The Loon, 2011 by Chris Anthony

While there is an entire scientific study dedicated to dreams, the other kind of dreaming we do so much seems to be a bit worthless in comparison—there is not even a serious-sounding terminology for daydreams. Perhaps it's because daydreaming has always been deemed so non-productive, scientists don't even want to spend time thinking about it. However, there is a fundamental difference between daydreaming and just plain old spacing out, according to research by Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett, and daydreaming can be constructive for creative types. If that conclusion needs any more backing, these dreamy and dramatic images by Contender Chris Anthony are the best proof.

Regina Pelagus, 2011 by Chris Anthony

Anthony draws inspirations from his daydreams for the images he creates, using props and costumes that he makes by hand. To help create the surreal look and unique texture, Anthony mounts 150-year-old French lenses on his large-format camera. In the images, the dressed-up figures are all set against the backdrop of a lifeless sea, giving the series a very theatrical feel with a slight twist. He explains in his statement:

Drawing attention to the bizarre and the banal, the resulting images are portraits within landscapes on the border between documentary and fiction, imagining characters that, much like ourselves, are forever a mystery. Iconic fantasy figures in real landscapes are set in relief against a darker reality, one of absence and longing. The work addresses primal experiences, shaped by desires and fears—solitary paths towards imagined fulfillment. The work has evolved into a series of images involving fictional attributions, narratives, sculpture, mask-making and costumes. Replete with absurdity and hilarity, and doubling as a cautionary tale, [I serve] up color scenarios documenting the species [I see] everyday.

Piscator, 2011 by Chris Anthony

Chris Anthony was born in Stockholm, and was raised both in Sweden and the U.S. Having studied art history in Florence in his teens, he went on to work as a rock photographer, then later a music video and commercial director. His personal work has been exhibited around the world and has been featured in a number of publications, including Los Angeles Times, Photo District News, Eyemazing, ARTnews, American Photo, Paper, Nylon and more. Check out his site to see his other projects and an extensive body of commercial work.

Jen Bekman is featured in Kelly Kingman's recently released ebook, Going Pro: How To Make Money From Your Photography. Released by the Digital Photography School, the 91-page digital download provides step-by-step guidance, advice, insight and tips for becoming a professional photographer.

Jen—a writer, curator, gallerist and entrepreneur—is approached as a gallerist for one of the ebook's expert profiles, where she dispenses invaluable information for photographers looking to sell to collectors and to get gallery representation. Among her words of wisdom for would-be pros: Figuring out how to market yourself and build your audiences is a big part of being successful, whether you have a dealer or not; having a well-defined, well-edited body of work is a cornerstone of any fledgling career.

From choosing a business model that fits your working style, to marketing and selling your work, and from selling stock, to resources for protecting your work, Going Pro touts itself as the complete guide for photographers who want measurable success, as written by an established magazine photo editor. The recession, the digital age and the emergence of microstock have all been factors that have been consistently shaking up the photography world, forcing professionals to rethink the way they approach their craft and success. This ebook—part of a kit that includes two hours of audio interviews with photography professionals and a downloadable guide called Getting Published in Photography Magazines—aims to make the murky waters more navigable, and urges would-be pros, "If you've ever dreamed of making money from your passion, now's your chance to make it happen."

The ebook and kit are available for download here.
For a previous article Kingman wrote about Jen, click here.

untitled-2, by Nobuo Iida

It is most likely pure coincidence that while Contender Nobuo Iida was shooting these images in Tokyo in the fall of 2008, filming of the equally spetacular and Palme d'Or-winning The Tree of Life, from visionary writer/director Terrence Malick, began in rural Texas, as well. Already a masterpiece filmmaker and a pioneer in visual style (having inspired a young Ryan McGinley with his stunning 1978 picture Days of Heaven), Malick really pushed the boundaries of cinematic and visual art this time with The Tree of Life, which received widely different reactions at its premiere, drawing boos as well as applause. The film features long sequences of the birth of the universe, the beginning of cellular life, prehistoric Earth... Things that are more expected in a National Geographic documentary than in a major Hollywood picture about a Texan boy's life journey, featuring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

untitled-3, by Nobuo Iida

What is truly amazing about the film is that many of the scenes that seem likely to be CGI magic were actually done the old fashioned way. "We worked with chemicals, paint, fluorescent dyes, smoke, liquids, CO2, flares, spin dishes, fluid dynamics, lighting and high speed photography to see how effective they might be," said special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull about the film. "We did things like pour milk through a funnel into a narrow trough and shoot it with a high-speed camera and folded lens, lighting it carefully and using a frame rate that would give the right kind of flow characteristics to look cosmic, galactic, huge and epic," he adds. What, then, does all of this have to do with Iida's work?

Much like Malick's quest for the meaning of life through looking at the origin of our existence and knowledge, Iida employs lighting and photographic techniques to explore and question the universe as we know it, as he explains in his statement:

This body of work consists of [a] combination of enigmatic objects [paired] with lighting application. I took advantage of [the] use of light that makes figures stand out from the background and makes the subject speak to observers. The concept is a search for [the] universe in micro scale, and I attempted to create images based upon [the] 'genesis' of [the] universe and its expansion, or [the] emergence of the living sphere. [The] objects may not [reflect] anything on Earth. However, [the] images are somehow biomorphic... reminiscent of living organisms. I also attempt to emphasize figurations of non-figurative objects.

untitled-4, by Nobuo Iida

untitled-5, by Nobuo Iida

Iida was born in Tokyo, where he still resides. Upon attending Tokyo Polytechnic University, a school with deep photography roots, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in photographic technology. After working for a commercial studio for much of the 1980s, Iida became a freelance photographer and opened his own studio in 1990—the same time when he started working on fine art photography. He has had a number of solo exhibitions in Japan throughout the years. The latest one, Scent, was at Gallery DAZZLE in Tokyo last year.

Shuttling Shakers, 2011 by Christine Chin (click on image to enlarge)

Seems like each new product that hits the shelves is designed to be sleeker, more convenient and more intuitive. So Contender Christine Chin's series, Sentient Kitchen, amps up the engineering factor by melding complex biological processes, such as eyesight and taste, with the mundane kitchen items that we utilize regularly, creating a hybridized line of living kitchenware. Don't you wish that a consoling cup of tea could also really listen to your problems? Or that the parmesan cheese would pass itself to you and keep that fresh cheese scent? In Chin's surrealist, absurdist creations, these animated objects are catalogued and described, highlighting the artist's humor and design aesthetics.

