires a similarly deft hand and deep understanding of how light permeates the camera and the film. We find contrast in juxtaposed brightnesses of light, but how does one crate gray tones that still contain detail and great definition? Hot Shot Zhijie Sui explores the great range of gray tones in his quiet but moving series, ODE. Inspired by The Book of Odes, China's oldest collection of poetry, Sui seeks out the textures, geographies and cultural identity expressed in the poems. They serve as a geographic guide for his own image-making, bringing him to the mountains, to the sea, up high and face to face with the range of natural textures that surround him. Abiding by strict lines and creating almost architectural landscapes, Sui's precise works are sparse but layered with a stony overtone that is concentrated and feels impenetrable. You can see additional images from Zhijie's series ODE on his portfolio.

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Living in: New York & Beijing

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I studied at the China Central Academy of Art from 2003 to 2005 and did film studio studies there, majoring in Experimental media. Then, I came to the US and attended the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for Photography from 2007 to 2008.

How you pay the bills: I get support from my family, and also by selling my photography prints and paintings.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Uh...maybe none...

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Ni Zan (a Chinese painter during the Yuan Dynasty)

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: The Mirror, Nostahlgia and The Sacrifice—films by Andrei Tarkovsky. And, Peter Henry Emerson's photography

Untitled by Peter Henry Emerson

Reading now: Superfluous Things. (The book examines the history of material culture in early modern China—the paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, carved jade, and other objects owned by the elites of Ming China—and describes contemporary attitudes towards them.)

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
eyecurious
Conscientious
Buffet

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Nostahlgia
Ubu
Chinese Etymology

Current projects: ODE: The project is searching for the broad mountains, flowing rivers, ruined walls and ancient paths of the Book of Odes.(Odes is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It comprises 305 poems and songs, some possibly from as early as 1000BC.)

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

When one first glances at Laura Bell's works, there is a moment of wondering whether he or she is looking at photographs or paintings. A vase of flowers is lush with the textured quality of brushstrokes, and the moon seems too sharply painted in above crags to have been captured by a lens. Taking cues from the traditions of old master painters, Laura creates still-lifes, landscapes and portraits that are hushed yet luscious. The images range in size, some just a few inches around, and others several feet tall and wide. Playing with the traditional formats of photography—squares and rectangles, she crops many of her images into ovals, circles and elipses and then shrinks or enlarges them in relation to one another.

The Alba Series, from which all three photographs below, are a reflection of her "experiences and psychological reactions" to her two year stay in Edinburgh, Scotland. Now living in the woods of Pennsylvania, Bell continues to absorb the natural elements around her, and crafting images from the impact these environs have. See more work from The Alba Series, and others, on Laura's website.

First Growth by Laura Bell

Floral and Insects by Laura Bell

Moth Specimens by Laura Bell

Living in: Pennsylvania

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: In 2008, I graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a BFA in photography. I've also participated in several internship programs, relating to both commercial and fine art photographic disciplines. Most recently, I interned at a fine art photography center in Scotland called Stills.

How you pay the bills: Currently, I retouch photos for school year books, which basically means that I Photoshop acne all day. It's a funny day-job, but it's nice to think that I might be helping young people feel better about themselves during those awkward teenage years.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: I think the best advice I've ever received as an artist, (be it in photography or any other medium) is to be honest with your self. If you make honest work, you'll most likely make good work.

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Nadav Kander's landscape work, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Joanna Newsom

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: When I was about 15, I saw a photograph by Sally Mann of a large tree with a deep scar through its center. This was the first image that really made me want to pursue fine art photography. I still think about this photograph all the time.

Reading now: I just started In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Women in Photography (the Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips project)
Ahorn Magazine
1000 Words Photography

Top non-photo website/blog:
To be honest, I don't venture very far off the beaten path in terms of the Internet, but I do really enjoy NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Next project: I just moved to an area of Pennsylvania known as the "snow belt", and, as the name suggests, this region accumulates a tremendous amount of snow. I'm planning on shooting a series of landscapes depicting the winter here, but, of course, I'm waiting for the snow to come first.

22 Steps to the Sea #2 by Kurt Tong

Kurt Tong, a First Edition 2009 Hot Shot (and 2009 Ultra) is up to a whole lot these days, with photographs and appearances all over the globe!

If you're in or around London, you've got just a few days left to see his work in the Troika Editions exhibition RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW: Exposures from the Public Realm at The Front Room Gallery, which closes on November 14th. If you don't make the show, he's also got three diptychs available with Troika Editions.

