Aquarius, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Photographers, the entry fee will once again increase to $80 tomorrow, Thursday, March 1st. Lock in that $70 fee now, then complete your entry no later than Monday, March 14th at 11:59 p.m. ET for consideration to become a Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2012 Hot Shot.

At stake for one Grand Prize-winning photographer is $10,000, a solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery in NYC and two years of gallery representation. Plus (!!!) all entrants are reviewed for participation with 20x200. What are you waiting for?

On View

+ The Magenta Foundation's 2011 Emerging Photographers group show (which kicked off last year in Toronto) is being brought to the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, in Portland, Maine. Hey, Hot Shot! photographers in the exhibition include Brendan George Ko, Laurie Kang, Kurt Tong, Yijun (Pixy) Liao, Jessica Eaton and Justin James Reed. The opening reception is Friday, March 2nd, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., and the exhibition only runs till March 4th. And head over to the online Magenta Magazine, which features a portfolio of work by panelist Penelope Umbrico.

+ Cindy Sherman's work from the mid 1970s to the present is the subject of a retrospective at the MoMA in NYC. Featuring over 170 photographs, the exhibition is on view through June 11th.

+ Ansel Adams Los Angeles, on view at DRKRM Gallery, includes Adams' rarely seen work as a photojournalist: photographs of a prewar Los Angeles that were taken on assignment for Fortune Magazine in 1940. The exhibition will be on display through March 17, 2012.

With over 1.21 billion people, India is one of the world's most densely populated countries, on track to surpass China as the most populated nation by 2030. In two-time Contender Candace Feit's submission, the documentary photographer, using her Hasselblad, captured moments of solitude and tranquility by the sea in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Untitled, 2011 by Candace Feit

In India, where personal space is often limited, being close to the sea promotes a different set of relationships, as [people] often gather to use this public space—both in groups and by themselves. This work explores the loneliness and isolation that can be the result of the constant stimulation of the world around us—the noise and heat; the demands of family, friends and work—and that isolation in the face of the sea. I watched as people gathered by the seafront; surrounding them was a constant buzz of vendors, cotton candy sellers, fortune tellers—all of which gave it a feeling of a frenzied carnival.

Through these photos I try to explore the idea that while things in these environments are loud and dirty, and almost never tidy, it is still possible to find moments of peace. And as an extension, in these moments of peace there is often a sense [of] separateness or solitude. Using the moments of stillness I find in each of these scenes, I try to bring order to the often overwhelming surroundings.

Untitled, 2011 by Candace Feit

Untitled, 2011 by Candace Feit

Candace Feit has been working as a documentary photographer since 2004. In the past several years, she has‪ moved beyond stories to a deeper narrative‬ of people and their relationship to their environments and the objects within them. For these images, she chose to use 120mm film, as a way to slow down the constant shutter click and more deliberately compose her images. Her clients include the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, UNICEF, Save The Children (U.K.), Action Aid (U.K.), AFAR Magazine and The Globe and Mail. Candace recently relocated from New Delhi, India, to Johannesburg, South Africa.

In his series Visible Light, Contender Alexander Harding captures the way (sun)light reacts to his set ups, exploring "the sun's physical presence and quantitative character." Harding explains:

The sun, being the center of our universe, is the source for all that lives on our planet. It keeps us in a specific orbit, and its waves provide us with energy allowing us to thrive. Whether it is acknowledged or not, we all have a strong relationship with the sun. Its light enables our visual perception and, at times, shapes our emotions. Although the sun affects how we feel, its light remains mysterious and ephemeral. We can feel it on our skin and in our eyes, but it seems intangible to us. We cannot hold or preserve it. Through my work... I [aim to] give sunlight an environment to travel within and record its behaviors.

Light Reflecting off Two Mirrors, by Alexander Harding

He continues:

The word "photography" most closely translates to "writing or drawing in light." I think of my photographs in this way; not as only a visual record of a moment in time, but as images created by light. Events in light are unique, organic and fleeting. This being the case, I do not attempt to reproduce these events. I can only shape the environment the sun enters and the amount of light that strikes the film within a period of time. What I hope viewers attain from my work is a sense of the marvel that light is. Through my work I wish to remain grateful to light, which enables our ability to see, reminding us that perception itself is a gift.