In her artist statement, Chin explains:

Sentient Kitchen examines the convergence between technology and biology. As the machines that assist our lives become smarter and more architecturally complex, they borrow increasingly from the biological realm. Sentient Kitchen takes inspiration from some of nature's most ingenious engineering. What better way to dispense salt than through an organ that is highly developed to taste, and why not take advantage of the mammary gland's unique relationship to milk? While it is the nature of the human ego to cast suspicion on a challenge to human intellect, Sentient Kitchen products offer a non-threatening environment to explore the benefits of smarter, more sensitive solutions to our daily dining needs.

Perceptive Sugar Pot, 2011 by Christine Chin (click on image to enlarge)

Toothed Tongs, 2011 by Christine Chin (click on image to enlarge)

Christine Chin's work makes humorous and ironic commentary on contemporary issues of technology and the environment. Her recent projects have addressed artificial intelligence, genetically modified food and alternative energy. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally at numerous venues, including the New York Hall of Science, Art Basel Miami and Canon Communication Space in Beijing. In 2006-2007, she was granted a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue her project Alternative Alternative Energy in China, and she was the 2008 recipient of the Garry B. Fritz Imagemaker Award from the Society for Photographic Education. Christine Chin has a BA from Princeton University, an MA in Visual Art from Purdue University and an MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. She currently resides in Ithaca, New York.

Untitled from the series Somehow Familiar, 2007 by Michael ten Pas

Contender Michael ten Pas' sense of humor and subtle images not only earned him a Contender post last year, but also a 2010 HHS! semi-finalist nod and a book published by Blurb. This year, ten Pas is back with a different body of work&mdashSomehow Familiar, in which he takes a look at finding oneself in a familiar yet strange place called home.

Untitled from the series Somehow Familiar, 2007 by Michael ten Pas

Moving out of and away from home is a natural step in one's development. It could be as far away as half way around the world, or as near as just a couple of blocks down the street; the distance does not matter nearly as much as what the move symbolizes. Thus, going back to where your precious childhood was spent is always something so very special. It is then a bit of an awkward and sentimental moment when, years later, you suddenly realize you hardly recognize the old neighborhood that was so dear to your heart.

As someone who has strongly felt the emotions that the landscape and scenary changes have triggered, ten Pas explains his series in his statement:

I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. It is one of America's fastest growing regions. After I moved away from my hometown, I made these photographs during my trips back to visit friends and family. Most of them were taken within a 10-minute car ride from my childhood home. Because of the population growth, the old places I had remembered received new faces and the unoccupied space became filled with new things: strip malls, rows of houses, parks and other elements of the vernacular suburban landscape. The photographs are about the development and construction that took place in the time that I was away. They are about being home, but not recognizing home.

Untitled from the series Somehow Familiar, 2007 by Michael ten Pas

Michael ten Pas is a fine art photographer who utilizes a blend of playful and satirical humor to depict the modern vernacular landscape. He received a BFA from the University of Georgia and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Ten Pas currently lives in San Francisco, where he teaches a variety of photography classes at the Harvey Milk Photo Center. He has shown his work in exhibitions across the United States, and he updates his flickr account frequently with new photographs.

As you may have noticed on the site, the Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 competition deadline was extended. Photographers, you now have only three days left to submit your entries! The competition now closes Monday, June 27th, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. What's at stake for the winners? One Grand Prize winner will receive $10,000 + a solo show at, and gallery representation from, Jen Bekman Gallery.

Five Hot Shots will win $500 each and they'll be invited to participate in a group show at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Additionally, every single entry is reviewed for participation in 20x200, as well as being considered for Contender posts, which will continue to be featured on the site until the 2011 First Edition Hot Shots are announced. So many chances for exposure and support! And so little time! The countdown's on...

I'm Muslim Don't Panik, 2010 by Susan A. Barnett

Armed with a Leicaflex SL2 and 24mm f/2.8 lens, NYC-based Contender Susan A. Barnett searches the city for a particular object: t-shirts that say something, anything about the subject she's photographing. The series Not in Your Face isn't about the verbiage tees, or the brand/logo tees, however. Instead, Barnett aims to capture a different type of portrait, one that challenges the notion that portraits should show defining characteristics. In shooting only from the back, Barnett tests "whether body type, dress and demeanor can tell us just as much as a facial expression might." The resulting series captures a sense of American culture, individuality and personality, as seen through street photography.

Stop Violence Against Women, 2010 by Susan A. Barnett

In her artist statement, Barnett explains:

These photographs are not about the t-shirt, per se. They are about identity, validation and perception, but are the stories of people who tell their own stories. I look for individuals who stand out in a crowd by their choice of the message on their back. These messages are often combinations of pictures and words that are appropriated from contemporary culture, but have the effect of mixing up meanings and creating new meanings. On the streets, these personalities create their own iconography that explores the cultural, political and social issues that have an impact on our everyday lives. In these photographs we witness a chronicle of American subcultures and vernaculars [that] illustrate the American identity. These photographs demonstrate how these individuals wear a kind of badge of honor or trophy that says, "I belong to this group, not the other." Each one of these people reveal a part of themselves that advertises their hopes, ideals, likes, dislikes, political views and personal mantras.

Viva Avant Garde, 2010 by Susan A. Barnett

Not in Your Face has previously been featured in Lens Culture, Popular Photography, PDN and Lenscratch, and has won awards from Photo Review, IPA and the Photo World Annual Awards. The book Not in Your Face will be published in 2011 by the Silas Finch Foundation.

With a formal education in Art History and Studio Art, Barnett worked at Perls Galleries on Madison Avenue for 12 years as Associate Director, handling Picassos, Braques, Legers and Matisses, as well as preparing exhibitions and catalogues for Alexander Calder. The artist has exhibited at Soho Photo, Center for Fine Art Photography, Griffin Museum of Photography, Pacific Center NW and New York Photo Festival, among others.

Recogne (Belgium), 2010 by Mikel Bastida

For the past two years, Contender Mikel Bastida has been traveling across Europe photographing historical reenactments of World World II, while being a period-correct photographer himself. He has covered several war episodes performed by different groups of reenactors in both historical and fictitious scenarios, and has fittingly named this series of images War Theatre.

Skegness (England), 2010 by Mikel Bastida

Bastida's interest in these reenactments, however, lies beyond just the activities themselves or the associated historical events, as he explains in his statement:

This photographic series is a search for those fields that history has turned into literary landscapes. Scenarios [are] made out of different representations of WWII—from films to vintage photographs—which turn into huge sets where recreation and simulation leave exposed a collective imaginary [event]. The Photographic Naturalism, the definition of reality from behind the camera, does not allow fictitious characters but imaginary [ones]. Real figures [are] transformed into the main character of a false epic representation. Archetypes of a story [have] permeated our popular culture to the point of making reality interesting only when it is mystified by its representation.