For the photo-lovers in Asia: pieces from two of Kurt's series are on view in the 2nd Singapore International Photography Festival, which runs until the 13th of November.

He's got his first solo museum exhibition, In Case it Rains in Heaven opening on Saturday, November 13th at Compton Verney (Warwickshire, UK), and he'll be giving an artist talk there on the afternoon of November 20th. What's more, Kurt will have a book that will focus on this same series, (also titled In Case it Rains in Heaven) published early next year by Kehrer Verlag. Keep your eyes peeled for this one, and we'll update you as we learn details!

A few more upcoming events/exhibitions to mark in your calendars:

Congratulations to Kurt, all around!

At our party at Blurb just over a week ago, we were thrilled to see Chikara Umihara's face among the attendees. He'd just gotten off a plane from Japan—yes, Japan!—to come celebrate being a Hot Shot! Chikara's work spans the gamut from documentary to more formal portraiture; our panel was taken by his series Aggressive Girls, which looks at the empowerment of lesbians in Brooklyn through male-dominant Hip Hop culture. Chikara finds his way into the intimate spaces where this subculture convenes and makes images suggesting that sometimes he and his camera are fully bared, with flash out, whereas in other scenarios he is merely a wallflower, quietly observing the colorful world as it moves around him while maintaining a calculated distance.

The macro and micro lenses of Chikara's world are a notable characteristic of each of his series: Aggressive Girls, Playland, Silent Water and Humilade. You can see all of these works on his website and learn a little more about Chikara below.

Outside of the Brazilian grocery store "Banana Boat", Nishikoizumi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, 2010 by Chikara Umihara

Downtown, Brooklyn, 2009 by Chikara Umihara

Living in: Tokyo, Japan

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I attended a one Year Certificate Program in General Studies at the International Center of Photography, New York in 2007 and interned at Magnum Photos in 2008.

How you pay the bills: Freelancing as a photographer and retoucher.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Photography makes me feel alive.

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Diane Arbus, John Cassavetes and Gerhard Richter

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: Apocalypse Now Redux

Reading now: La Casa Verde by Mario Vargas Llosa

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Hey, Hot Shot! (why thank you!)
MoMA
Dashwood Books

Next project: Thailand

Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, 2008 by Chikara Umihara

Barbershop, Lower East Side, NYC, 2008 by Chikara Umihara

Nethermead by Joseph O. Holmes

A few days ago Critical Mass announced their prestigious Top 50 list—fifty photographers selected from many applicants by an enormous jury of professionals/experts in the photography world. A few words about how this awesome program works, from the Photolucida website (the Portland-based non-profit organization that brings us Critical Mass):

The aim of Critical Mass, and all Photolucida programming, is to provide participants with career-building opportunities and to promote the best emerging and mid-career artists working today.

Critical Mass is a program about exposure and community. The idea is simple--photographers (from anywhere) submit a 10 image portfolio for $75. This work then gets pre-screened by a committee of approximately 20 great jurors and from there, 175 top Finalists are determined. These top Finalists then pay an additional submission fee ($200) and their work goes on to a jury of approximately 200 of the world's best curators, editors, and other professionals who have agreed to view and vote on these Finalists. From these votes, at least one photographer is chosen to receive a book award and once the monograph is published, everyone who enters and reviews will receive a copy of the book(s).

Have a look at past years' winners and you'll see many familiar names (Alejandro Cartagena and Birthe Piontek were chosen 2009 winners, to name just a couple). We're thrilled to report that many JBP friends and family were involved again this year:

Hot Shots Joseph O. Holmes and Daniel Traub were among those artists selected in the 2010 edition of the Top 50, as well as recent HHS! semi-finalists Christopher Churchill and Sam Comen. The two-hundred-member (!!!) jury included many more shining stars of the photography world, such as Darius Himes, Taj Forer and Amy Stein; Shawn Records, as well, is president of the Photolucida board.

Take a look at the complete list of 2010 Critical Mass Top 50 winners here. HUGE congratulations to all!

Our second Q&A this week brings us to Hot Shot Amy Stevens, whose colorful confections are both beautiful to look at—and "really edible," informs Amy. Each of her cakes are made from ingredients that—despite their sometimes-psychedelic colors—are safe to consume. She crafts every morsel of the cakes herself: baking, frosting, shaping and styling them from flour and sugar into what you see before you.