Six Suns, by Alexander Harding

Little Dipper, by Alexander Harding

Alexander Harding was born in 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BFA in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2002. In 2003, he completed an additional year as a special student in photography. In 2011, Harding received his MFA from MassArt. Using photography and other media, Harding's work explores our physical and emotional connections to sunlight. Since 2007, Harding has been an Adjunct Professor in fine arts at the Boston Architectural College. He lives and works in Wallingford, Connecticut. Work from Visible Light has appeared in Holy Ghost Zine and Fine Line, and his process and inspiration are discussed in this recent interview.

Reflection in Mylar, by Alexander Harding

Contender Caroline Hancox is no stranger to Hey, Hot Shot! Of her former submission, Stacy wrote that Caroline "allows herself a wide variety of tools in order to hit exactly the right note of dream-like, chroma-intense ephemerality." In her series Fringe, that tool is the Polaroid camera and her use of Polaroid emulsion lifts. Dreamy and delicate, Fringe's softness extends to the landscapes photographed therein.

Fringes #3, by Caroline Hancox

Hancox explains:

These are Polaroid emulsion lifts from a recent project exploring what happens in parts of the landscape where nature is creeping back into areas that have been destroyed/built on/neglected by humans. I love areas of landscape that on first glance are not immediately beautiful but on closer inspection reveal a previously hidden attraction. I used Polaroid film for these images because I like the unpredictable nature [of] the medium, in that every pack of film could have a different hue or slight imperfections. These characteristics have been exaggerated by the Polaroid emulsion lift process (removal of the emulsion membrane from the backing paper and transferral onto a different surface), and the delicateness of the end result mirrors the scenes in the images.

Fringes #4, by Caroline Hancox

Caroline Hancox is a photographer based near Cambridge, U.K. She specializes in the relationships between humans and their environment, where she finds the little details and beauty in everyday life that often go unseen and unnoticed. She was short-listed and highly commended for Professional Photography Magazine's "Photographer of the Year" competition two years ago, and she is currently working on personal projects and commissions.

Fringes #5, by Caroline Hancox

In seeking out "eccentrics" from the South, Contender Barnett Cohen met and befriended a man named Oliver, the subject of much of his portfolio. Rather than creating images that focus on his subject's eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, however, the series offers an intimate look at a willing subject, complete with relics and glimpses at a past life.

Oliver #1, 2011 by Barnett Cohen

Postcard, 2011 by Barnett Cohen

Cohen explains:

My photographs are short stories about individuals on the margins of the mainstream, and I weave fact and fiction into cohesive visual narratives. It is this interplay between realism and mystery that intrigues me most and that which I seek to flesh out in my work. Influenced by Southern Gothic writers such as Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, I set out two years ago to make portraits of eccentrics in small towns across the American South. That is how I first met and began photographing Oliver, the subject of my portfolio. Though Oliver is unconventional, my photographs of him are not simply a testament to the trope of the Southern Eccentric. They reflect an intimate relationship based on even needs: He wants to be seen and acknowledged, and I want to see him in the starkest of terms. Alone in his life, I have become his sole witness. I listen as he meanders between the past and the present, his existence fragmented by memory. My photographs are therefore glimpses or snippets of Oliver, while the series of images gather these jigsaw pieces into a coherent portrait of the man.

Vitrine, 2011 by Barnett Cohen

Barnett Cohen is a visual artist/photographer who splits his time between Brooklyn and the Deep South. He is currently applying to MFA programs in photography.

Oliver #2, 2011 by Barnett Cohen

In Contender Roger Boulay's Stacks series, the photographer explores the intersection between photography and sculpture, creating and documenting hovering, suspended towers (at 60"x40") of newspapers and magazines.

Taken literally, some of the images in the series could represent the collapse of the print medium, a topic much discussed between 2009 and 2010, when these images were taken. But there's much more to the series.

Sag, 2010 by Roger Boulay

In his artist statement, Boulay explains:

In the series Stacks, I create five-feet-tall photographs of piles of newspapers and magazines that hover impossibly in space, frozen in a tenuous moment right before collapse. I give voice to the growing piles of detritus to allow viewers to consider how quickly "news" becomes old, and how consuming is ultimately unwieldy.