Levisham (England), 2010 by Mikel Bastida

Bastida was born in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao in 1982. He first became interested in photography at the age of 19, while studying at the School of Film of Andoain. Throughout the years, he has taken part in a number of workshops, and in 2009 he received a scholarship to attend a workshop in Barcelona with Magnum photographer Carl de Keyzer. In 2010, he moved to China to work on a personal project, for which he was awarded the prestigious Roberto Villagraz scholarship, a breakthrough for his career. Bastida currently lives in Madrid, where he is studying for an MFA at EFTI School of Image and Arts.

Lahti (Finland), 2011 by Mikel Bastida

Nightless 01, 2011 by Yuji Hamada (click on image to enlarge)

When Contender Yuji Hamada submitted to us last time, his images overflowed with light. His Pulsar series of natural light was liked by many, including 2010 HHS! panelist and Esopus magazine editor in chief Tod Lippy, who selected Hamada as an Honorable Mention for his curator's choice award. It is perhaps a bit surprising, then, that Hamada went 180° this time around and gave us these dim and seemingly colorless images of artificial lights.

Nightless 02, 2011 by Yuji Hamada (click on image to enlarge)

Captured by a large-format camera, these images from Hamada's latest series, Nightless, appear to be black and white. Upon closer inspection, however, extremely subtle colors and details start to appear once the eye has adjusted to the dimness (click on the images to see a higher resolution version). This lack of clarity, according to Hamada, is purposeful: "In this project I photographed my surrounding artificial lights. I wanted to direct the eyes of the viewer inside, and not outside. I have made this possible by using something people cannot see clearly. By trying to define the line between what people can and cannot see, I walk the edge of reality and fantasy, the ordinary and the unordinary."

Nightless 03, 2011 by Yuji Hamada (click on image to enlarge)

The unique exposure and lighting give the works a surreal look, making these ordinary city landscapes appear to be mysterious, or even mythical. This is all part of Hamada's attempt to reveal truth in photography, as he further explains in his statement:

We Japanese have a sense of copying or catching the truth in taking photography. When I started to photograph, I really didn't grasp this sense. I kept taking photographs and concluded that photography is the media determined by the position where I stand now and by the idea that I am thinking now. Truth depends much on one's identity. Truth [flows]. It might be white. It could be black. But I think it should be gray tone. I am interested in the borders that are gray tone. Or, I should say, truth has all sorts of mixed and blended colors, like on a painter's pallet. Borders show me the [relationship between] reality and fantasy, between [the] usual and unusual.

Nightless 04, 2011 by Yuji Hamada (click on image to enlarge)

Born in Osaka, Japan, Hamada started to photograph seriously at the age of 18. He went on to graduate from the Department of Photography at the well-established Nihon University's College of Art, and has also studied under master photographers Eikoh Hosoe and Issei Suda. After a two-year stint in fashion photography at a Japanese publishing company, Hamada became a freelance photographer in 2006 and is now based in both London and Tokyo. He has shown his works in Japan, and was recently a finalist and a winner for the Tokyo Frontline Contemporary Photography Award and the Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward 2011 Emerging Photographer (U.K.), respectively.

Aging Wonder, 2010 by Jackson Patterson

Inspired by tales of his family's westward migration, Contender Jackson Patterson's black and white photomontages juxtapose the austere landscapes of the American West with personal photographs from family albums. The resulting images blend time and cultural space, and create a new narrative for the viewer. The photographer melds nature, family history and his artistic vision to create a series—aptly titled Recollected Memories—that encapsulates a personal duality: the old versus the new, the told versus the reinterpreted, the struggle versus the triumph.

Elevator Point, 2010 by Jackson Patterson

In his artist statement, Patterson explains:

Through photomontage I am exploring the stories of my family's migration through time and the cultural influence of our country's journey west. I am inspired by the adventures that were told to me and am recapitulating them in the relationship of images. Each blended piece possesses its own original story, in addition to the one the viewer takes away. In creating this project I have found that they are not only my family's stories, but are stories that exist throughout the West and beyond. They are stories of perseverance, pride, struggle, life and death. They are human stories intertwined in a majestic landscape.

Time Portraits - Dixie and Monument Valley, 2010 by Jackson Patterson

Rugby Quake, 2009 by Jackson Patterson

Jackson Patterson is an MFA recipient from the San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited works at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, the Pendleton Art Center and the Center for Fine Art Photography. He is represented by the Togonon Gallery in San Francisco and his work is in various private collections and in the Paul Sack Collection at the SFMOMA. When not shooting freelance, Patterson is an instructor at the Art Academy University, the San Francisco Photo Center and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Prop, 2009 by Brandon Juhasz

With the internet, the convenience of digital photography and the increasingly popular photo-sharing platforms, today we can pretty much just sit in front of a computer and literally see whatever image we want to see. It is mind blowing that, 30 years before its invention, Canadian philosopher and scholar Marshall McLuhan, whose work hugely influenced Contender Brandon Juhasz's series Mechanical Brides, predicted the internet and the way we would use it as a medium.

They Don't Suffer This Way, 2010 by Brandon Juhasz

In his statement, Juhasz explains:

Inspired by Marshall McLuhan and The Mechanical Bride's notion of psychological manipulation through images, my work uses images as objects. I set out to deconstruct, manipulate and use found photographs for exploration and discovery, in the hopes to better understand and represent the medium as a fluid, interchangeable and malleable format. Photography is a complex, powerful and influential system of data and symbols. The unbelievably vast world of photographs that are made by people for all types of reasons float in a relative world of shifting contexts. The sheer volume of pictures we encounter and create as a society help formulate our world view, often subconsciously developing our desires and standards of expectations. What we see is engrained and becomes knowledge and baggage that we carry with us.

For his work, Juhasz takes images from the internet, then constructs three-dimensional objects out of printed photographs that he then re-photographs. "Like re-hydrating a raisin to become a grape, these flat pictures are folded and glued to create a simulacrum of our reality. It satisfies visually because of what we have come to expect from a photograph. However, its parts are just symbols pulled from various sources and combined to make meaning," Juhasz says about his work.

When I Grow Up, 2010 by Brandon Juhasz

Brandon Juhasz is an artist living in Cleveland, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bowling Green State University. His work has been included in many regional juried and curated exhibitions, as well as featured on the photography blog Lenscratch. Keep up with Juhasz on his blog, Hello my name is ART.

Beer Can Totem, 2011 by David Welch

The totem pole has long had multiple purposes—to reflect cultural beliefs and storytelling, to portray artistic expression and even to publicly shame debtors. It's likely Contender David Welch was well aware of the layered reading of totem poles when he constructed and photographed a series of his own totems for his current project Material World. In the series, discarded products that are ubiquitous in mass consumerism are stacked tall and made the central focus of the images. The objects that once provided material comfort are now making apparent the excess and waste we often overlook.

