Photographers, what are you doing this weekend? If you're in New York City, make your way to Jen Bekman Gallery, at 6 Spring Street, to catch the Hey, Hot Shot! Second Edition 2011 Showcase before it closes this Sunday, March 25th.

On view are works by the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots: Michael Cappabianca, Cristina De Middel, Phil Jung, Brendan George Ko and Meike Nixdorf.

If you can't make it, you can still get to know the artists and more about their work by checking out their recent interviews on the blog. And if you're a fan of their work, you'll be happy to know a few of the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots (Brendan George Ko and Meike Nixdorf, with more to come!) have released limited-edition photographs on 20x200.

Now that all the 2011 Hot Shots have exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery, stay tuned to find out who will be selected as the 2011 Ne Plus Ultra—he/she will earn $10,000, a solo show at JBG and two years of gallery representation.

And we're already looking for the 2012 Ultra. The First Edition 2012 round just closed and we will soon be announcing the first five Hot Shots of 2012. Good luck to all who entered the competition! As ever, we'll share all the news with you via the newsletter, site and blog, so check back often.

El Teide, view #02, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

It's Armory week here in NYC, with dozens of galleries and museums participating and exhibiting leading contemporary art and photography. Just in time for the art fair, the Hey, Hot Shot! Second Edition 2011 Showcase opens TOMORROW, March 9th, with a reception from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at Jen Bekman Gallery. Come join us in celebrating the work of these very talented photographers—meet and mingle with some of the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots: Brendan George Ko, Cristina De Middel, Phil Jung, Meike Nixdorf and Michael Cappabianca. And if you want to get to know the photographers, click here to read Q&As with the deserving bunch.

The Hey, Hot Shot! Second Edition 2011 Showcase presents a diverse selection of contemporary photography from around the globe: Brendan George Ko blends lived experiences with the fantastic to create images that limbo hauntingly between worlds. Michael Cappabianca's work imaginatively interprets the physicality and structure of the book. Photographing what can be seen through the semi-private, semi-public space of the car window, Phil Jung looks at the role of the automobile in revealing the social landscape. Meike Nixdorf orbits around her subject—the mountain El Teide, in the Canary Islands—exploring the viewing and decision-making processes of photography. Cristina De Middel plays part photojournalist and part story-teller, re-imagining documentation of the failed 1964 Zambian space program.

Our distinguished panel of arts professionals, together with the Jen Bekman Projects curatorial team, chose these five artists for their unique contributions to contemporary photography. Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot! has awarded more than one hundred and forty-five photographers—including 2010 Whitney Biennial artists Nina Berman and Curtis Mann—with unparalleled opportunities for support and exposure.

Michael, Brendan, Meike, Cristina and Phil are now under consideration for our Grand Prize—a $10,000 honorarium, solo exhibition and representation from Jen Bekman Gallery. The grand prize-winning Ultra will be announced in the coming weeks. The chosen photographer will join ranks with other JBG-represented artists, including 2010 Ultra Chikara Umihara and 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.

The exhibition will be on view March 10th through March 25th, 2012.
The opening reception will be Friday, March 9th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012
e: info@jenbekman.com | w: www.jenbekman.com | p: +1.212.219.0166

The gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from noon – 6:00 p.m., or by private appointment.

First Edition 2012 DEADLINE is March 14th at 11:59 P.M. ET

For your shot at $10,000, a solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery and two years worth of representation from the gallery, apply before the deadline!

Our final Q&A with the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots is with Brendan George Ko, who we first wrote about as a Contender. His eerily stunning photos could easily be images you see when you close your eyes—relics of hauntingly beautiful memories. In this interview, Brendan explains the origins of the series. Be sure to check out his work in the group show Second Edition 2011 Showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery, on view March 10th through March 25th. And if you're in New York City tomorrow, March 9th, join us for the opening reception, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at 6 Spring Street.

Ablution, 2010 by Brendan George Ko

Living in: Toronto, ON (more specifically: a retired coffin factory)

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography:
A little film studies at Ryerson University and a BFA in photographic arts at Ontario College of Art & Design.