My work expresses some of the shifts of identity within our constantly changing and morphing culture. The sculptures topple and sway, erase and crumble, to articulate this vision of a totem that could stand unassisted. The layers of newspapers within these images—stories within stories we consume and discard—create a timeline of constructed identity, a spectrum of experience we express through our publications and press. Pockets of color create glimpses of advertising and images that draw the viewer in to the image to examine details of recombined text. Pinks and blues and greens make visual breaks in the slabs of gray paper. The larger forms of these structures create corporeal figures out of the residue and remains of our trash. They hang isolated in black, ghosts composed from the ephemeral, disposable media we purchase and throw away. Seen in a group, the stacks become figurative, signifying individuals with lives that are hard-won, bent and struggling to stand up.

Whiteout, 2010 by Roger Boulay

Roger Boulay was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He grew up in Norfolk, a more distant suburb in southeastern Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College, where he majored in Fine Arts and French. Boulay taught art at the Noble and Greenough school in Dedham, MA. In 2008, he moved to Albuquerque to earn his MFA in photography at the University of New Mexico. He also holds an MA in Dutch Art History from the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He currently teaches photography at the University of Kentucky.

Fracture, 2010 by Roger Boulay

With his Ebony 4x5 in tow, Contender Erik Lee Snyder set on a road trip in 2009, looking to escape the impact the financial crisis had on New York City. When he arrived in Shreveport, Louisiana, what he found was, in his words, "a place darker, more intense, and devoid of hope." Staying with a family in the outskirts of town, Snyder got to know his subjects closely, "eating their fried food, doing their drugs and swapping misery."

Baptist Church, 2009 by Erik Lee Snyder

Larry, 2009 by Erik Lee Snyder

In his artist statement, Snyder explains:

The images are not a documentation of pain or suffering, as pain cannot be measured or rated... The photographs of Port City are the sharing of the human condition, and the celebration of humanity in the United States only created by getting to know people, not subjects.

Larry's Trailer, 2009 by Erik Lee Snyder

Aleya's Room, 2009 by Erik Lee Snyder

Erik Lee Snyder (b. 1980, Atlantic City, NJ) is an American photographer. Equal parts honest documentary and strict formalism, Erik's photographs examine the collected ephemera of modern American culture.

Dennis Walks Home, 2009 by Erik Lee Snyder

Jericho. From the series The West Bank, by Philip Cheung

There's been a flurry of HHS! activity happening at Jen Bekman Projects recently. In the past weeks, three photographers found through Hey, Hot Shot! have released limited-edition prints on 20x200: Philip Cheung (three-time Honorable Mention), Laura Plageman (First Edition 2011 Hot Shot) and Kurt Tong (2009 Ultra). Speaking of Kurt, his solo show, In Case it Rains in Heaven, made its NYC debut at JBG in January and is on view through March 4th.

Stay tuned for even more Hot Shot goodness. Upcoming on the JBG schedule are two more HHS!-centric shows: the Second Edition 2011 Showcase, featuring work by the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots, in March, and 2009 Ultra Mike Sinclair's solo show, in May.

AROUND JBP
+ Congratulations to Hot Shot (and 20x200 artist) Donald Weber on his first prize win in World Press Photo's Portraits-stories category for his series Interrogations. A photobook of the series was also recently published and can be purchased here. Donald's been receiving a lot of deserved attention lately—the Magnum Foundation's Emergency Fund recently named him a 2012 grantee.

+ Congrats are also in order for Hot Shot Alejandro Cartagena, who was shortlisted for a Sony World Photography Award for his series Car Poolers. The nod generated several write-ups.

+ Fans of Roger Ballen have lots to be excited about. The South Africa-based photographer teamed up with rap-rave crew Die Antwoord to co-direct their "I Fink U Freeky" music video. Meanwhile, the Manchester Art Gallery in the U.K. is gearing up for a major exhibition of the artist's work, on view March 30th through May 13th. Did we mention you can buy his limited-edition photographs over at 20x200 right now?! And, finally, if you'd like to join Roger and 1000 Words photography magazine on their photography workshop retreat, the deadline for applications is March 1st. The workshop will take place from May 5th through the 9th in Fez, Morocco.

ON VIEW
+ Inspired by William Henry Fox Talbot, Hiroshi Sugimoto's Photogenic Drawings returns to, and enlarges, the 19th-century inventor's original paper negatives. The collaboration is currently on view at San Francisco's Fraenkel Gallery and closes February 25th.

+ In Miami? The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse features sculpture, painting and photography by renowned artists from around the world. Included in its current exhibition are works by Mary Ellen Mark and John Baldessari.