Plastic Totem, 2010 by David Welch

In his artist statement, Welch explains:

Material World is my response to our contemporary consumer milieu. By treating these artifacts of consumer culture as Duchampian-inspired Assisted Readymades, I photograph assemblages—both created by my own hand or existing naturally—that form monuments, or totems, serving as precarious externalizations of culture and social biography. The photographs of the totems then serve as symbolic mirrors that serve as points of reflection for my own contemplative gaze and that of society's. The photographs speak of accumulation and materiality and aim to encourage debate about consumption and the ways in which we feel compelled to consume.

Shopping Totem, 2010 by David Welch

Originally an economist, David Welch is a fine art photographer based on the island of Martha's Vineyard. His interests are in large-format photography, art history, theory and the fabricated image. He recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was awarded his MFA in photography. For more images from the series, including totems made of toilet paper, televisions, satellites and cars, head to the artist's site.

Sarah & Arnold, 2006 by Michael Bodiam

Since announcing Michael Bodiam as a 2010 Hot Shot, his work has been included in a group exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery and he has released two editions on 20x200 from his winning series Dickins & Jones. Last time we caught up with the talented photographer, we learned a little about what inspires him and his photography background. With the competition closing in just five (!) days, Hey, Hot Shot! reached out to Bodiam to learn more about his winning series and what he's been up to since, as well as to get some words of advice for prospective Hot Shots.

Congrats again on being a 2010 Hot Shot! I'd love to know more about your winning submission, Dickins & Jones, and the origin of that series. What inspired it? Do you still occasionally shoot for that series?
The main inspiration behind the Dickins & Jones project was a solitary view through one of the only doors that wasn't boarded up in the store. I was sufficiently intrigued and inspired by what I could see inside to warrant nearly a month of phone calls and emails trying to gain access to the building. Eventually, the powers that be buckled, and they just gave me access to the building whenever I wanted. I had free access to seven floors of what looked like a vision of a post-apocalyptic department store.

Throughout the time I was shooting the project, the building was in a constant state of flux. Now it has been fully converted into several new shops, so the project can no longer be added to even if I wanted to: I don't have any interest in the space as it is now. The project was a focus on a space in transition, and for the time being it has a new fixed appearance. Give it 20 years, though, and I might just end up back there again.

Could you tell us a little about what you've been working on since then?
I've worked on many projects since this one, as I shot this in 2004, but last year I had a brief stint shooting for a project called Residential & Industrial Landscapes from East London. I accumulated the locations over the period of a year or so and then spent a couple of days at the end of last summer shooting them back-to-back. I'm now searching out more locations and will shoot them when the summer ends and the classic milky grey skies of England return.

I also spent six weeks in Chile and Argentina at the end of last year, so I have a mass of material to work on from that. I'm looking to produce a book eventually, but it's going to take a while to edit it down.

Do you approach your projects differently, from Anonymous Places to Dickins & Jones, and from Hangars to East London? In your opinion, is there an overarching viewpoint/theme present throughout?
Whatever I am photographing, I approach the subject matter with the same eye. Although the themes of what the image is about can vary, the viewpoint is a crucial factor for me that ties all the images together. Over time, I want to create a body of work that sits together comfortably, whether it has been shot during night or day, inside or outside, large-scale or small.

Any advice for prospective Hot Shots?
Be honest with yourself, be brutal with your edits and don't try to second-guess what judges might want to see—it will only dilute what you are about.

What do you shoot with?
Mamiya 7ii / Wista 5x4 Field Camera / Canon 5Dii & a Hasselblad 503CXi with a P45+ Phase One digital back.

What are you currently reading?
Words: Dispatches by Michael Herr

Pictures: Andreas Gursky: Works 80-08

Any other news you'd like to share with us?
I'm currently at the very early stages of putting together a group exhibition—I'm thinking it will be for one night only, but with a printed publication as a more permanent reminder of what it was. Watch this space.

Woman with Umbrella, 2010 by Ximena Etchart

Minimalism is, perhaps, one of the most influential and defining "isms" of our lifetime. So rarely has a visual art and design movement become so embedded in daily lives. From the museum artworks on the wall to the museums that house these works, and from computers designed out of Northern California to trendy household goods from Japan, there is no escaping minimalism—a sentiment that comes to mind when viewing Contender Ximena Etchart's submission.

Group, 2010 by Ximena Etchart

Whether intentional or not, Etchart did not submit a statement to us. The resulting mystery, however, falls in line nicely with this series, titled Storms. Each image has been reduced down to the barest, most fundamental elements and features. All that is presented to the viewer is a sandy ground, barely visible blue skies and figures that are disappearing into what seems like a sand storm. There is no identifiable landscape features, and almost no sense of direction or distance. Without a statement, it's impossible to make out where these images were taken and where the people are going. And yet, the lack of such crucial details creates a visual tension that draws the viewer into the subtle colors and dusty air of each image.

Two, 2010 by Ximena Etchart

Etchart is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she started her photography studies almost 10 years ago. After a brief stint at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion in England, she is now back in her hometown, studying at the Association of Graphic Reporters of Argentina, while working and developing a career in photojournalism, documentary and fashion photography.

Untitled #6, Antietam by Sally Mann

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to present Dawn Till Dusk, a group exhibition featuring photographs, paintings and works on paper by 26 artists. Please join us TONIGHT, Thursday, June 16th, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at an opening reception for the artists at the Jen Bekman Gallery. The exhibition is on view through July 30th.

Also, be aware that Thursday night is L.E.S. Third Thursday, meaning that galleries in the area will be open until 9 p.m.! Live and surround yourself with art in the Lower East Side starting with the reception at JBG. For an interactive map of participating galleries, click here.

Progressing throughout the course of a day, the exhibition explores our impressions of time, and features work by: Darren Almond, John Arsenault, Rachel Barrett, Robert Bechtle, John Button, Christian Chaize, Jorge Colombo, Amy Eckert, Candace Gaudiani, Derek Henderson, Todd Hido, Peter Allen Hoffmann, Jeremy Kohm, Michael Light, Michael Lundgren, Sally Mann, Klea McKenna, Sarah McKenzie, Stas Orlovski, Youngna Park, Ed Ruscha, Bryan Schutmaat, Mike Sinclair, Alec Soth, Esther Pearl Watson and Letha Wilson.

 Read more about the exhibition here.

Leap, 2011 by Barbara Parmet

We know what you are thinking. But, no, really, that is not an Animal Locomotion image by Eadweard Muybridge. That is, in fact, an image made this very year by Contender Barbara Parmet. The word "photography" derives from the Greek words phōs, "light", and gráphein, "representation by means of lines." Together they mean "drawing with light," a romantic thought that eventually came true in the early 19th century. Although Parmet's images appear to have that vintage, daguerreotype-like quality to it, she actually utilizes digital photography and a relatively new printmaking process called "solarplate etching."