On her website, Amy writes of this project:

The Confections series started as a response to turning 30. It was a celebration of birthdays, cake, color, pattern and obsessive absurdity...I ordered a cake decorating kit from Marthastewart.com and watched the included instructional video. When I quickly discovered my cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video and recipe booklet, I was free to make them as grotesque and amazing as possible--my little rebellion.

After four years, Amy continues to craft and fashion her cakes, ever more absurd and extravagant. They are intoxicating to look at, spectacles craving saccharine attention. Head to Amy's portfolio to see her full display case of confections, and to see what she's plating up next.

Confections (adorned) #17 by Amy Stevens

Confections (adorned) #18 by Amy Stevens

Living in: Philadelphia, PA

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: Formally, I received my BFA and MFA in Photography from Arizona State University and Tyler School of Art. Informally, I have dabbled in many aspects of photography and learned a ton from all of the combined experiences. In Phoenix, I worked as a photographer's assistant printing large scale sepia toned prints of nudes, florals and landscapes for an art production company. I lived in Seattle for 4 years where I sold my mixed media photography in Pioneer Square on First Thursdays, worked as a Project Manager for a photo lab and volunteered as a mentor for Youth in Focus, a photography non-profit for teenagers. Just before moving to Philadelphia for grad school, I helped organize the visual arts portion of Ladyfest Seattle and curated an exhibition for the festival. After grad school I learned the most from teaching photography-- and am still learning.

How you pay the bills: I work as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Temple University teaching both digital and traditional photography and also teach a foundations digital imaging class at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in Lancaster, PA.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Technically, I read this, but it's a great quote: "There is no win and no fail, only make." —John Cage

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Robert Rauschenberg, Jessica Stockholder and Lee Friedlander

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: El Morocco 1955 (woman with bongo drums) by Garry Winogrand. Although, this past week I've been thinking about Alex Prager's video Despair at MoMA and can't shake it.

El Morocco, 1955 by Garry Winogrand

Reading now: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (pure escapism), Art/Work by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber (thank you Hey, Hot Shot!) and Digital Art Revolution by Scott Ligon (for my foundations class.)

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Oitzarisme (A Romanian photo blog featuring International work)
Feature Shoot blog
Amy Stein's blog

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Martha Stewart for my cooking and craft obsessions: Whole Living and The Crafts Dept.
Regretsy
Cute Overload

Current projects: Right now I'm working on a few new pieces for a fashion designer who has a boutique in Philadelphia. She has been supplying me with fabrics from her dresses and I am responding with some new Confections. Nothing says couture like a cake with 5 pounds of butter cream.

I'm seeking funding and co-curating (with an Irish artist) a photography and video exhibition of 40 artists from Philadelphia and Ireland for 2 shows, one in Philly (Fall 2012) and one in Ireland for the Galway Arts Festival (Summer 2012.)

I'm also taking a beginning quilting class at a fabric store here in Philadelphia.

Confections (abroad) #7 by Amy Stevens

Hot Shot Michael Bodiam finds his home in London, where he photographs a wide range of subjects, from the images of abandoned buildings he submitted as part of the series Dickens & Jones to nightscapes and cinematic landscapes. Whatever he is photographer, there is a mixed sense of caution and foreboding. When people appear, faces are often shrouded or hidden and more often than not, we observe the rich textures of intersecting walls and building material. Cement meets the polish of a wood's veneer, wallpaper finds plaster and paint greets carpet drawing the eyes to focus on the intersections of these calculated but often ignored spaces.

Stock Room #2 from the series Dickens & Jones by Michael Bodiam

Kew #2 from the series Kew by Michael Bodiam

Blue Lockers from the series Anonymous Places by Michael Bodiam

We touched base with Michael last week to learn a little more about what inspires him, his photography background and what he's working on. You can see many more image by Michael on his portfolio site.

Living in: London, UK

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: After years of following my Dad around taking pictures I decided to study photography at school, followed by a Art Foundation course (specialising in photography) and then finally received a BA (honors) in Fine Art Photography at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK.

How you pay the bills: A combination of assisting, post production and printing for fine art and commercial photographers as well as shooting my own editorial work and occasional small advertising jobs.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Make the work that you want to make, not what you think other will want you to make. If you fall into that trap the meaning of the work gets diluted and it loses it's impact.

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Thomas Struth, Joël Tettamanti, Ed Ruscha

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: Gregor Schneider's Cellar

Cellar by Gregory Schneider

Reading now: Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Conscientious
aCurator
Powerbastard

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
BUTDOESITFLOAT
ffffound
Yimmys Yayo

(although these all include photography as well!)