+ Comprising three different series and including photographs of Kristen McMenamy, Vivienne Westwood and William Eggleston, Juergen Teller's current show at Lehmann Maupin in NYC is on view through March 17th.

+ David LaChapelle's new series, Earth Laughs in Flowers, will make its U.S. debut at Fred Torres Collaborations in NYC. The series includes 10 large-scale photographs of Baroque-style floral still lifes and will be on view February 23rd through March 24th.

+ Cindy Sherman's work from the mid 1970s to the present is the subject of a retrospective at the MoMA in NYC. Featuring over 170 photographs, the exhibition will be on view from February 26th to June 11th.

Contender Heather Cleary explores the notion of reality and perception. Utilizing domestic objects (fruit, magazines, houseplants, etc.) her photographs "explore the relationship between impartial objects and personal perceptions, focusing on the subtleties that produce multiple layers of experience."

Talc, 2010 by Heather Cleary

In her artist statement, she explains:

By selecting, modifying and/or isolating items from their context, I pull objects from utility into abstraction... For me, omitting information is a way to create focus. By choosing subjects that suggest multiple identities—placing originals next to replicas, by deconstructing objects and isolating them—I aim to activate the mind. Pulling back the layers of belief and certainty to reexamine accepted truths is what engages me to create images.

Magazine, 2010 by Heather Cleary

Dot Matrix, 2011 by Heather Cleary

Growing up in Florida, Heather Cleary always marveled at the constant invention and reinvention of the world around her. Witnessing the temporal Florida landscape fueled her curiosity about the construction of reality. In 2003, Heather earned a BFA with a concentration in photography from Massachusetts College of Art. She lives and works in Boston.

Artifact, 2011 by Heather Cleary

At first glance, the objects in the images Contender Graham Barker submitted for consideration might resemble strange and alien-looking deep sea creatures. But the truth quickly bobs to the surface, and the amorphous blobs are revealed for what they actually are: waste Barker found floating in Regent's Canal in London.

Despite the evident environmental message, Barker actually attests that it's been "a challenge not to turn this project into a personal environmental 'crusade' per se, as it was my interest in the forms and the movements of these waste materials that came first—the profundity came second."

Untitled, from the series Out of the loop, 2011 by Graham Barker

Untitled, from the series Out of the loop, 2011 by Graham Barker

Of the series, Barker says:

The title Out of the loop is a reference to waste material that has escaped "closed- or open-loop" recycling, which will neither compost or safely biodegrade into the natural environment. It is waste material that has found its way into our water channels.

What I have developed are a series of images that are inherently ambiguous. In fact, are these images about the urban environment or, indeed, about the natural world we're inadvertently changing?

Untitled, from the series Out of the loop, 2011 by Graham Barker

Untitled, from the series Out of the loop, 2011 by Graham Barker

Graham Barker has been in design and advertising for over 24 years, but he has always been active in personal art projects. He shoots with both digital and analogue film, using high-end professional cameras as well as lo-fi plastic and homemade devices.

The photographer aims to have several of the Out of the loop images super-sized onto billboards or projected into a retail area. He's set up a site with more information on the project, and a link to help raise the necessary funds for billboards.

Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of the holiday that promotes all things love and romanticism, we're featuring a crush-worthy, Cupid-centric Contender compilation. Ahead of your feast for two tonight, here's a feast for the eyes, representing five different Contenders.

Kissing, New York, 2010 by Michael Stepansky

Massachusetts-based Contender Michael Stepansky shoots film, preferring to become part of the history he photographs. "I like the tactility of it, the moving back and forth, the suspense," he adds.

Latent Light, 2012 by Amy Friend

Of the images from her luminous series Daré alla Lucé, Contender Amy Friend (Ontario, Canada) states:

Through small deliberate interventions, I altered [these vintage] images, allowing light to pass through them. (After all, photographs are made possible with light.) In a literal and somewhat playful manner, I aimed to give the photographs back to the light, hence the title of the series, Daré alla Lucé, an Italian phrase used to describe the moment of birth.

Untitled, by Joe Aker

Contender Joe Aker's made a name for himself as a seasoned architectural photographer in Houston. But for his submission, Aker chose a series of serene landscapes, featuring "water and white sand after the sun has set in that magic 10 minutes of beautiful dusk."