Meeting on The Shore, 2011 by Barbara Parmet

World-renowned artists Jerry Spagnoli and Chuck Close revitalized and reintroduced the daguerreotype for its unique image quality and process. Parmet finds the same inspiration and satisfaction in solarplate etching. For each image, she starts with casting, then goes through every role there is, from costume design to set design, from photographing to printmaking. She explains her passion in the statement for her The Measure of All Things project:

Ten years as a photojournalist trained me to get the "gestalt" of a situation immediately. My interests in archetypal symbols and gestures led me further to explore image making as a way to get at meanings deeper than the daily news. And after many years working in the darkroom with silver and platinum prints, I realized how much I still like the process of printmaking. Presently, I am working with solarplate etchings that allow me to combine all my interests into a form that weaves human, animal and plant worlds together into photographic illusions. I build the sets, sew the costumes and cast the simple roles to make these lucid dreams appear real. These personas take on a life of their own and suggest further adventures for new images. And finally, I love inking the engraved plates and putting them through the printing press, which satisfies a deep need to make things by hand.

Roundup, 2011 by Barbara Parmet

For 10 years, Parmet worked as a photojournalist shooting for publications like the Baltimore Sun, the LA Times, the Arkansas Democrat and the Santa Barbara News and Review. Since then, she has exhibited her experimental photography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the SB Contemporary Arts Forum, Benham Gallery, Houston Center for Photography, San Francisco Cameraworks and Paris' Galerie Panique. The artist is represented by Wall Space Gallery.

Untitled 3, from the series A Thousand Little Suns, 2011 by Martina Lindqvist

Having grown up in a big city, I rarely experienced the majesty and serenity of forests. Perhaps because of this, I do have an understanding, a respect (one might even call it a healthy fear) for sylvan expanses and what they come to symbolize: the all-surrounding, disorienting unknown. To a child who might've grown up gazing out of country windows, forests (particularly at night) must've seemed like foreboding, mysterious places full of wonders and perils. In Contender Martina Lindqvist's series A Thousand Little Suns, the photographer revisits childhood locations in Ostrobothnia, Finland, to capture the inherent psychological tension forests represent, or "the emotive effects of landscapes and forested [wilderness]." Lindqvist presents landscapes lush with earth hues only to contrast it with the ominous, enveloping black sky. The images convey an almost palpable atmosphere; even the ground resembles fur and hide.

Untitled 4, from the series A Thousand Little Suns, 2011 by Martina Lindqvist

In her artist statement, Lindqvist explains:

Marcault and Thérèse Brosse once wrote that, "forests, especially, with the mystery of their space prolonged indefinitely beyond the veil of tree-trunks and leaves, space that is veiled for our eyes... are veritable psychological transcendents." Forests, in spite of being the most natural of spaces, are truly unnatural for the cultured human being. If we don't know where we are going, we no longer know where we are, and standing on the brink of a forest always represents this possibility of going deeper and deeper into the unknown.

Untitled 5, from the series A Thousand Little Suns, 2011 by Martina Lindqvist

One might assume that a town on the western banks of Finland, in the autumn and winter months, would be "shrouded by an impenetrable darkness," as Lindqvist suggests. Instead, the images in this series are eerily lit "by a thousand glowing lights," hence the series title. With the lights, and their shadow, the photographer creates a sense of borders around the visible, the recognizable, and that which is threatening, inaccessible yet a mere distance away. "The concept of the border, Lindqvist adds, is a reflection of the experience of an inherited yet closed off culture that was always seen through the eyes of a visitor."

Untitled 6, from the series A Thousand Little Suns, 2011 by Martina Lindqvist

Martina Lindqvist is a Swedish/Finnish photographic artist based in London. A University of Westminster graduate (with honors), her work has been shortlisted for the IPG/Terry O'Neill Award and DLA Piper Art Award, and it was selected as one of the winning entries of the Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward Emerging Photographers 2010 award. She has exhibited extensively in the U.K. at the Photographers Gallery and the Jerwood Space in London, and has also exhibited in India, Switzerland, Germany and Wales. Her work has been published in Portfolio magazine, HotShoe, British Journal of Photography, Creative Review, London Evening Standard, the Spectator, The Times, and was recently featured in Zoom Magazine's special issue on emerging international photographers.

Untitled #6, Antietam by Sally Mann

+ DawnTill Dusk opens at Jen Bekman Gallery this Thursday, June 16th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., and features work by Todd Hido, Sally Mann, Ed Ruscha, Alec Soth, Youngna Park (Spring 2005 Hot Shot), Mike Sinclair (2009 Ultra), Derek Henderson (First Edition 2008 Hot Shot), and 20x200 edition-makers Christian Chaize, Michael Light, Michael Lundgren and Bryan Schutmaat. On view through July 30th, the works progress throughout the course of a day to explore our impressions of time.

+ Aperture's got some stellar events lined up this week, including a panel discussion on the photo album with Verna Curtis, Duane Michals and Denise Wolff, to be held tomorrow, June 14th. On Wednesday, June 15th, Penelope Umbrico will be speaking about and signing her new book Penelope Umbrico (photographs). Don't miss the ongoing exhibition Sleeping Soldier and Diary, video installations by photojournalist Tim Hetherington, which closes Thursday, June 23rd. And for those of you in or around Arkansas, Chuck Close: A Couple of Ways of Doing Something will also be on view through June 26th in Little Rock.

+ Spring 2005 Hot Shot Matthew Tischler was among the first Hot Shots to be selected when the competition opened. Since then, his photographs have been included in exhibitions juried by Jennifer Blessing and Robert Rosenblum of the Guggenheim Museum, and his 20x200 editions have been enormously popular. Now, the latest issue of online magazine Vhcle features an interview with the talented artist.

+ The LIFE.com 2011 Photo Blog Awards were recently announced. Among the top 20 photo blogs were sites by frequent HHS! blog fodder and friends of JBP, including Andrew Hetherington's What's the Jackanory?, New York Times' LENS, Photojojo's Tumblr and Laura Brunow Miner's Pictory Blog. Congratulations to the winners!

+ HHS! 2011 Contender Andres Gonzalez was just profiled in SeeSaw, an online photography magazine.

Untitled , 2010 by Thomas Forbes

Photographers tend to travel a lot. If you are not someone who shoots exclusively in a studio, chances are being a photographer means the whole world is your studio. We are past the halfway mark now in the competition, and browsing through the submissions we have received so far already feels like a couple of journeys around the world. Photographers go on trips for all kinds of reasons, be it for an assignment, a personal project or just to explore. In Contender Thomas Forbes' case, his series Because You Went We Left, which consists of photographs taken on a year-long trip, was initiated by the death of his mother.

