Like we said yesterday: we love seeing great organizations support artists making exciting and challenging new work. One of the best places to present your photographs before the photography world's most discerning eyes is by applying to the Aperture Portfolio Prize. If you're readers of this blog, you're likely already quite familiar with Aperture; Publisher Lesley A. Martin was one of our HHS! Guest Curators, and they're host to myriad fantastic lectures, events, parties and exhibits all year long. They're a nonprofit comprised of gallery, publishing house, magazine and more, and consistently produce beautiful displays (both in-print and on walls), of contemporary photography.

The Portfolio Prize, which closes for deadlines next Wednesday, July 14th, aims to "identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists whom we can help by bringing them to a wider audience." They looking specifically for work that hasn't been widely seen or published elsewhere, and for images that have been made within the last five years.

Each entrant can submit up to two separate portfolios of fifteen images each, and also designate if they'd like their work to be considered as a book proposal. A team from Aperture, including work scholars and staff, will review all the submissions.

Untitled, n.d., from the series The Edge by 2009 Aperture Prize-winner Alexander Gronsky

The first prize winner will take home $5,000 and will be slated for an exhibition at Aperture Foundation. So: got some free time this weekend? Put on your editing cap and pull together your best portfolio for Aperture.

We say it all the time: we love supporting artists. But, it is impossible to provide financial support to every artist we'd like to, whether the projects they're working on are lengthy in time, extensive in expenses or ambitious in reach. So, we're happy to share when organizations offer amazing support for creative people with great ideas like AOL is doing with their new Grant Program: 25 for 25. And, furthermore, our own Jen Bekman is on the Advisory Board, which will award twenty-five $25,000 grants to "tomorrow's ground breakers and visionaries."

Yes! You read that correctly: Twenty-five $25,000 grants! The only limitations are you must be 18 years or older and a "journalist, artist or innovator."

Here's what AOL has to say:

We are awarding twenty-five, $25,000 grants to tomorrow's ground breakers and visionaries--individuals with a creative spark to ignite. 25 for 25 is a call to journalists, artists and innovators who believe in the power of ideas.

The AOL Grant Program (25 for 25) is part of AOL's Project on Creativity, launched during AOL's 25th Anniversary year. We want to connect, empower, and support the next generation of creative thinkers. Inspired by Chuck Close's philanthropic work in art and arts education, we will be awarding grants to tomorrow's brilliant creators. We've assembled a distinguished 25 for 25 Advisory Board who will serve as a jury for the AOL Grant Program.

In addition to Jen, the board will include Chuck Close, Andy Spade, Tim Armstrong as well as experts from an array of fields in art and journalism.

Entries will be accepted from July, 27th - September 1, 2010, and you can submit your information here to request application materials.

So it's like this: You've got this great body of images that you've already submitted to this year's competition of Hey, Hot Shot! The summer is stretching wide and open before you, and you're looking forward to creating more work, organizing and refining existing work, and seeing how and in what ways you can stretch your skills, powers of observation, craft and comfort zones. Maybe you are interested in creating or finishing up a book, or you are open to the possibility of committing to a workshop this summer in a far-off place and at the feet of a roundly recognized photographic master. Or you simply want as many people of influence and reach to see the images and concepts that you've been so conscientiously and laboriously putting together.

We're here to help you out! Below is a list of a full range of possibilities for getting your work out there, seen, consolidated or newly made. Jeffrey Teuton, Associate Director of Jen Bekman Gallery also offered up some tips last week on Portfolio Review Dos and Don'ts, many of which are also helpful when thinking about how to present a competition submission.

We recently wrote about this inaugural international competition that is a joint venture between Daylight Magazine and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, but since then the competition deadline has been extended through June 1st (8pm, EST), so we're mentioning it again on the off-chance that you haven't submitted your work to this truly stellar roster of jurors:

Vince Aletti, writer/critic, the New Yorker magazine;
Darius Himes, editor/curator, Radius Books (who also happens to be on the HHS! panel)
Julie Saul, gallery owner/director, Julie Saul Gallery;
Alec Soth, photographer;
Hank Willis Thomas, photographer;
Jamie Wellford, international photo editor, Newsweek;
Taj Forer (20x200 artist) and Michael Itkoff, editors, Daylight Magazine
Alexa Dilworth, publishing director, CDS
Courtney Reid-Eaton, exhibitions director, CDS

This is the first year of the competition, and there are two award categories: a Project Prize and a Work-In-Process Prize. Prizes include exhibition exposure, print and online exposure, and every entrant will receive the time and consideration of the above esteemed panel of jurors (which is no small thing in and of itself). Entries are received online, and you can read the full guidelines or begin the submission process here.