1- Floral Concerto - Releasing the Imagination, 2011.6.18 - 2011.6.28, 2011 by Jun Gao

Contender Jun Gao took long-term exposure photographs of the life span of flowers, leaving the shutter open "from buds to blossom and then to decay." The resulting images remind the viewer to appreciate even the demise of the thing, as beauty still exists there. The NYC-based photographer adds, "A flower's life is a duration including a process. If flowers were performers, the process of decay would be a play, which is dramatic, poetic and sentimental."

SIXTH SENSE | SENSUAL 07, 2011 by Cathrin Schulz

When looking at the images from two-time Contender Cathrin Schulz's SIXTH SENSE series, the German-born, Atlanta-based photographer wants you to feel the bands of color with your mind, perceiving them beyond your vision. The photographs in the series "explore thresholds—line after line that unite and divide, emphasizing the interplay between bands of pure color, stimulating the sixth sense."

The black and white images Contender Philip LePage submitted from his series Edges (Borders, Boundaries and Barriers) reflect the "paths, sidewalks and other byways that limit, as well as give access to, the spaces we live in."

Dichotomy, 2010 by Philip LePage

In his artist statement, LePage explains:

I am especially interested in (in)between spaces, the distance between people, cultures and the spaces we inhabit. Marc Auge "..argues powerfully that we are in transit through non-place for more and more of our time, as if between immense parenthesis..." (John Howe). My personal interest is in how these spaces, subways, paths through parks and underpasses reflect a sense, or lack, of belonging, identity and social relationships; and what these parenthesis say about the way we live. This is a continuing project.

Other People's Windows, 2011 by Philip LePage

Canadian photographer Philip LePage moved to Toronto after having spent 11 years living and working in both Japan and Sweden. He is a 1996 BA (Art History) graduate of the University of British Columbia, and he has a background in studio arts, as well as art theory. LePage's interest in photography grew out of his endless commutes in Tokyo. His choice of imagery is highly personal and reflective of his life experiences and emotions—he works within specific themes, but the images themselves reflect his reactions to the spaces he is in.

Surfacing, 2009 by Philip LePage

Equipped with a specially designed Fuji 617, Contender Chris Faust shoots black and white panoramic "cultural landscapes" on film, documenting "the intersection of human beings with nature." For his series Nocturne—of which you can find the book here—Faust took to the streets in St. Paul, Minnesota (as well as other U.S. and Canadian cities) at night, capturing the stillness and mystery of rapidly changing rural, urban and industrial places.

Car Wash, Fort Road, 2011 by Chris Faust (click on image to enlarge)

Faust explains in his artist statement:

Since [Nocturnes was published], I've been dabbling in various projects, but nothing has been as consistent for me as working with the night landscapes. I keep finding myself going out in the past months even more than ever. It's been very meditative now, and at this point [there is] a completeness that I had not felt before.

Unlike some of my counterparts, I have not turned my way of capture over to digital. I'm not exactly a Luddite, but the use and process of silver yields for me something more "real" than the use of HDR, and it feels more authentic to me. I've shot in raw and used the HDR process and find images too perfect, an illustration if you will. For me, the old silver process has a completely different palette that I haven't been able to get digitally yet, not to say that over time I may. I just find the current "trend" lacking for me in many ways. I imagine it's sort of like a solution looking for a problem.

My work has, in the past, focused on transitional landscapes from commercial archeology to the present-day new development topographic. Everywhere I've been, these landscapes and their innate conflict stand out the most for me. Maybe through the course of time they'll demonstrate our society's "evolution."

Parked Truck, Ortonville, MN, 1996 by Chris Faust (click on image to enlarge)

The White Front Cafe, Lanesboro, MN, 1991 by Chris Faust (click on image to enlarge)

Christopher C. Faust (born 1955 in Fort Riley, Kansas) is a landscape photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota. He holds a degree in biology from Saint Cloud State University and an MS in Educational Media from Saint Cloud State University.

Faust has exhibited works in Minnesota, California and New York, and his honors include a Graham Foundation award and a McKnight Foundation Fellowship for Photography. His photographs are in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Center for Photography at Woodstock and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Waiting at the Crossing, Lincoln, NE, 1993 by Chris Faust (click on image to enlarge)

Using mirrors and origami to create illusions in her imagery, Contender Elise Windsor creates photographs that play with two- and three-dimensionality. Referencing trompe l'oeil, the images in trompe l'oeil; petite maison feature geometric, bulging shapes on the picture plane, challenging the viewer to rethink and re-engage with each image.

