Peggy Byrne Miss Subways: March–April 1952, 2007 by HHS entrant Fiona Gardner

There’s still something charming about the Americana (New Yorkana?) of the Miss Subways contest. Or perhaps there’s only something charming in retrospect about the city voting on pretty commuters via posters on trains. Either way, HHS contender Fiona Gardner captures a bit of the bygone magic in her series that revisits these beauty contest winners decades after their small reigns. (From 1941 to 1976 an ad agency sponsored the contest; female commuters who were residents of New York City were eligible to compete for spots on future ads.)

Gardner makes use of the poses of iconography, to subtly and not so subtly, hint at the current lives of these former beauty queens. She says her work is “influenced by traditions of staged photography, early Hollywood spectacle, and contemporary performance-based art practices.” She continues, “In particular, I am interested in 19th century photographers Lewis Carroll and Julia Margaret Cameron, contemporary photographers such as Jeff Wall and Justine Kurland, and the filmic spectacles of Busby Berkeley and Esther Williams.”

Getting High by Hey, Hot Shot! entrant Kate Orne

“I work among the sex-workers and their families in Pakistan being the first photographer to document this shunned community. This body of work examines the uneasy peace between Islamic fundamentalism and profanity in the brothels.”

Kate Orne is undeniably walking in the altruistic footsteps of Zana Briski with her efforts to “raise funds for the two little schools, the first ones ever to offer education to the children of the sex-workers with the mission to break the cycle of children being born into prostitution, sex abuse, drug addiction and crime.”

To fully grasp the complexity of the narratives, Orne’s images are best seen as a complete body of work. Yet the image above, Getting High, recalls Nan Goldin and how some photographer’s lives are inextricably bound to the people they love and document.

Untitled (Eric 2) by HHS entrant Jeremy Chandler

Jeremy Chandler is the current Photographer Laureate for the City of Tampa, where he resides. Chandler states that he “playfully question(s) and explore(s) a myriad of issues including land use, utopian ideals, alterity, masculinity and class.” Playfully? More like a head-on assault via beautifully staged shots of masculine ideals and fears, the postures of fighting and hunting, and nature.

Abandoned Houses, Berkeley, CA, 2008 by HHS entrant Eve Morgenstern

I lived in over 10 houses before I was 20, so as soon as I saw these images of abandoned homes, I was pierced by their ability to speak not of comfort and safety, but of the delicateness and transience of life.

Then I remembered a song by The Smiths:
The passing of time
Leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled

Sigh.

Benadryl on Black by HHS entrant Jeremy Freedman

I am allergic to everything, and so I instantly recognized this Benadryl pill in Jeremy Freedman’s work. Freedman shoots pills in a close-up hazy way that seems fitting to pharmaceuticals. The colors really pop.

Liminal Echoes No.3 by HHS entrant Christophe Barbour

I pretty much just like this photo, by HHS entrant Christopher Barbour. It’s a little bit lonely and a little bit sad, but it has this great bright focal point — that pink blur that I can only imagine is a carousel or a funny little house or a strange statue. Barbour says that he used a Holga pinhole camera and Fuji NPH 400 film. No additions or manipulations outside of the camera.

Las Vegas, Nevada by HHS entrant Noah Beil, 2008

Noah Beil’s landscapes are sneaky. Best viewed as a set, his shots highlight the man-made interruptions that manage to blend in with natural horizon lines. He explores the fine line between alteration and landscaping, destructive and decorative structures.

Measured in Time, #2, by HHS entrant Jacqueline Truong

This shot is like a movie. Like a great old movie about a sport that I’m not interested in, but with a story and spirit that grab at my heart. I can’t turn it off. What composition!

(What? You thought we were finished? While we are no longer accepting submissions for the current round of Hey, Hot Shot!, and these posts and my blog views are not a reflection at all of the judging process, but we’ll stick with it, because it’s fun to see what’s out there, from among all the great stuff was sent in.)

9717 by HHS entrant Liz Danahey-Fish

Hey, Hot Shot! contender Liz Danahey-Fish makes photographs of items she’s purchased at thrift stores around Los Angeles. She writes, “This is a catalog of last chances — someone saved this stuff when they donated it, someone saved it when they priced it, and I saved it yet again when I bought it.”

What she neglects to mention is that she really saves the stuff when she photographs it. She’s documenting detritus. She’s saving stuff in a way that’s a lot more permanent than simply purchasing it for pennies and putting it on a tchotchke shelf.

Her approach is direct and interesting. I’d rather look at her shots than through the Goodwill bins, for sure.

*REMINDER* Go get your entry ready! Submit it! There is still time. Not much, though! All entries for the current round of Hey, Hot Shot! are due tomorrow, Tuesday, June 17, at 8:00 p.m.*

Unexpected Suprise (Venti Americano, 01.31.2008) by HHS entrant Jon Mali

Maybe it’s because I know that I have to wake up four and a half short hours, and because I’m about to embark on a roadtrip wherein I traded all my driving shifts for the promise that I’d be in charge of staying awake with every other driver. Or maybe it’s becuase Jon Malis’s work is so good, that it is so appealing to me right now.

I love this bottom of the coffee cup abstraction, from the series Stained Grounds. I think he uses a scanner, but I’m not sure. I’m certainly going to think about his process on the road.