Current projects: I've just started shooting a project called Residential & Industrial Landscapes from East London—it's pretty obvious what that one's about!

Cartouche 4, 2006 by Theresa Ganz, the 2010 CCNY Darkroom Resident

In this era of the increasingly digital, it can be a challenge to find a well-stocked and smoothly run darkroom, even in New York City. The Camera Club of New York is currently inviting emerging photographers in NYC to apply for their 2011 Darkroom Residency Program, which provides three months of free 24/7 access to CCNY's facility.

The residents also receive free admission to all CCNY events in 2011 and a monthly stipend and materials during their residency. See details on eligibility and how to apply on the CCNY website. Applications are due by November 15, 2010.

If you didn't catch word of it over on the JBG blog, Jeffrey Teuton and Jen Bekman are jurying this year's fellowship competition at the Houston Center for Photography. And, the deadline for submissions has just been extended through next Friday, November 12th!

The competition is open to photographers from around the world. One artist from within 100 miles of the Houston area will recieve the $2,000 Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship, and one artist from outside of the Houston area will receive the $2,000 HCP Fellowship. Both Fellows will hold a solo exhibition at the HCP in he summer of 2011.

From the HCP website:

RULES FOR ENTRY: Participants must be or become HCP members at the time of submission. Artists must submit a proposal for the Fellowship project, outlining its conceptual objective(s) and intended outcome(s). The proposal must not exceed 500 words in length. Acceptance will be based on the unified body of work by each artist rather than on individual images. Preference will be given to new work or work created within the last two (2) years that has not been widely exhibited in the Houston area. A maximum of 10 digital image files (jpeg, 72-300ppi, no larger than 2100 x 2100 pixels), moving image files (maximum of 5 minutes in length) are acceptable. No slides, please. All files must be titled with a number corresponding to the entry form, your last name, title of work, and year of completion. For emailed submissions, the maximum size for total entry should not exceed 8MB. There is a $5 additional charge per image/data file for submissions that exceed 5 images.

Hand-delivered entries may be brought to HCP during regular gallery hours: Wed, Fri 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thurs 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat - Sun 12 - 6 p.m. Participants must include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with submission if you require the return of CDs or DVDs. E-mailed submissions are welcome; send to exhibits@hcponline.org.

As you may have seen over at 20x200, team JBP will be stationed at the Editions | Artists' Books Fair this coming weekend in NYC, and we couldn't be more excited.

If you're in or around the the city, swing by for a visit and check out work from a whole bunch of Hot Shots in person! We will be featuring photographs by Carlo Van De Roer, Derek Henderson, Dorthe Alstrup, James Deavin, Joseph O. Holmes, Kurt Tong, Matthew Tischler, Mike Sinclair, Parsley Steinweiss, Rachel Hulin, and Shawn Records for your viewing pleasure.

What's more, you will also be able to see work by Aaron Straup Cope, Alex Brown, Alex MacLean, Alexander Beeching, Amy Stein, Bert Teunissen, Bryan Schutmaat, Carol Padberg, Carrie Marill, Chad Hagen, Christian Chaize, Dylan Fareed, Greg Allen, Hollis Brown Thornton, Jane Mount, Jason Burch, Jason Polan, Jenny Odell, Jeremy Kohm, Jessica Snow, Jorge Colombo, Katie Baum, Kent Rogowski, Landon Nordeman, Lawrence Weiner, Marian Bantjes, Marion Belanger, Michelle Vaughan, Mike Monteiro, Paul Madonna, Penelope Umbrico, Roger Ballen, Ross Racine, Thomas Prior, Tierney Gearon, Trey Speegle, Tyson Anthony Roberts, Valerie Hegarty, William Lamson and William Powhida.

Admission to the fair will be free all weekend! Stop by and say hi, or peruse the fair all afternoon—definitely worth it either way.

Some added bonuses from 20x200:

+ 20x200 art--out of your computer, into frames, and onto walls. Come gather inspiration for affordable framing and creative hanging, check out a selection of 20x200 prints, and find out just how large those 40"x50" prints really are.

+ An immediate cure for your affordable art cravings: we'll be selling a special selection of $20 (8"x10") and $50 (11"x14") prints, right in the booth. No need to delay gratification!