Bathroom, from the series trompe l'oeil; petite maison, 2010 by Elise Windsor

Fireplace, from the series trompe l'oeil; petite maison, 2010 by Elise Windsor

In her statement, Windsor explains:

The work constructs a sense of ubiquitous space, [which] is made of abstract origami houses that create these optical illusions. The method of building sculptural illusions captures fragments of the physical tangible object within the everyday of the domestic. I hope to shift the viewer's perception by introducing another dimension into the picture plane [to call] attention to the two-dimensionality of photographs.

Cupboard, from the series trompe l'oeil; petite maison, 2010 by Elise Windsor

Elise Victoria Louise Windsor is an emerging visual artist working in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated from OCAD University's BFA program, focusing in photography, printmaking and sculpture. Her work focuses on the use of illusions created by fantasy, mystery and the duplication of reality. Elise recently participated in an XPACE/SPARK Contemporary Art Space Residency in Syracuse, New York; and at the State Hermitage Museum Foundation of Canada Young Artist Program, in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has been the recipient of various awards and has participated in art exhibitions across Canada, the U.S. and Russia.

Fan, from the series trompe l'oeil; petite maison, 2010 by Elise Windsor

Mark your calendars:

+ 2009 Ultra Kurt Tong's NYC debut solo show, In Case it Rains in Heaven, is on view at Jen Bekman Gallery through March 4th. It's clearly a busy time of year for the photographer—he just released two limited-edition photographs from In Case it Rains in Heaven on 20x200. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter to be notified when other editions from Hey, Hot Shot! photographers are released.

+ The School of Visual Arts Arts Abroad program is now accepting applications for their 2012 Photography Workshop in Shanghai. The program is open to all applicants who've had at least one year of college-level photography education (not necessarily at SVA, either) and working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. The workshop will run from June 9th to July 7th, and admission is on a rolling basis, but spaces are limited so early applications are encouraged.

+ Two-time Hot Shot Joseph O. Holmes will have work in the upcoming annual print auction to benefit Houston Center for Photography, set for February 22nd. One-hundred percent of the proceeds go directly to support HCP exhibitions, educational initiatives, outreach programs, and their award winning publication spot magazine. You can view the works in this preview exhibition, which closes February 20th. For more Holmes goodness, check out this Q&A and look into his studio and practice over at From The Desk Of...

+ Congrats to Hot Shot Donald Weber, who was just selected as a 2012 grantee by the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund. The fund, which began in 2009, awards the annual prize to photographers from around the world who use their cameras to shed light on underserved issues and communities.

+ Alec Soth's new exhibition, Broken Manual, is on view at Sean Kelly Gallery (NYC) through March 11th. The work reflects "Soth's increasing interest in the mounting anger and frustration that some—specifically male—Americans feel with societal constraints and their subsequent desire to remove themselves from civilization.

+ Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is a mid-career retrospective of the acclaimed photographer's work. The exhibition is on view through April 22nd.

Recovery Ward, AJEH Hospital, Mastichak, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

For her series Protectors of Sight, Contender Sophie Gerrard traveled to the Indian state of Bihar, which is home to half a million people suffering from cataract blindness. To help combat this, the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital (AJEH) performs over 100 free cataract operations per day. Over the course of two years, Gerrard traveled to the rural state to visit and photograph at the AJEH and surrounding areas. You can learn more about her project and statistics on global cataract blindness, as well as the charitable organization that helps subsidize these operations, in this video.

Gupta has helped over 1000 blind people to AJEH hospital, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

In her artist statement, Gerrard explains:

Completed over two years and several visits to the remote and rural Indian state of Bihar, Protectors of Sight presents a social document and objective narrative of the story of cataract blindness in this part of India. The series also explores an extremely personal, metaphorical and reflective response to the lives of those living with this condition in Bihar. The photographs started to become a diary as I worked and traveled in Bihar. I would respond to photographing those in the dark without sight by making images of wide open spaces and long empty views. I found myself drawn to changes in light and atmosphere, photographing dark spaces leading to light. Protectors of Sight documents individuals and their stories, their homes and surroundings. It also captures quieter moments and metaphors of barriers, shadows and isolation.

Eye chart, GEMS, Dehri-On-Sone, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

The journey home, Siran District, Rural Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

Sophie Gerrard is an award winning documentary photographer from Scotland specializing in contemporary social documentary stories, with a particular emphasis on humanitarian and environmental issues. Sophie was recently invited to exhibit her series Protectors of Sight at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, and the exhibition ran throughout October and November 2011. During that time, the project received some interesting reviews and nominations.