How you pay the bills: Mostly odd jobs; I work as a TA and I work at a photo lab. I sell work from time to time and photograph for others once in a while.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer:
[paraphrased] "You are an artist, you have to make art. It has become the way you think and communicate. You were born with this inside of you and you will spend your entire lifetime perfecting it." —Nicholas Pye

Three artists who inspire you:
Joel Sternfeld
Taryn Simon
Olivier Alary

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
There is this image from Poltergeist that isn't necessarily a "work of art," but I tend to get images from films stuck in my head over photographs and paintings. There is a door in a house that serves as a gateway between one plane of reality to another, and when the door is opened it floods our world with an encompassing brilliance, lens flares and smoke. The characters are blown away by a mighty vortex that radiates from its center. And it is this phantasmagoric event that happens within the familiar landscape of the house that is stuck in my head.

Scene from Poltergeist, MGM Studios, 1982

Your favorite photobook(s):
An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, Taryn Simon
Click Doubleclick
Vitamin Ph

What was the last great exhibition you attended? Any exhibitions you currently recommend?
Scenes from the House Dream, by David Hoffos, at the MOCCA, Toronto, ON. It was almost two years ago, but it blew my mind away and had this effect that made me feel like a curious child in a simulation bat cave at a natural history museum again. Also: Coming After at The Power Plant in Toronto.

Irwin Allen, 2005 by David Hoffos. Two channel visual, audio and mixed media installation

Reading now:
Whitechapel's The Cinematic, and Carl G. Jung's Man and His Symbols

Top three photo-related websites/blogs:
American Suburb X
The Great Leap Sideways
Today and Tomorrow

Top non-photo website/blog:
The Lavender Hour
McSweeney's Internet Tendency
VVORK

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work:
Part One: I was walking down the street and there were dead leaves and this golden beam of sunset light falling on them. Before me flashed a memory that was ambiguous and reoccurring—even though the initial memory has passed, it was still being lived, and it was then I realized that memory could be split into two: memory (sequence, proportion, scale) and feeling (mood/atmosphere), and that atmosphere can come and go and is virtually timeless (ghost-like). I'm interested in this split of memory and creating atmospheres that provoke the human psyche and conjure up these detached and ambiguous memories.

Barking Wall, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Part Two: New Mexico. I was living there during a very unique time in my life where I was a child coming to age. I was still holding on to my imagination and the strange, sometimes supernatural and unexplainable events that happened during that time. It seemed to halt my imagination and kept it from being lost or reprioritized as an adult. The landscape and legends of that particular region of the Midwest continue to inspire me, as well as haunt me. It is the place I became an artist.

Next project(s):
I am continuing a study I call Atmospheres (which started with Nocturne and continued with The Barking Wall). The third installment is called We Soon Be Nigh! The work focuses on apocalyptic atmospheres that are inspired by the feeling of uncertainty towards the future, the possibility of strange shifts in our normal lives and faint light. And, on top of that, I am preparing for my first solo show happening at the end of March.

When we first wrote about Hot Shot Phil Jung in a Contender post, we remarked that "the modern personal automobile moved the boundary between 'public' and 'private' outward. Your mobile personal bubble is exposed, or displayed even, to the public: on the street, in the garage, at the mall, by the beach, etc. It's probably beyond the primary design intentions of any car, but you can't really hide your car when it's parked outside." Phil's series Windscreen took a peek inside these parked cars, gauging both what the contents and keepsakes inside these cars revealed about their owners, as well as what the cars (contents and all) revealed about the social landscape. You can catch Phil and view works from the series at the opening reception for the Second Edition 2011 Showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery tomorrow, March 9th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Sleeping Mask, 2010 by Phil Jung

Living in: Boston, MA

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I jumped around a bit when I was younger. I studied a semester at SVA before moving out West and getting my BFA (in photo) from the San Francisco Art Institute. I decided to get my MFA a few years later and attended MassArt's graduate program in photography. Having the guidance of professors like Henry Wessel, Nicholas Nixon and Abelardo Morrell has had a profound effect on my work.