Untitled, by Thomas Forbes

On the 18th of April 2008, my life was irreversibly changed by the sudden death of my mother. The two years that followed were very difficult for me and my family, trying to find a way in a life that no longer featured someone so very important. During this time it occurred to me that if death and illness can ruin everything so swiftly and efficiently, it's far better to do the things you want to do now, rather than give disaster the time and opportunity to fuck things up. We gave ourselves a year, wrote a list of countries, packed our bags and left. Because You Went We Left is [the] series of images made on that year away.

Untitled, 2010 by Thomas Forbes

Untitled, 2010 by Thomas Forbes

Most of us have experienced wanderlust, and all travelers dream of the freedom of being able to go anywhere, anytime they want to go. Besides their photographic value, the images of Forbes' Because You Went We Left are also a great inspiration to those of us who constantly have the urge to see and experience a different corner of the world. If you have been thinking about that trip to Iceland (or Argentina, or India), rather than just thinking about it, maybe now is the time to grab your camera and get on a flight, as the "right" time and opportunity may never come.

Untitled, by Thomas Forbes

Even the greatest journey still comes to an end, but with the help of photography, we could not only look back, literally, at where we have been, but also preserve and share the moments and sentiments we have had along the way that lie beyond the power of words. The end of Forbes' travel is only the start of our visual journey. He concludes his trip with these words:

I am home now and no longer wake up in a new place each day with nothing to do but wander about taking pictures. Bugger. Real life has taken me back and spending so much of my time on photography is now impossible. I look back at these images and realise that maybe I'll never have an opportunity like that again, to focus so completely on something I love, for such a long time. Sad but true, but things have to move on.

Untitled, 2010 by Thomas Forbes

Forbes is a self-taught photographer and television producer based in the U.K. He studied History of Art and English Literature at university, and has worked for TV companies such as MTV and the BBC.

Untitled, 2011 by Cathrin Schulz

By breaking temperature records and forcing schools to close early, Summer has made it clear to us that it is here and in full swing. It is 94°F here in NYC today, with 50% humidity and a "feels like" reading of 101°F. On this scorcher of a day, it is only appropriate that we bring you this set of cool images from Contender Cathrin Schulz.

Untitled, 2011 by Cathrin Schulz

Cool, in its literal meaning, is almost an understatement. The crisp images from Schulz's POOLSIDE series appear to be cold in both aesthetics and method, with little trace of emotions or imperfections. Schulz places the aesthetic qualities of her subject matter in the foreground, and it is best explained in her bio:

Through the formal reduction and accentuation of particular colors in her photographs, [and by] using a reduced visual language, careful choice of motifs and precise cropping of the image, Cathrin Schulz condenses singular moments in their own authenticity. The clarity is intensified further through digital manipulation. By heightening contrasts, colors and saturations, she allows individual details and structures that would otherwise escape our attention to emerge in palpable relief.

Untitled, 2011 by Cathrin Schulz (click on image to enlarge)

The cinematic series is actually part of a long-term project called AUTHENTI(C)ITY of AMERICA, in which the Germany-born, Atlanta-based Schulz documents her vision of America:

Immersing myself in the urban scenery of the United States, I perceive its authenticity and diverseness and embrace it in soul places. With POOLSIDE, I sense a piece of Atlanta's soul, discovering a part of its culture. With my images I underscore a graphic and aesthetic perfection of my motives and its tranquility, without ever staging a setting. Approaching my subjects with a cool objectivity, lack of distortion and emptiness of human presence, my works convey a timelessness, creating a blank screen onto which one can project one's own memories and emotions.

Untitled, 2011 by Cathrin Schulz (click on image to enlarge)

Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, Schulz is a mother of three children and now resides in Atlanta, GA. With an academic background in economics, she started doing photographic work in the late '90s and has exhibited in Europe. Schulz also has a conceptual work portfolio on her website.

Grand Haven Pier, MI, United States (2002-2011) by Jay Van Dam

Memories are a funny thing. You never quite know what will trigger a flood of them rushing through your mind—a gleaming ray of light that catches your eye, a sudden scent that surrounds you, the feel of the air at a certain temperature and density on your skin, tunes that pour out of a car that sits still at an intersection... Often times they are small instances, but are just enough to raise the corners of your mouth or make your eyes water. Sadly, these crucial elements of memory are also seemingly impossible to replicate. Sometimes the harder you try to relive a moment, the further away you end up being from it. Contender Jay Van Dam's in memory of series deals exactly with that—memory, and the re-creation of it.

Hardy Dam, Newaygo, MI, United States (1998-2011) by Jay Van Dam

Whether intentional or not, a photograph captures a unique point in time. By capturing a moment, one also inevitably captures the memory associated with it, and vice versa. With a large-format camera and hand-built mini sets, Van Dam has managed to re-create and photograph past moments in his life, removing reality from the images as much as possible, making them almost timeless in the most literal sense. What remains is memory without "the moment," feelings and emotions in their purest visual form. Van Dam writes in his statement:

These images are manifestations of memory. Each is a testament to an impression of what once was, with the understanding that each individual recollection of a time and place will never be able to be re-presented in its entirety. Mediation is what prevails upon crafting these images, presenting both truth and fantasy to be one and the same.

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (2007-2011) by Jay Van Dam

A recent graduate with a BFA in photography from the Ringling College of Art and Design, Van Dam has been greatly influenced by his photographer father. He has interned at different studios in New York City since last summer, including with the famed photographer Ryan McGinley. Keep up with Van Dam's latest projects on his blog, where he posts updates and behind-the-scenes photos.

Bitter Melon, 2011 by Joyce P. Lopez

As a nation, America has been paying more attention to all things food-related, from its production and eating local, to genetic modification and current bacterial concerns. Contender Joyce P. Lopez investigates the "architectural" and textural forms of fruits and vegetables in this series of "deconstructed still lifes" titled Edible Botanicals. Lopez not only captures the vibrant, verdant coloring and structural details, but she also creates imagery that serves to highlight the symmetry and order inherent in multiple carbon-based biological systems—from a parasite to vital life organs, Lopez's photographed edibles are reminiscent of more than just vegetables.

In her artist statement, Lopez writes:

Some botanicals are awkward; some beautiful, with delicate lines or sweeping forms. Others are amazing, with wartlike skin and amazing seed life in their interior. With a lifelong curiosity that often takes me down a biological path, I use photography as my microscope to enlarge and see what is often not seen or noticed, discovering their architecture, form and texture, both inside and out.

Tomatillos 1, 2011 by Joyce P. Lopez

When HHS! writer Kika first wrote about Lopez's photographs during the 2010 competition, she keenly understood Lopez's inclination to "lending a scientific and anthropological element" to her images. Lopez marries this technique with strong viewpoints to create works that speak to larger concerns than her "microscopic" explorations would indicate upon first glance. With her previous submission, the artist's intent was to focus on climate change and its effect on migratory birds.