Present Tense: 15th Annual Photography Competition Exhibition, presented by the Gallery Photographic Center Northwest.

A prestigious annual juried show in the Pacific Northwest (our own Ms. Jen Bekman was last year's juror), this competition revolves around a single theme and a single juror. This year's topic concerns the changing state of the medium of photography today.

The exhibition title, Present Tense, refers to state of the medium today. In recent times, we have heard intense debate about the direction of photography: questions about the future of the medium, fears surrounding the decrease in magazine production and funding for content, the threat of potential extinction of the physical book, cynical commentaries that originality is a thing of the past...now is the time for photographers to take stock of their work and their vision, to take risks, rather than play it safe. We are calling out to you to inspire the medium! Show us your perspective and vision of these changing times.

This year's juror and curator is Denise Wolff, a book editor for Aperture. Entries are to be received on CD only, the fee is $75 and the deadline is June 12, 2010. Winners will receive cash prizes, Blurb gift certificates and participation in an August show at PCNW curated by Denise Wolff. Full details and submission guidelines here.

Speaking of our friends at Aperture, the annual Aperture Portfolio Prize is underway. This competition sees work of stellar quality from all over the world, and the prizes and efforts on behalf of Aperture are generous and far-reaching. Immediate awards are cash and exposure on Aperture's website for an entire year. Beyond the portfolio prize, judges will consider submissions for any and all Aperture publications and exhibitions. They are specifically looking for fresh work that has not been widely seen in major exhibition or publication venues and their ultimate mission is to identify trendsetting work that deserves to be seen by a wider audience. Submitted work must have been completed in the past five years. Entrants must be current subscribers to Aperture magazine (there is an option to subscribe along with the entry process) and the entry fee is $25. Submission are received online only and the deadline is July 14, 2010. Full guidelines and submission details can be reviewed here.

(One of last year's runners-ups for the Aperture Portfolio Prize was also a 2009 Hot Shot, Alejandro Cartagena.)

Passionate about books? We've got something for you, too. Blurb, a print-on-demand publication service, is holding its annual Photography Book Now competition. There are three entry categories: Fine Art, Portfolio and Editorial. You can submit work electronically or via a hard copy book for a submission fee of $35; entrants are allowed to submit to more than one category (each submission requires a separate fee).

Awards include a Grand Prize of $25,000, camera and equipment packages, expenses paid participation in portfolio reviews, expenses paid for photographic workshops, as well as exposure on the Blurb website. The deadline for receipt of submissions is July 15, 2010. This year's juror is none other than co-founder and editor of Radius Books and friend to JBP, Darius Himes. Read more and submit your entries at the Blurb Photography Book Now competition website.

Last year, Hot Shot Kurt Tong took the Editorial Prize of the competition for his series People's Park. A second series by Kurt, Farewell in Labrador, also received an Honorable Mention in the same category. Both books are available to purchase on Blurb.

If you're not quite ready to submit a book-length collection of work, participating in a workshop with a gifted photographer and teacher can be a life-altering experience for many artists that can grow and mature a project. Small class-sizes, hyper-focus on creating and critiquing work, and the energy of being in a foreign surrounding while being mentored by a master of their craft makes for the kind of experience that really defies most systems of measurement. The online magazine 1000 Words is holding a workshop in Fez, Morocco this fall with Magnum photographer Antoine D'Agata. The workshop will be held from October 25th-October 31st, 2010.

1000 Words, writes:

We are looking for a diverse range of participants who understand the work of Antoine d'Agata and feel that their own work will benefit from his guidance. Each participant will be asked to examine the ultimate goal of his approach, to play an active part in his own images and to work on the texture of reality. Since images, like words, only take on meaning when brought together, the workshop will focus on finding the most relevant form for each individual stance. Working with Antoine d'Agata, participants must be ready to photograph intensively throughout the workshop and to extend the limits of their approach. They will have to confront their obsessions and contradictions as they shape a series of images conveying in real or fictional terms their private relationship with the world.

Submissions are accepted electronically only; there is no entry fee for submitting. The deadline for submissions is June 14, 2010. Twelve workshop participants will be selected from all the submissions, and the successful candidates will be notified by the end of June. Find more information on the workshop and costs at 1000 Words.