How you pay the bills: Do you want the long or short answer? The short answer is day by day. No, but seriously... It's always a struggle to balance everything. Last fall, I was teaching a handful of classes as an adjunct professor. Between the different schools, I had to commute hundreds of miles per week. After all that driving, I still had to work a night job to subsidize my income. You have to be really committed and a little bit crazy to decide to make this your career.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Make sure you have someone in your life that can be brutally honest about your work.

Three artists who inspire you: Wow, that's tough. There are so many! Lately, I've been looking at Eirik Johnson's Sawdust Mountain. I really love his new work. It has a social consciousness that I think is important. Judith Joy Ross's ability to capture both the humanity and vulnerability of her subjects is extraordinary. The woman inspires me to no end. I have had the opportunity to assist her from time to time and it's always a humbling experience. I'm also a huge fan of Robert Bechtle's paintings. I looked at so many of his images while photographing for the Windscreen series. The quality of light in his paintings completely transforms the ordinariness of the middle-class neighborhoods he paints.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
Paul Graham's sequence Pittsburgh (Lawnmower Man) immediately comes to mind. It's a sequence of a man mowing, what seems to be, an enormous lawn with a push mower. It's a uniquely American scene depicting a certain everyday ordinariness, but it's in Graham's carefully executed and subtle handling of these images that contain its strength. The sequence becomes a type of visual poetry.

Pittsburgh, 2004 (Lawnmower Man), from the series A Shimmer of Possibilities

Your favorite photobook(s): Too many to list, but if I had to name one it would be New Topographics. With a group of photographers like Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, the Bechers, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore and Henry Wessel, how can you go wrong? I've had the book for years now and I still look at it all the time. Bill Owens' Suburbia is also a favorite of mine. It just keeps getting better with age.

What was the last great exhibition you attended? Any exhibitions you currently recommend? Actually it wasn't photography: The first survey exhibition of Mark Bradford's work at the ICA in Boston was unbelievable. You could spend a whole week in the gallery and still find something new in the work.

Reading now: A Different Nature: The Paradoxical World of Zoos and Their Uncertain Future, by David Hancocks

Top three photo-related websites/blogs:
American Suburb X
Flak Photo
Fototazo. Fototazo is a unique site combining social giving and photography. It helps raise funds for emerging photographers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Colombia. It's definitely worth checking out!

Top non-photo website/blog: You mean there are non-photo websites and blogs out there? My friend Pia has a wonderful blog called Bread and Beta. It's an amazing assortment of recipes and journal entries that stem from her love affair with food.

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work:
I'm fascinated by American culture and what defines us as Americans. I see this body of work as a contemporary look at our unique social landscape through the cultural geography of the automobile. The car is a vehicle in my work, both in a literal sense and as a metaphor of the human condition. So while I'm out photographing, I'm thinking about a car's connection to class structure, its spatial mobility and its use as a means of escape. I try not to traffic too much in nostalgia. I'd like people to feel as if these cars are very much on the road and still being driven.

588-Verbenas on the Desert, 2008 by Phil Jung

I love all the different types of surfaces and textures of automobiles, and I follow my natural curiosity to peer in their windows and try to find artifacts that can tell me about its owner and occupants. My photographs become portraits of the people driving them.

One of my favorite albums is Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. I think this body of work is a good visual counterpart to the album. Many of the stories on the album deal with ordinary working-class characters that face a challenge or turning point in their lives. I was looking to set an overall tone throughout the series that visually looked and felt like songs on the album. For me, music is an invaluable tool to set a certain mood or tone while shooting.

I feel my work is relevant to what many of us are feeling today. The promise of something better is slowly evaporating. I wanted to address those feelings in a form of visual language. In doing so, I hope people will think critically about the images, the world they live in and where they see themselves in relationship to the two.

Next project(s): I've been working steadily on a series of images that speak to our relationship with nature and the differences between conservation and preservation. I'll be updating my website in the coming months and should have some of the new work up.

Second Edition 2011 Hot Shot Meike Nixdorf impressed the panel with her landscapes, taken as she "orbited" around her subject—the mountain El Teide, in the Canary Islands—exploring the viewing and decision-making processes of photography. You can view her works at the Second Edition 2011 Showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery, which is on view from March 10th to March 25th. (For a documentary on the making of the series, click here.)