Fiddlehead Fern, 2011 by Joyce P. Lopez

Like The Trouble With Birds, Lopez also imbues Edible Botanicals with a heavy-hitting message:

The issues of food, depending on locales in the world, custom, availability and cost, is something that is of great interest at the moment. With rising food costs everywhere, increasing water shortages and draughts, this has resulted in starving environmental refugees. We need to look at availability of food in relationship to soil, water, climate change, distribution and how it threatens or could threaten populations everywhere, even in the U.S.

Christmas Lima Beans, 2011 by Joyce P. Lopez

If we are indeed what we eat, it would behoove us to, much like Lopez does, examine and explore with a closer eye that which we consume.

Century City 2011 by Zander Price

The dramatic angles and domineering force of the buildings in Contender Zander Price's cityscapes could be colored by the fact that he is originally from Burlington, Vermont—a small city perched among the pristine Green Mountains, known for its laid-back demeanor and dog-friendly workplaces. (OK, so perhaps MY interpretation of his work is colored by my having attended school just one hour south in Middlebury.) In his images, the stark skyscrapers that emerge from flat expanses of cement planes could not be more different from the rolling green hills and pastures of tiny Vermont.

Stuy Town 2010 by Zander Price

After moving to New York from Vermont 10 years ago, Price spent nine of those years working on Wall St., having taken his lead from his business exec father. But these days, Price chooses to "devote all his time to the arts, mainly photography." Both Price's change in locale and his change in career seem to account for the overwhelming (intimidating?) presence of urban infrastructure in his series of photographs devoted to place.

In Century City 2011, vertical, industrial shapes mirror the two men that stand among them on a rectangular cement slab in a small courtyard. The small strip of grass surrounding them hints more at the absence of any natural element from this scene than at the inclusion of any living, breathing organism. Instead, metal, steel and glass reign in this finance-driven climate. To the right of the photo, a rather pathetic line of trees stands dwarfed by the larger, sturdier metal pillars on the left; the two men remain the smallest forms within the image.

More cityscapes and other (more tranquil) "places" can be found on Price's portfolio site.

+ If you happen to be in NYC tonight, don't miss "One Thousand Pictures," a free panel discussion at Aperture about the HBO documentary of the same name, which tells the story of Magnum photographer Paul Fusco's RFK Funeral Train series. The documentary producer, Jennifer Stoddart, will be part of the panel, as will Paul Fusco and gallerist James Danziger. Aperture publisher and HHS! panelist Lesley A. Martin previously worked with Fusco to release Paul Fusco: RFK, which features over 70 never-before-seen images from that fateful day and will be available for purchase at the event. Fusco has also teamed up with 20x200 to release a pair of prints from the series to benefit the Magnum Foundation. Make sure you're signed up for 20x200's newsletter to get first dibs on this piece of history. Prints start at $100/pair and will go quickly!

+ HHS! 2010 Contender-turned-20x200-edition-maker Thomas Prior is part of a group show at Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon. The show, titled Only Photographs, presents paired images from 14 environment-based photographers throughout the U.S. and Europe. Curated by too much chocolate's Jake Stangel, the group exhibit runs through June 26th.

+ Two-time HHS! winner Joseph O. Holmes has been increasingly busy since his wins: he has 17 editions on 20x200 and was recently named one of Critical Mass/Photolucida's Top 50. Read about what he's been up to lately in this latest interview.

Cloud, 2011 by Laura Monfredini

San Francisco photographer and Contender Laura Monfredini started shooting as a little kid with a Kodak Instamatic. These days, she relies on her digital Nikon d700, but the images she produces still harken back to the days of the inexpensive, "instant" photograph.

With popular instant cameras and film (i.e., Polaroid) nearly having gone extinct, fans of instant photography are more likely to be seen snapping photos on their iPhone, using apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic. And thanks to modern technology, through these hi-tech apps we can still apply those vintage Polaroid and Holga effects produced by the regular old film cameras of yore.

Little Boxes, 2011 by Laura Monfredini

Monfredini's images have the nostalgic, washed-out and overexposed appearance of an old (or "new") Polaroid image—the colors are slightly less-than-real; light leaks and vignetting grace the photos' edges.

Walk, 2011 by Laura Monfredini

What could easily come across as trite or a little too Urban Outfitters-esque, Monfredini presents as nostalgic—a tribute to her childhood, as well as to the city that she "lives in and loves."

Crows, 2009 by Tamas Dezso

Photography has long been used to document social and political changes and movements. Today, when we reflect on such historical events, especially those of the past century, they are often memorized and summarized by one or a series of iconic photographs: Alfred Eisenstaedt's V-J Day in Times Square, Paul Fusco's RFK Train series, Jeff Widener's "Tank Man" photograph, to name but a few. One region of the world that once attracted a lot of documentary photographers for political reasons, and has since gone through a significant transformation, is Eastern Europe—Contender Tamas Dezso's choice of subject.

Night Watchman, 2009 by Tamas Dezso

Ruin, 2011 by Tamas Dezso

Eastern Europe was a term that, up until 20 years ago, not only defined a geographic region and a political standpoint, but also, and more importantly, a way of life. Today, while still in use, this term likely conjures a distant, if not irrelevant, tumultuous time period. However, there is no denying the influence and impact of that era, as evident in images from Here, Anywhere. "The map of Hungary is speckled with capsules of time. During the political transformation 20 years ago, as the country experienced change, it simply forgot about certain places—streets, blocks of flats, vacant sites and whole districts became self-defined enclosures, where today a certain outdated, awkward, longed-to-be-forgotten Eastern Europeanness still lingers," states Dezso on his series, which focuses on the landscape changes in Hungary.

Most countries (if not every) have these corners, streets or sites that are symbolic of a certain era and seem just a bit out of place and time today. They seem to belong to a distant past rather than the present. Yet, they exist, as if to remind us of how far we have come. Dezso explains:

I do not observe these mini-universes in the hope of recording entirety, but rather aim to capture the essence of these worlds by elevating certain arbitrarily chosen details into embodiments of a disappearing existence. The series, begun in 2009, examines the typically transitional period and symbolic locations of post-communist spaces that, due to disinterest or thoughtlessness, are slowly vanishing, fading into images... their inimitable existence may cease to be present by tomorrow. But for the time being, they are still around. Here. Here, anywhere.

Johanna, 2009 by Tamas Dezso

A Hungary native, Dezso is a documentary fine art photographer working on long-term projects focusing on the margins of society in Hungary, Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe. His photographs have been published in the New York Times, National Geographic, GEO magazine, TIME, Le Monde magazine and many others. His work has received a number of awards, including from organizations and institutions like World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, NPPA's Best Of Photojournalism and PDN. Dezso's latest accomplishment is winning the 2011 Center Awards project competition.