One other venue for those looking to choose photographic workshops and mentoring experiences are the TPW workshops. Centered mostly in Tuscany, but also working in several other international locations (remaining workshops for this year include India and the Mississippi Delta), these workshops gather together some great names and teachers for a week-long intensive study. 2010 workshop instructors include Ed Kashi, David Alan Harvey and J.H. Engström. For a full list of workshops, dates and prices, check out the TPW 2010 calendar.

Lastly, you have finished your submission to this year's round of HHS!, have you not? We are accepting submissions through August 22nd, 2010 to win some fabulous prizes including a $5,000 honorarium and a solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery. All contenders are also automatically considered for editions on 20x200—in fact, just last week we featured two editions by Thomas Prior, who we first discovered through his HHS! entry. We're also featuring contenders here on the blog throughout the entry period, and offering some fantastic Curator's Choice prizes each month during the competition. Sound good? Well, what are you waiting for?! Apply here!

So you've entered, or are preparing to enter, HHS! 2010. You've already gone through the laborious and yet self-edifying process of culling your work down to a discrete set of strong, stand-alone images, and you've penned a thoughtful and engaging artist's statement. Now that you've crossed that off your to-do list, why stop there? Get as much artistic mileage from this as possible! Who's to say that whatever you're thinking and making might not resonate on a wide-scale with a variety of different audiences?

This Saturday, May 15th, is the deadline for the inaugural Daylight Magazine/Center for Documentary Studies Photo Award. All of the entries are submitted electronically, so you've still got plenty of time to enter.

Daylight Magazine is the result of the work of the Daylight Community Arts Foundation, which works with established and early-career artists, scholars and journalists to showcase contemporary photography and to share stories from underrepresented communities.

The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke has long been a staple in the photography community, promoting collaborative and in-depth documentary work for decades. From the CDS website:

CDS promotes documentary work that cultivates progressive change by amplifying voices, advancing human dignity, engendering respect among individuals, breaking down barriers to understanding, and illuminating social injustices. CDS conducts its work for local, regional, national, and international audiences.

This is the first year of the international competition, and there are two award categories: A Project Prize and a Work-In-Process Prize. The roster of jurors are exactly the sort of people that you'd want to take a good look at your work:

Vince Aletti, writer/critic, the New Yorker magazine;
Darius Himes, editor/curator, Radius Books (who also happens to be on the HHS! panel)
Julie Saul, gallery owner/director, Julie Saul Gallery;
Alec Soth, photographer;
Hank Willis Thomas, photographer;
Jamie Wellford, international photo editor, Newsweek;
Taj Forer and Michael Itkoff, editors, Daylight Magazine
Alexa Dilworth, publishing director, CDS
Courtney Reid-Eaton, exhibitions director, CDS

PROJECT PRIZE
For an extended documentary project or fine art series. Edit photographs with care as the project photographs will be judged on the coherence of the work as a whole. The full panel of jurors will choose one First Prize Winner. Each Guest Juror will also select one photographer to receive a Juror's Pick Prize and write a short statement about why he or she choose the work.

The First Prize Winner will receive a solo exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies, a multimedia Daylight podcast, a feature in CDS's newsmagazine Document, presentation in Daylight and CDS online galleries, and $1,000 for exhibition-related expenses.

Juror's Pick Winners will be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies and featured in Daylight and CDS online galleries. Ten Honorable Mentions will be named on Daylight and CDS websites.

To enter, submit: 20 images, a one-page artist's statement, and CV. $60
Deadline to enter: May 15, 2010, 8 P.M. (EST)

WORK-IN-PROCESS PRIZE
For a documentary or fine art essay/work-in-progress from a single body of images, the full panel of jurors will choose one First Prize Winner. Each Guest Juror will also select one photographer to receive a Juror's Pick Prize and write a short statement about why he or she choose the work.

The First Prize Winner will be featured in print in Daylight Magazine and CDS's news magazine Document, as well as in Daylight and CDS' online galleries and be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies.

Juror's Pick Winners will be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies and also be in Daylight and CDS' online galleries.

To enter, submit: 5 images, a one-page artist's statement, and CV. $30.
Deadline to enter: May 15, 2010, 8 P.M. (EST)

Download the full submission guidelines here and start applying right here!