Nixdorf explains of the series:

Like pieces in a puzzle, every image from In the Orbit of El Teide holds different visual aspects of the same subject, in this case the mountain El Teide. But other than a piece in a puzzle, each image appears to strongly stand on its own. And it is only through looking at these images one-by-one that one realizes how much more information, visual aspects, perspectives or stories-to-be-told there are to just one single mountain—or to any subject matter, basically.

El Teide, view #02, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

Living in: After having lived in a lot of places (and even continents), I am now back in Berlin, the city in which I spent part of my childhood.

What I like about Berlin is that it is very international. You can hear all these different languages on the streets. I also enjoy that Berlin is very diverse; each neighborhood is like another city wtihin the city.

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography:
I learned a lot from working as a photo assistant (for a total of seven years) to photographers in Germany and New York. In regards to technical understanding and business know-how, I feel it is the best kind of education you can get out there.

It was only later on that I also took photography and video classes at the ICP, New York. The school was a great help with developing a better understanding of contents and concepts. Before I went to school, I wasn't really clear about why I was shooting something in a certain way.

How you pay the bills: Photography & counseling

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: It was when I first came to New York in 2005. I was showing my book around and was truly convinced I had some very unique landscape photography in it. Then someone said to me, "This is very beautiful photography, but pretty much any good photographer could have shot this." At first I thought this was bullshit, but then I had to realize that he was right.

Nowadays, I often feel the same way about other people's photography. I can enjoy it so much more when the personality of the photographer somehow shines through the images.

Three artists who inspire you:
I am mostly inspired by my partner and friends and the wonderful work they do. I guess it has to do with being able to see how things slowly develop, and also knowing the person behind the work.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
For some reason the works that touch me the most are often video installations. This is probably due to the fact that there is more physicality to them than to photographs, in the way that they are displayed and perceived or interacted with.

Installation shot from Bubbles, by Wolfgang Muench & Kiyoshi Furukawa

The video installation Eraser, by Doug Aitken, is one of my all-time favorites. Another great and very playful video installation is Bubbles, by Wolfgang Muench & Kiyoshi Furukawa, part of the permanent exhibiton at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, in Germany.

Your favorite photobook(s):
I prefer photobooks that make use of the medium instead of just displaying images site after site.

Paul Graham's A Shimmer of Possibility has a great rhythm to it that is evoked by the drastically changing image sizes, the repetitions and the blank pages. I also adore the wonderful story telling in Alec Soth's Niagara.

What was the last great exhibition you attended? Any exhibitions you currently recommend?
One of my favorite exhibitons was Robert Frank - Storylines, at the Tate Modern, London.

Reading now:
Haruki Murakami, IQ84. He is one of my favorite writers, besides Tim Winton, Jeanette Winterson and Ben Okri.

Top three photo-related websites/blogs:
I am not a regular blog reader. But I admire everyone out there who is putting so much love, time and energy in running a blog or photo website. Here are three examples of people who do exactly that:

Gianpaolo Arena, Andrea Gaio and Claudio Bettio: Landscape Stories

Pieter Wisse: 500 Photographers

Adriana Teresa and Graham Letorney: Fotovisura

Top non-photo website/blog:

I read Die Zeit online, a weekly German newspaper with outstanding journalism.

El Teide, view #06, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work: I have been fascinated with how things can sometimes change dramatically when looked at from different perspectives. Probably because this is the normal way for me to look at things. I automatically try to take not only my very own point of view, but also look at any kind of subject matter from other people's points of view.

It was a challenge to come up with a project that could transform this abstract idea into a conceptual landscape series.

Grit, my partner, shot a making-of video, which gives a glimpse into the production of In the Orbit of El Teide.

We also plan to produce a video portrait of myself and my work in the upcoming months, where you will be able to hear more about the motivation behind my photography in general and the ideas behind the different projects. Check my website for updates.

I generally like to share my projects with other people. It is another great way of learning about my work.

Next project(s): I have already started to work on my next project, Christ in the Desert. More information on the project will be coming up soon.

Next up in our installment of Q&As with Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots is with Cristina De Middel. Her imaginative, muted-color series The Afronauts caught our attention with its part story-telling, part photojournalism approach to the failed Zambian space program of 1964.