The Details:
20x200 at the Editions | Artists' Books Fair
Friday–Sunday, November 5–7, 2010
11 a.m.–7 p.m. Friday + Saturday; 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sunday
548 West 22nd Street, Between 10th & 11th Avenues
Booth 28

Here's a map of where to find us in Booth 28:

Look forward to seeing you this weekend!

We want to extend a huge thanks to all who stopped to meet the 2010 Hot Shots at the Blurb Pop Up/NYC on Friday! We hope you enjoyed some refreshments, had a chance to check out phenomenal Blurb books (especially those by Hot Shots!), or grabbed a brand new Hey, Hot Shot! tote. Team JBP had a great time mixing and mingling with members of the HHS! panel, old and new Hot Shots, 20x200 artists, and the rest of the NYC photo community!

For those of you who couldn't make it, here are some snapshots from the event. Again--congratulations to Laura Bell, Michael Bodiam, Amy Stevens, Zhijie Sui, and Chikara Umihara, the 2010 Hot Shots!

All photos by Jacob Krupnick

Untitled from the series Aggressive Girls, 2009 by Chikara Umihara

After great deliberation and the careful consideration of our panelists, we're happy to announce the five photographers selected as 2010 Hot Shots:

Laura Bell
Michael Bodiam
Amy Stevens
Zhijie Sui
Chikara Umihara

These five outstanding photographers will each be awarded a $500 honorarium, participate in a group show at Jen Bekman Gallery in January 2011, receive a $1,000 credit to make a book at Blurb and have the opportunity to release an edition on 20x200. You can read more about each of the 2010 Hot Shots and see their submissions on the blog.

Laura, Michael, Amy, Zhijie and Chikara are now under consideration for our Grand Prize—a $10,000 honorarium, solo exhibition and representation from Jen Bekman Gallery—which will be announced in the spring of 2011. The chosen photographer will join ranks with other JBG-represented artists, including 2009 Ultras Mike Sinclair and Kurt Tong. We're looking forward to many collaborations with all of these photographers at the gallery and on 20x200.

Selecting just five artists from this year's pool of contenders couldn't have been done without Jen Bekman and the dedication of our brilliant panelists: Christine Collins, Stephen Frailey, Raul Gutierrez, Todd Hido, Darius Himes, Jenni Holder, Tod Lippy, Nion McEvoy, Lesley A. Martin, Kent Rogowski and Jeffrey Teuton, so we thank them for their time, energy and the ever-critical eye each of them lends to the competition.

We also want to extend enormous thanks to Blurb, who hosted a party for us last Friday at their NYC Pop-Up. Jen Bekman announced the five Hot Shots at the party and we were able to mingle and celebrate with so many of you: contenders, Hot Shots, panelists and supporters of the competition. Thanks to all who came out to say hello and for those who didn't make it, you can see photos of the party on Flickr.

Last but not least, we'd like to congratulate all of our Semi-Finalists once more. All of these photographers are creating exceptional work and we're delighted they entered Hey, Hot Shot!

The 2010 Hey, Hot Shot! Semi-Finalists
Noah L. Addis
Philip Cheung
Christopher Churchill
Sam Comen
Glen Erler
Taylor Glenn
Melissa Rene Kaseman
Mark Lyon
Nik Mirus
Erin O'Keefe
Teo Ormond-Skeaping
Mark Peckmezian
Jill Peters
Meghan Rennie
Julian Roeder
Bryan Schutmaat
Judith Stenneken
Jordan Tate
Michael ten Pas
Nathanael Turner
Eric T. White
Simon Willms
Susan Virginia Worsham
Renhui Zhao

While only the five Hot Shots will exhibit at the gallery, look for work from our Semi-Finalists and contenders on 20x200 and be sure to read about the 100+ photographers featured on our blog this year.

Keep an eye on us on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter for news about the 2010 Hot Shot exhibition and our next round of competition!

ODE_1, 2010

ODE_2, 2010

ODE_3, 2010

ODE_4, 2010

ODE_5, 2010

Zhijie Sui

Website: http://www.tacasui.com

Bio:
Taca Sui was born in Qingdao, China and currently resides New York City and Beijing. Past exhibitions include: Another Landscape at the INTER Art Center, Beijing, China (2010); Parallel Translation, Chengdu, Sichuan, China (2009); Black White Grey at ASL Gallery, New York (2009); 2009 Years Show at ASL Gallery, New York (2009); Intimate Distance at Qart Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2007).

Artist Statement:
The Book of Odes, China's earliest collection of poems, both marks the beginning of Chinese civilization and delineates certain core elements of Asian culture.