The Camera Club of New York is one of the city's oldest art organizations, existing as a home for photographers to display, create, discuss and learn about photography since 1884. These days, CCNY continues to house lectures, exhibitions and residences, offer studio rentals, darkroom and digital facilities, and continue to pursue their commitment to photographic education and practice.

Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY) #1 by James Casebere

CCNY's Annual National Photography Competition is now open for entries, but only through next Monday, April 19th! With the purchase of a $40 membership to the club, there is no additional fee to enter the competition. Photographers can submit up to six images from a cohesive body of work, and the first place selection will receive a $500 cash prize. Each photographer will have the honor of having their work reviewed by James Casebere, whose striking and oftentimes haunting images include large-scale photographs of complexly constructed housing models. Several of these works are currently hanging on the second floor of the Whitney Museum as part of the 2010 Whitney Biennial, and can be seen as you step off the elevator. A bold and seemingly cheery palette couple with cinematic lightning to at first suggest that Casebere is capturing bucolic afternoons in the suburbs, but upon closer glance, the streets are eerily abandoned and windows shuttered.

Casabere will select applicants to be featured in an exhibition at the CCNY gallery in the summer of 2010 and winners will be featured on the CCNY website. Head over the competition website for full details, and to learn more about juror, James Casebere.

Foam, the quarterly international photography magazine that did a lovely 6-page spread on Jen in 2008 titled "Jen Bekman: Gallery Without Walls" [Click for PDF download], is currently accepting submissions for their forthcoming TALENT issue, to be published in September 2010.

Designed as a showcase for up-and-coming young talent from all reaches of the globe, the Foam editorial team will select portfolios to fill the double issue cover-to-cover. The 2009 TALENT issue featured 6 photographers, each with a sixteen-page spread and an additional twelve photographers, each with an 8-page spread. That's 250 pages of photography!

For all who have had the pleasure of leafing through an issue of Foam, it's heft and print-quality are part of what makes this opportunity the honor that it is. Transfigurations & Matter, two series published in last year's issue by 20x200 artist Michael Lundgren, investigate the components and remnants of various landscapes. The publication allows one to unfold the works by each artist in full bleed, enabling a truly standard-setting viewing experience for works in print.

To enter:
+ You must be a photographer between the age of 18 - 35.
+ Submissions will be accepted until May 1st, 2010
+ Read detailed instructions on submission format and requirements here.

The well-deserved accolades for Alejandro Cartagena are stacking up of late, and this morning, PDN named him to their highly lauded annual list—PDN's 30—of new and emerging photographers to watch in 2010. Two of the three images featured in the PDN slideshow will be on view in tonight's Hey, Hot Shot! Second Edition Exhibition at JBG. Alejandro will also be in attendance, so if you're in New York, come on by and offer your congratulations and greetings to the photographer himself.

David Walker of PDN writes a brief profile about Cartagena:

Alejandro Cartagena's work reflects a rigorous effort to make sense of unfamiliar surroundings--namely, his adopted city of Monterrey, but more generally, a country that is rapidly re-inventing itself economically, socially and politically....

His large-format landscapes reflect Mexico's economic stratification, its urban disintegration, and the cultural homogenization and depersonalization of its spreading suburbs. Similarly, Cartagena has explored portraiture as a way to examine culture and its "construction," he says.

We too were attracted to the ever-morphing urban landscapes that surround Cartagena: In Fragmented Cities, a disarmingly homogenized presentation of personal homes become lost as a field of indistinguishable shapes when observed from a distance. The landscape of mountains and billowing clouds in a blue sky contradicts the robotic geometry of the structures in the foreground. His Lost Rivers series also speaks to the deep ironies of "progress," and are a mournful study into nature, interrupted and exploited.

Earlier this year we had a chance to do a Q&A with Alejandro, and if you're neither in New York or in Seattle, where one of his photos will be on view at EXPOSURE: Critical Mass 2009 starting tonight, be sure to look at his portfolio online.

The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and The Honickman Foundation have announced that the one and the only William Eggleston will judge this year's CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography competition. Eggleston follows a line of renowned photographers who have judge the prize in the past including Robert Adams, Robert Frank and Mary Ellen Mark.

The winning photographer receives a $3,000 grant, publication of a book of photography, and inclusion in a website presenting the work of the award winning artists. Eggleston will also write the introduction for the book, which will be published by Duke University Press in association with CDS Books of the Center for Documentary Studies.