Untitled from the series Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Living in: London

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography:
I have a degree in fine arts from the University of Valencia in Spain, with a concentration in drawing. But I also spent one year focusing in photography at the University of Oklahoma. I also spent a couple of years in Barcelona, attaining a master's in photojournalism. Despite this academic background, the truth is that I think all I'm using to work with the camera these days was learned during my years as a photojournalist, and I still feel that all my work is a reaction to that way of telling stories and that industry.

How you pay the bills:
I work as a freelancer for Spanish magazines in London and sell artwork through my webpage. I also get some income from lectures and workshops in Spain and from photo contests.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer:
"Don't make me lose time with stories I don't understand or stories that just interest you and your teenage fan club." Not real advice, but it worked for me.

Three artists who inspire you:
Duane Michals
Wong Kar-wai
Michel Gondry

But this is just to name a few of them. I normally VERY MUCH enjoy any story told with images, words, pictures or drawings. I'm a story addict.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
Any work from Marcel Broodthaers, and A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y.C., by Diane Arbus.

A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y.C., 1970 by Diane Arbus

Your favorite photobook(s):
I move a lot and got tired of moving heavy boxes full of books from one place to another, so it's been a while since I don't buy any. Still, this year's favorite is Redheaded Peckerwood, by Christian Patterson

What was the last great exhibition you attended? Any exhibitions you currently recommend?
Definitely the last (and by far the best) exhibition I've attended has been Taryn Simon at the Tate Modern in London.

Reading now:
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, by Amos Tutuola, a nigerian author that is opening my eyes to African magical traditions.

Top three photo-related websites/blogs:
Flak Photo
American Suburb X
Lightstalkers

But the first positions should be for the ton of newspapers I check during the day.

Top non-photo website/blog:
I have to say Wikipedia, Vimeo and YouTube. Sorry for not discovering anything here, but the internet is a very specific tool for me, and if I want to sail away I'd rather read or watch movies than explore the web.

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work:
The series Afronauts works for me as a solution given to an ethic or moral problem raised during my days as a photojournalist. I could never really feel comfortable telling stories (made in a couple of days in a foreign country most of the time) that the audience would consume as real just because they would appear in the media.

Untitled from the series Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

I started to compensate for this professional frustration a few years ago by building these stories, in which the issue would never be whether the story is real or false. It gives me a lot of freedom and I enjoy playing that true/false game with the audience. I started working on the basis of my opinion, which is a sin in the documentary field, and the priority became for me to build a story easy to understand by using the photojournalism language.

With this mixed approach it is easier for me to convey a message that, after all, hasn't changed much since I started as a photographer. The Afronauts talks about a crazy group of people, using beautiful and funny pictures, but it is based on the fact that nobody believes an African country will ever reach the moon. That is the hidden critique, and that is my message.

Next project(s):
I am working on two new projects this year: both together with other professionals. The first one is to build a very special travel guide for Spain, and I am working with a journalist who has a very similar sense of humor. This involves a lot of driving and research in the countryside, and that is something I love doing.

The second one is extremely secret and will start in April. I will be working with another photographer, Laia Abril, and due to the nature of the project we cannot disclose information before it has started.

Apart from that, I am now working on the design of the Afronauts book, and I am planning another trip to China.

On Friday, March 9th, the Second Edition 2011 Showcase kicked off at Jen Bekman Gallery, located at 6, Spring Street, New York.

Ahead of the opening reception, we introduced each Hot Shot via an interview. Get to know our Hot Shots: their backgrounds, inspirations and future endeavors. The first is Michael Cappabianca, whose work imaginatively interprets the physicality and structure of the book.

Of the series, Cappabianca wrote:

It takes no feat of the imagination to speculate on the role of the printed book in the future. I found it an important time to investigate the physicality of the boards and bindings of the insignificant as well as the culturally relevant. The arrangements reflect an organization, a mode of ordering within the structure of the interior space. How we think about the material world of books relates to the ways we read them. As we forge ahead into the virtual, how will our necessary conditions for understanding change with how we acquire information?