My search for the broad mountains, flowing rivers, ruined walls and ancient paths of The Book of Odes felt much like a mysterious engagement with an absent partner. During the shoot, it was almost as if my emotions and artistic direction were under the influence of some unknown force.

When I think back to before I started this project, after several months of textual and geographical research, I was alarmed to find myself falling into the vast artificial construct of annotations and commentaries built by generations of Confucian scholars. With the shadow of such cluttered and factitious interpretations still hanging over the Odes, the meaning of the original text has been misconstrued and concealed, and a distorted, so-called truth has been created.

I believe that changing reality and the text, including historical annotations, continually influence each other. I ask, therefore, in this never-ending process of mutual transformation, what are the principal divergences from the original text, and what layers of meaning have been lost? In terms of my own personal experience, as the original text has long been separated from its concrete context, what is the necessity and basis for so-called poetic sentiments?

I hope to build a stable artistic structure that corresponds on some level to the composition of The Book of Odes, but at the same time pushes the Ode's literary significance into a distant and unfamiliar world, bringing the work's amorphous and mystical concepts into reality, and by doing so, facilitates analysis of the Odes, which truly is an artistic model with limitless possibility.

Untitled from the series Aggressive Girls, 2009

Untitled from the series Aggressive Girls, 2009

Untitled from the series Aggressive Girls, 2009

Untitled from the series Aggressive Girls, 2009

Untitled from the series Aggressive Girls, 2009

Chikara Umihara

Website: http://www.chikaraphotography.com

Bio:
Chikara Umihara was born in, and now resides in, Japan. He came to New York to pursue his interest in photography in 2006. Formerly, he was a practitioner and professional fighter of martial arts for 15 years. In 2010, he was selected for the Present Tense competition exhibition at Photo Center NW in Seattle, and he attended Review Santa Fe in New Mexico. Chikara was named the 2010 Hey, Hot Shot! Ne Plus Ultra.

Artist Statement:
Within the social infrastructure of the black community in Brooklyn, lesbian women have found their role of empowerment through employing the male-dominant Hip Hop culture. From this male-dominant culture has emerged a new breed of female-dominant culture, in which lesbian women define themselves as "Aggressive Girls."

My photography comes from my own journey: the journey to investigate the place; to understand the culture; to explore the world I was fascinated by; and the journey to find my deep personal reflection. My great interest in photography is to express the light and darkness in color. The process of photographing is about finding the emotion, fear and enlightenment, both my own and the subject's. In my work, I am trying to tell the emotion and feeling through my pictures. To me, in order to tell about the place and people, the rhythm, intonation and lyrical expression are more important than merely recording the facts and knowledge. To do that, I am always aiming at capturing the air within the place and people. It can convey the temperature, humidity, feelings, emotions and atmosphere. The air can be described in light. The grain and color expose the psyche. After the first frame, my project begins. Each next frame is the key to keep going closer and deeper. And the project starts dictating its own direction.

Clearance, 2006

Ladder, 2006

Sarah & Arnold, 2006

Changing Room #1, 2006

Changing Room #2, 2006

Michael Bodiam

Website: http://www.michaelbodiam.com

Bio:
Michael Bodiam is a graduate in BA (hons) Fine Art Photography from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth. He works on both commissioned and self-commissioned photographic projects. Michael's personal work has featured in publications such as Dazed & Confused, Marmalade and DayFour. He has exhibited with The Photodebut Group, at The Royal Academy (London), The Royal West of England Academy, HOST Gallery, The AMV Building and the Brick House at The Truman Brewery. In 2009 he achieved two merit awards & one distinction (2nd place overall) for the Fuji-Film Distinctions Awards as well as being long-listed for the last 60 of Hyères 2009. In 2004 he was a finalist in the Next Level Audi Vorsprung durch Technik Photography Competition.

Artist Statement:
Dickens & Jones: This work explores a building at the end of era. The series is a visual investigation of a space as it hangs tentatively in the balance between its functions old and new. Whilst the space may remain recognisable as a site of commerce, the building stripped to its barest bones, clings on to the last moments of its previous function. Despite the overwhelming emptiness of the building, the images are far from being a blank canvas. In fact, it is this distinct and unnerving absence of people and the products associated with the space that brings a new heightened relevance to the things that would have previously gone unnoticed. Our eye is instead drawn towards the subtle accumulative layering of traces left behind by many decades of human presence within the building's interior. Dirty silhouettes of clothing, products, fixings and furnishings become ghostly reminders of what used to be.