The competition is open to U.S. citizens of all ages who have not yet published a book-length work (described as: a publication which contains more than thirty of the photographer's images, and is sold through conventional book distribution channels). Each applicant must submit forty images from a larger body of work that, if he or she wins, would be the body of work from which the images for the book are selected. There is a $50 fee for entry and images should be submitted in digital form, on a CD.

In addition to Eggleston, all entries will be reviewed by a panel of photographers and editors, who will select 12 to 25 finalists by November 15, 2010. Finalists will be asked to submit ten sample prints from the body of their submitted work for the judge's review. The final winner will be publicly announced in January 2011.

Though Eggleston's groundbreaking work was in his use of color photography, this competition is open to both color and black and white submissions. Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies says of the addition of Eggleston as a judge, "William Eggleston brings to the First Book Prize his singular vision on the ordinary, his democratic view of the everyday...We could have no one better to locate the next great American photography book than him, no one more acute in seeing the brilliant fibers of the ever-present."

I had the opportunity to meet Eggleston in-person a few years ago at the unveiling of his monograph, 5"x7". Wearing a baby blue suit, jade cufflinks and a kerchief in his pocket, he'd lost none of his Nashville charm over the years. Most would agree that Eggleston's influence on the photography of the everyday is ineffably great, and that however common it has become to take photos of milk cartons and living rooms and women's hair, that perhaps there is something in the eye of one of the original beholders, that still sees something more than the rest of us.

Submissions for the 2010 competition will be accepted from June 15 to September 8, 2010. For guidelines on how to apply, FAQs and details about the award, visit the competition website.

The High Tide by Alejandro Chaskielberg, 2009 grant recipient

As we briefly mentioned in last Friday's week in review, Magnum photographer and burn magazine editor David Alan Harvey has announced that Magnum Photography is now receiving submissions for the 2010 Emerging Photographer Fund. This year's award is $15,000; funding is awarded with the goal of aiding a photographer to complete a personal project. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2010, with winners to be announced in June.

The jury is typically composed of both Magnum photographers as well as respected members of the gallery and publishing realms. Last year's jurors were: Martin Parr, Gilles Peress, Eugene Richards, Carol Nagar, Fred Ritchin, Maggie Steber, David Griffin, John Gossage and James Nachtwey.

Of the inception of the EPF and burn magazine, David Alan Harvey writes:

I started BURN MAGAZINE just before Christmas 2008. So we have been rocking along now for just over a month. BURN is a spinoff of my 2 year old Road Trips blog which was heavily influenced by both Alec Soth and Martin Fuchs. The very nature of my blog, and the evolving BURN, is a clear educational imperative and so in 2008 I created a $5,000 grant to be given to an emerging photographer who needed financial assistance with a project. Sean Gallagher was the first recipient of the Emerging Photographer Fund grant of $5,000. to continue his environmental series on the "desertification" of China...With the publishing world changing right before our eyes and a recession hanging over most of us, I do see more opportunities than ever before. It will take a quick wit and some nimble thinking and stealth, but I truly believe that the audience will in effect become the publishers. I do see a time for BURN when the online audience will be sufficient enough to create the sponsorship for not only stipends to finish self started projects, but will lead to an annual print publication as well.

Magnum is a hallowed name in the photography world, whose history and trajectory is as complex and fascinating as the members themselves (if you're ever in the mood for a great contextual read on the legendary agency, this is it). A persisting misconception is that Magnum is dedicated to straight documentary work. The award of last year's EPF to Alejandro Chaskielberg, whose work is concerned with the Paraná River Delta and writes that his intention is, "...to work with photography in the border between reality and fiction," should mitigate that point-of-view.

For more information on this fantastic grant, take a look at this entry in burn magazine and the submission form for the competition can be found here.

3rd Ward, the Brooklyn-based gallery, workshop and member-based design center where you can take classes on everything from circuitry to urban ecology to portrait photography has an open call to artists through March 1st, 2010.

The 2010 Winter Solo Show is a juried international at competition for work in all mediums: sculpture, photography, painting, printmaking, illustration, installation, graphic design, video and more. One selected artist will receive:

• + A $5,000 cash grant
• + A solo exhibition in 3rd Ward's gallery
• + A 3-month residency at 3rd Ward with a private live/work studio & access to all facilities
• + Airfare & shipping to and from 3rd Ward if you are not a NYC resident
• + A 2-page spread in 3rd Ward's Quarterly Magazine
• + Lots of NYC exposure!