Sophie's work is included in the Firecracker 2012 diary, published by Blurb. In 2007, Sophie's series E-wasteland won a Jerwood Photography Award and was selected as a U.K. winner by the Magenta Foundation for emerging photographers. Sophie's work has been exhibited widely, including at Flowers East and with The Photographers' Gallery in London and at Paris Photo. She has been nominated for the Prix Pictet four years in a row and was also nominated for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. Sophie's work has been exhibited internationally and is held in a number of national and private collections. Sophie spent a period of time living and working in India in 2009 and 2010, working for NGOs and on personal photographic projects. Currently based in the U.K., her social and environmental photographic features have been published by The Telegraph Saturday Magazine, Guardian Weekend Magazine, Foto8, Portfolio Magazine and Greenpeace International. Sophie is represented by The Photographers' Gallery in London.

Sona Devi, AJEH hospital, Mastichak, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

For her series Opera, Contender Iveta Vaivode turned her Mamiya 7 towards the audiences at the Latvian National Opera. Using a 45-minute-long exposure, the resulting images capture the process of watching and observing, turning the spectator into subject.

"While observing the audience during the performances," she says, "I become more and more convinced of the hidden mystery in this process, in art's ability to overwhelm and evoke compassion. The more emotional the performance, the stiller a spectator sits while watching it."

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray 02, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

In her artist statement, Iveta writes:

Opera was once seen as the exclusive reserve of aristocracy, a polite social occasion or an event to attend to affirm your cultural capital as a member of a social elite. [My] images tell a different story of intense participation by a more heterogeneous audience in a drama unfolding out of the frame. [I watch] the watchers, much as painters like Edgar Degas or Walter Sickert did at the music hall a hundred years ago. The long exposures render the subject in a high-contrast, impressionistic way, like Édouard Manet, but instead of Baudelaire's Flaneurs, [I see] a more stratified contemporary audience.

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Iveta Vaivode (b.1979) grew up in Riga, Latvia. Having started her photographic career as a fashion photographer, Iveta has recently turned her sights toward her personal projects. In 2008, she received a BA in photography from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth (England). Her photographs have been exhibited in Latvia, Lithuania, U.K., France, China and Belgium. Iveta is the recipient of the following awards: AOP Student Photographer of the Year (2007); Latvia Photography Award of the Year (2007) in the nomination of Design Photography of the Year; and Nikon Discovery Awards (2008).

Swan Lake, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Swan Lake 02, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Lady in Her Tent, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

Contender Amy Lyne takes on Coney Island in her submission, capturing the motley crowds that flock to this NYC institution during the blazing summer heat.

Safety First, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

Butts, Butts and More Butts, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

In her artist statement, she writes:

Coney Island has become like a Heritage site: a gathering place of people from all around New York and the world. It's the last un-gentrified place in New York City, offering its visitors a playground where they can share a temporary sense of interconnectedness through collective amusement, cultivating an atmosphere of abandon and extravagance.

Everyone is Here..., July 2011 by Amy Lyne

Amy Lyne is a freelance documentary photographer, whose work focuses on social issues that tend to be overshadowed by the headline news. After attending La Sorbonne in Paris and Bogazici's University in Istanbul, Lyne received her BFA in photography from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, as well as her BA in art history and French literature. Lyne has exhibited in galleries and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, Les Rencontres d'Arles in France and the Sounding Jerusalem Festival, where her work was projected against the Old City's walls.

Lyne has worked on various humanitarian projects, including a collaboration with Michel Comte from 1999-2002, People and Places with No Name, benefiting the International Committee of the Red Cross' activities in Angola, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Lyne was involved in We are the Future, a joint effort between Quincy Jones' Listen Up Foundation and The Glocal Forum, a coalition committed to giving a voice to children living in the world's most war-ravaged regions. Lyne has also collaborated with Nicolas Hulot, one of Europe's most respected environmentalists, on Ushuaia Nature, a television series about indigenous cultures around the world. Lyne has produced many multi-media pieces, including If I Could Wake Up Tomorrow..., which was commissioned by the Emotion Pictures Festival, and addressed the issue of ability with the participation of Eva Mendes, Danny Boyle and Richard Gere, to name a few.