Betta No.2, 2010 by Huy Lam

The Betta splendens—aka betta, Siamese fighting fish, rumble fish—are a favored pet for many people. They're relatively low-key and can live anywhere from 2 to 9 years. That is, assuming you keep the males (which, like the peacock, have ostentatious, bright colors) apart from one another, and provide the right care, they should live a long time. In Contender Huy Lam's submissions, however, the photographer wanted to capture the immediate tension that arises when two males interact. The display is an innate reaction; often, lone males will flare their richly hued fins at their own reflection. The tenacious, territorial behavior precedes a violent duel to the death for one, if not both, of the betta—it's very fitting that Betta splendens means "beautiful warrior."

Betta No.4, 2010 by Huy Lam

In Lam's submission, the crowntailed beauties' iridescent fins, when photographed against the stark white and black backgrounds, resemble something more akin to exotic flora with silken petals, or lush, billowing organza fabric. Pinks, blues, purples, reds and oranges swirl and sway with the bettas' movements, while confrontation looms. Their beautiful display only serves to draw attention to a moment taut with aggression and danger.

In his artist statement, Lam explains, "I discovered that the only way to get a 'reaction' from them was to let them see each other. They are called 'fighting fish' after all, and it was through this observation that I witnessed their dance like movements."

Betta No.5, 2010 by Huy Lam

The Vietnam-born, Toronto-based photographer specializes in commercial and advertising photography, with a focus on people and their environment, and counts American Express, Mercedes-Benz and Motorola among his clients. And, despite the colorful showdown, Lam points out that, "No bettas were ever harmed, because they were never in the same bowl."

Captive_01 , 2009 by Gaston Lacombe

Ever stare at a rock chuck and think, "I wonder what is going on in that little head?" Yes? Us too! There are a lot of animal lovers here at the HHS! office, so the series Captive, by Contender Gaston Lacombe, could not have escaped our eyes.

Captive_02 , 2009 by Gaston Lacombe

At first glance, what captures the viewer's imagination is that every animal in the images seems to be having a moment of its own, and it's the kind of moment that us humans can understand, or even relate to. The posture, the attitude and the look in their eyes captured by Lacombe are all suggestive of an isolated state of mind that is very fitting to the backdrop. As Lacombe explains in his statement, the unnatural living environments is exactly what he is trying to address with these images:

In zoos all around the world, visitors go to admire some of the most beautiful, rare or fierce creatures on Earth, but often fail to notice the deplorable habitats in which they are kept. I have been gathering pictures from zoos in North America and Asia for the last two years. I like most zoos—I really do. Some zoos need to be congratulated for making great efforts at conserving endangered species, providing shelter to animals who could not otherwise survive and educating the public on ecological issues. However, even in the best zoos, there are always some animals that are stuck in cement enclosures too small for their needs, or in rooms where the only vegetation they see are the plants painted on the wall... The animals live in cages where they cannot even sit up, [where they] walk in a thick layer of their own feces or have no access to daylight or clean water. At these moments, I feel guilty for supporting a system that treats animals cruelly, and at these moments, I take pictures.

Captive_03 , 2010 by Gaston Lacombe

Lacombe hails from Canada but is based in Washington, D.C. He has a PhD in history, and he has worked in a wide array of professions, from teacher to diplomat and journalist. He has been working as a professional photographer after receiving his diploma in professional photography from the Center for the Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, Washington, D.C., campus in January 2010. Since then, he has published a number of articles in publications such as the Washington Post, Toronto Star and Islands magazine. He was also a finalist in PDN's World in Focus competition and had his work published in the PDN magazine. His photo of monks in Bhutan just became National Geographic's Photo of the Day yesterday.

The Gannons, by Kristin Skees

Relationships, Contender Kristin Skees opines in her Cozy Portraits series, "can often walk the fine line between loving and smothering." To visually represent this idea, Skees creates custom cozies for her subjects—covering all traces of identifiable characteristics—and photographs them in their everyday settings, capturing "the claustrophobia of relationships." Simply named after the friends or family members in her series, each portrait pairs the subjects with their all-too-consuming milieu: for Mom and Dad, it's the time spent on the road in their aluminum RV; for Julie, it's her antiquated, midcentury vibrating belt machine, an allusion to the subject's relationship with her physical fitness regimen.

Julie, by Kristin Skees

The cozied, with the exception of Bill the Librarian, aren't in enclosed spaces. It's clear the claustrophobia, then, is represented solely by the closeness of the fabric to the skin, and by its restrictive, almost-mummifying design. But the cozies also serve to strip the individuals of any likeness, in effect adding another layer to the artist's theory on love: Relationships aren't just claustrophobic, they're homogenizing. The resulting images are humorous, yet challenging, and convey a sweetness between the paired subjects—even if some of them do seem out of place, if not downright uncomfortable.

Mom and Dad #1, by Kristin Skees

Untitled from the series Mother Goddess, 2009 by Pinar Yolaçan

In contrast, contemporary artist Pinar Yolaçan, in her Mother Goddess series, covers the subjects in head-to-toe creations. With considerable more movement allowed by these costumes, her subjects lie in classical poses, evoking the zaftig deities of ancient cultures. Both works speak of constriction (even a Goddess is bound by her responsibilities). But, whereas Yolaçan's images are carefully controlled—from the environment to the progression throughout the series—Skees' portraits are more outlandish, less deliberate and are a direct statement on the ties that bind, if you will, within our relationships.

Bill the Librarian, by Kristin Skees

+ 2009 Ne Plus Ultra Kurt Tong's In Case it Rains in Heaven series will be featured in the group show Wish you were here at London's The Little Black Gallery through June 18th.

+ Panelist Todd Hido will be giving a free lecture on his sources and influences during the inaugural Flash Forward Festival Boston, an event for emerging photographers from Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. Taking place at Boston's Fairmont Battery Wharf from Thursday, June 2nd, through Sunday, June 5th, all lectures, panel discussions and openings are free to the public.

+ Renowned photographer, publisher of Little Brown Mushroom Books and Hey, Hot Shot! 2010 Guest Curator Alec Soth will be exhibiting work at Harper's Books in East Hampton, NY from June 4th through July 6th, 2011. Lonely Boy Magazine features work from two of Soth's ongoing projects, as well as work from his magazine Lonely Boy Mag, No. A-2. Photographs by Todd Hido will also be part of the show.

+ 2008 Second Edition Hot Shot Donald Weber is no stranger to working in exclusion zones and nuclear disaster sites. In April, the intrepid photographer documented the debris and wreckage in Japan's 12-mile, quarantined exclusionary zone for Newsweek. Now, Weber is raising funds to publish his book Interrogations by offering Special Collector's Edition photographs of the inhabitants and towns in post-Chernobyl Russia and Ukraine. Interrogations will be published by Schilt Publishers in the fall of 2011.