Photographe de Paris, 2009 by Michael Cappabianca

Living in: Cambridge, MA

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography:
I started taking photography classes in college. My first real love of looking at photographs came during my first history of photography early in college. After that, I became obsessed with digging in libraries and learning from photo books, just as much as from the photographers I was studying with in school. I graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a bachelor's degree. For the following years, I was always making work and building darkrooms in my apartment wherever I lived. My own photographic concerns were emerging as I was able to use the tools I learned and apply them to my own experiences. I ended up in graduate school at the California College of the Arts. It was an immense learning experience in the world of contemporary art. I was able to put my photography knowledge in perspective and see that the multidisciplinary approach to making art can still leave room for straight photography.

How you pay the bills: eBay

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: I once talked to Robert Adams and he was so warm and encouraging and ended up saying, "Just keep clicking away." I think that's what it comes down to: Just keep working. Work even when you feel like you have no idea what you're doing; just use your instincts, and who you are and what you're interested in will come about in the work.

Three artists who inspire you:
Lee Friedlander
Georges Braque
Gordon Matta-Clark

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

The film The Seventh Continent by Haneke. It's terrifying and beautiful.

Your favorite photobook(s):
The four volumes of The Work of Atget
Frank Gohlke's Measure of Emptiness
Lee Friedlander, Photographs

What was the last great exhibition you attended? Any exhibitions you currently recommend?
Anselm Kiefer's 2010 show Next year in Jerusalem at Gagosian blew me away.

I'd recommend seeing the late Jan Groover show Formalism is Everything at Janet Borden. Her work was such an inspiration.

Reading now:
The Flame Alphabet, by Ben Marcus

Top three photo-related websites/blogs:
DLK Collection
American Suburb X
The Photography Post

Top non-photo website/blog:
A piece of monologue, a blog about Beckett, modernist literature and philosophy

Golden Hands, 2011 by Michael Cappabianca

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work:
I was working at a bookstore at the time I made this work. We used this colonial era house as storage that used to be the store and living space until a new larger store was built next door. So this old house was still filled with books alongside the remains of a domestic life, as well. I knew I had to make work here. For me it had it all: books, the reference to the previous inhabitants and gorgeous light creeping into the closed-off chambers of an enormous old house.

Working in a bookstore everyday you are confronted with the dwindling sales and interest in printed books. As libraries eliminate whole collections and electronic books take over, I thought it was time to present what we had. These images are in fact not a direct defense of the printed book, but evidence of an interaction with them. I wanted to investigate the outward appearances of books. Some of these books are famous and highly prized treasures, and for others it became like photographing the preconditions of books in general, waiting to be filled with knowledge.

Next project(s):
I'm currently working within two completely different houses making interiors and images of objects found within them. Basically, one house is very old and one is relatively new. I'm moving from books on to other objects that describe the interior life. I'm working currently with objects that describe a certain idea of volume. It is similar to the way my photographs of books almost act as vessels that the viewer can fill with their own content.

After much careful deliberation, we're thrilled to announce the five winning photographers from the last round of competition in 2011. Please join us in heartily congratulating the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots:

Meike Nixdorf
Michael Cappabianca
Phil Jung
Cristina De Middel
Brendan George Ko

Each of the photographers has won a $500 honorarium, participation in a Hey, Hot Shot! group show at Jen Bekman Gallery (later this year) and are now in the running to win the Grand Prize:

+ A $10,000 honorarium
+ A solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery
+ Two years of gallery representation from Jen Bekman Gallery

We'd like to also congratulate five photographers who have been selected to win $200 in credits from Blurb, the self-publishing service, to put towards creating their own photo books.The Blurb-prize winners are:

Gregg Segal
Megan Carney
Dave Wyatt
Brianna Treleven
I-Hsuen Chen

Congratulations are also in order for the Honorable Mentions for having submitted exceptional work and raising the bar, making it challenging (but oh, so worth it) to select the last round of Hot Shots for 2011.

The Honorable Mentions are:

Eran Gilat
Daan Brand
Judith Stennekken
Paccarik Orue
Gregg Segal
Megan Carney
Dave Wyatt
Brianna Treleven
I-Hsuen Chen
Zhang Kechun

Many thanks to our panel of exceptionally talented professionals who dedicated their time, energy and critical eyes in helping our curatorial team select the final Hot Shots of 2011.

The next round of competition will be opening soon! Stay tuned to find out when you can submit your entry.

Special thanks to our friends at Blurb.

Barking Wall, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Aquarius, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Ablution, 2010 by Brendan George Ko

Tomb, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Doreen's Bible, 2010 by Brendan George Ko

Brendan George Ko

Website: http://www.brendangeorgeko.com

Bio:
Brendan George Ko has lived amongst the yuccas and coyotes of New Mexico. He's also surfed with the craziest sons of guns he ever met during his time in Texas. Brendan grew up on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario, and lived half his life moving throughout America, with endless road trips, and faces of so many, dear human beings. He sees every photograph he takes as a document; a document of a memory, a document of a person; a time and place, a feeling and a trace (of something that once was, something worth remembering). He is creating and recreating a history of all that he is, with words, and images, so that he can remember beyond his memory, for a record of being. Formally, Brendan went to school at The Ontario College of Art & Design, where he received his BFA in photography. Currently he shows with Angell Gallery, where his new work can been seen. Occasionally he also curates shows throughout the land, and does editorial here and there.

Statement:
I remember as a kid I used to cover my face with my hands and peek at the world through my fingers. I could see the world, but the world couldn't see me. Nowadays, I find myself assimilating with the hybrid, a creature I share a betwixt nature with, for we are both between two worlds, having multiple origins, and demand our own realm, such as a gothic castle, a tomb, or limbo to serve as a haven. I seek to create a peace with a conflict of belonging. The Barking Wall serves as a vault; a collection of visual memories that cross-pollinate with lived experience, and extended history (of past generations, oral tradition and cinema), and spawn new hybrid moments. Applied layer after layer, these confused memories let go of specific places and time, and drift like phantoms, roaming free through the fields of imagination, meeting the visitor half-way, and letting one create their own narrative.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Cristina De Middel

Website: http://www.lademiddel.com

Bio:
Cristina De Middel (Spain, 1975) is a freelance photographer based in London. De Middel's personal and professional work for newspapers and NGOs has been recognized by the National Photojournalism Prize Juan Cancelo (2009), Fnac Photographic Talent (2009) and the Humble Arts Women in Photography Project Grant (2011). She has an MA in fine arts from University of Valencia, Spain (2001), an MA in photography from University of Oklahoma (2000) and a postgraduate degree in photojournalism from Universitat Politécnica de Barcelona, Spain (2002).

Statement:
In 1964, still [living] the dream of their recently gained independence, Zambia started a space program that would put the first African on the moon, catching up to the USA and the Soviet Union in the space race. Only a few optimists supported the project by Edward Makuka, the school teacher in charge of presenting the ambitious program and getting its necessary funding. But the financial aid never came, as the United Nations declined their support, and one of the astronauts, a 16-year-old girl, got pregnant and had to quit. That is how an heroic initiative turned into an exotic episode of African history, surrounded by wars, violence, droughts and hunger. As a photojournalist, I have always been attracted to the eccentric lines of story-telling, avoiding the same old subjects told in the same old ways. Now, with my personal projects, I respect the basis of the truth, but allow myself to break the rules of veracity, trying to push the audience into analyzing the patterns of the stories we consume as real. Afronauts is based on the documentation of an impossible dream that only lives in the pictures. I started from a real fact that took place 50 years ago and rebuilt the documents, adapting them to my personal imagery.

Giant Print, 2008 by Phil Jung

Pile of Clothes, 2009 by Phil Jung

Visor Mirror, 2008 by Phil Jung

Sleeping Mask, 2010 by Phil Jung

588-Verbenas on the Desert, 2008 by Phil Jung

Phil Jung

Website: http://www.jungphil.com

Bio:
Born in New York, Phil Jung has lived and studied photography on both coasts. He is currently living in the Boston area and teaching photography classes to undergraduates at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), in Boston, and at Rockland Community College in New York. He is deeply committed to the field of photography and photographic education.

Statement:
I see this group of images as a contemporary look at our social landscape through the windshields, or windscreens, of parked cars. I am fascinated by how these unique personal spaces can be rendered in a photographic image. A car's interior defines the line between public and private space. While peering into these spaces, I wonder if the interior, often littered with personal articles, can describe the way language, religion, economy, government and other cultural phenomena play a role in the owner's life. The largest challenge of the project is taking something as iconic as the automobile and adding something new to a conversation that has been going on since its inception. The gasoline-powered vehicles that were introduced in 1896 represented freedom, hope, exploration and independence—quintessentially American ideals. By 1947, when the photographer Wright Morris made his image of an aging Model T, those early ideals had already begun to deteriorate. Like Morris's pictures, Windscreen is about a culture that is disappearing. When combing through neighborhoods for cars, I look first for the way light enters a car and renders color. If I find nothing inside its cabin that tells something about its owner, I move on. Above all, the car needs to be drivable or just recently taken off the road. If a car sits for too long uninhabited, it loses something. The composite of this space reflects who we are, where we come from and possibly where we are going.

Photographe de Paris, 2009 by Michael Cappabianca

The Forgotten Girl, 2010 by Michael Cappabianca

Golden Hands, 2011 by Michael Cappabianca

Athens, 2010 by Michael Cappabianca

The Limits of Interpretation, 2010 by Michael Cappabianca

Michael Cappabianca

Website: http://www.michaelcappabianca.com

Bio:
Michael Cappabianca lives and works in Cambridge, MA. He has exhibited nationally with solo shows in Los Angeles; Portland, OR; and Lebanon, NH. He was included in American Photography 26. He can usually be found in a bookstore somewhere in the Boston area.

Statement:
The Material is a series about the interaction with the physical world of books. It takes no feat of the imagination to speculate on the role of the printed book in the future. I found it an important time to investigate the physicality of the boards and bindings of the insignificant as well as the culturally relevant. The arrangements reflect an organization, a mode of ordering within the structure of the interior space. How we think about the material world of books relates to the ways we read them. As we forge ahead into the virtual, how will our necessary conditions for understanding change with how we acquire information?

El Teide, view #02, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

El Teide, view #01, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

El Teide, view #06, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

El Teide, view #03, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

El Teide, view #08, 2011 by Meike Nixdorf

Meike Nixdorf

Website: http://www.meikenixdorf.com

Bio:
Meike Nixdorf (born 1976 in Mainz, Germany) is a Berlin-based photographer and artist. She has a background in science, and she was educated in photography and video at the International Center of Photography during her three-year stay in New York (2005-2008). She is an award winning photographer whose work has been exhibited internationally. She was featured in a juried group exhibition at the Darmstadt Photography Festival, Germany, 2010; and she took part in the FotoFest Houston Reviews 2010, where her work was acquired for the Joaquim Paiva Collection, Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In early 2011, her work was on view at the International Center of Photography, New York, in a group exhibition curated by Amy Arbus, Moment of Recognition. Her work was also shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, as part of the exhibition Photographs — The Joaquim Paiva Collection, a selection of 69 international artists, including photographers like Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, Edward Ruscha, Grete Stern and Martin Chambi.

Statement:
In the Orbit of El Teide, 2010-2011, is a visual and psychological approach to the notion of the perspective. Since my 2009 project, The Point of View, I have been looking at various aspects of the viewing process and, consequently, decision making in photography, in terms of the perspective and, even more so, the framing. I've also been examining the consequences these processes have on the way we perceive specific places by showing them each in multiple, but very similar views. In the Orbit of El Teide now focuses on the question of what can be seen, or how much information can be gathered, from only one single point of view, versus the information, visual or abstract, one could gather by orbiting an object, question or focus point. In this way, two different points of views of the same subject matter could differ in their look or feel tremendously and might not even be recognized as the same subject matter anymore. Like pieces in a puzzle, every image from In the Orbit of El Teide holds different visual aspects of the same subject, in this case the mountain El Teide. But other than a piece in a puzzle, each image appears to strongly stand on its own. And it is only through looking at these images one-by-one that one realizes how much more information, visual aspects, perspectives or stories-to-be-told there are to just one single mountain—or to any subject matter, basically.