The applications will be judged by Carol Lee (Editor, Paper Magazine), Dan Deacon (Sound artist + electronic musician), Rostarr (artist) and Paolo Salvagione (Design Engineer, The Long Now).

Sound good? Read more details on the site and you can apply right here 'til March 1, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (EST).

Center, based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, has four open calls for entries with a deadline of next Friday, January 27th. Center produces the annual Review LA which took place last week simultaneous to Photo LA. They are also host to Review Santa Fe, a fantastic weekend conference for photographers to meet with curators, editors, publishers and galleries, and have their portfolios reviewed.

The Project Competition is open to photographers working on documentary projects and fine-art series. One First Prize and three finalists are selected by the jurors, who include curator Tina Kukielski (Whitney Museum), editor Markus Seewald (GEO magazine) and our own Hey, Hot Shot! panelist and CEO of Chronicle Books, Nion McEvoy. The first prize winner is awarded $5,000 cash, an exhibition in Santa Fe, admission to Review Santa Fe and feature in an online magazine. To learn more about how to enter and to see the work of previous winners, visit the Project Competition page.

Center is also accepting submissions to Project Launch, an award to help a single photographer complete a body of work currently in-progress. This award is also open to documentary projects and fine-art series. A single First Prize of $3,000 cash is awarded, with an exhibition at Zane Bennett Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, Feature in Fraction magazine, a tuition voucher at the Santa Fe Workshops and participation in Review Santa Fe. Two honorable mentions will also receive $500 cash and participation in Review Santa Fe. For more info and to apply, click here. Project Launch will be juried by Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching, co-directors of Klompching Gallery.

The final competition is the Choice Awards, which selects individual photographs in three categories: Curator's Choice, Director's Choice and Editor's Choice. As for the other two awards, the winners will also receive exhibition and publication. Applications can submit up to four images for $25, with a $5 fee for each additional photograph. The Choice Awards are juried by curator Roxana Marcoci (MoMA, Dept of Photography), Directors Laura Valenti & Chris Bennett (Newspace Center for Photography) and editors Kathy Ryan (The New York Times) and Scott Thode (Fortune).

All of the photographers who apply to the above three competitions are also encouraged to submit to Review Santa Fe. Those who apply for both the Project Competition and Review are eligible for a discounted fee. Last year's The Review Santa Fe 100 contains a list of stand-out projects from last year, and is a frequent source of inspiration for work being made by emerging and increasingly established photographers today.

Several people in the JBP office have attended Review Santa Fe in the past, and the experience—both as a reviewer and a photographer—is exceptional and rewarding. If you have a body of work in progress, or recently completed, we highly encourage you to apply.

We're pleased to offer hearty congratulations to the ten talented winners of the Too much chocolate + Kodak film grant. Each recipient of the award will be awarded their choice of Kodak film to execute a new or ongoing personal project, to be completed during the 2010 calendar year.

Congratulations to all ten photographers:
Murray Ballard
Anna Beeke
Magda Biernat
Phil Jung
Collin LaFleche
Molly Landreth
Caitlin Price
Andy Spyra
Leah Tepper Byrne
Susan Worsham

We're also thrilled that two of our Hot Shots, Leah Tepper Byrne (read a recent Q + A with Leah) and Molly Landreth as well as Honorable Mention, Magda Biernat were among the ten selected from an entrant pool of over 450 contenders.

We look forward to seeing the work created with this grant this year. Head over to Too Much Chocolate to see the projects and images submitted and learn more about the TMC + Kodak collaboration.

2009 First Edition Hot Shot Parsley Steinweiss sent us exciting news that two exhibits featuring her work are both opening this week. The first, Derived, Borrowed, and Stolen, curated by Basak Malone and Sara Wight, runs October 1st–15th at Broadway Gallery (473 Broadway, 7th Floor) in New York. The opening is tonight, October 1st from 6:00–8:00 p.m and also includes work by Sarah Sharpe, Katie St. Claire, Sara Wight and Jordan Tate.

Frome the press release,

Derived, Borrowed, and Stolen brings together artists whose work addresses the nature of originality and its complicated relationship with the visual arts. The central theme and title is inspired by the well-known quote, "talent borrows, genius steals," which is said by some to have come from none other than Picasso (rumor has it that it might also have been Morrissey's, of the rock band Smiths, or even Oscar Wilde's). The uncertainty surrounding the origins of the quote is ironically apt. Linked by this common thread, the works in this show raise questions about what constitutes creativity in today's world, one in which the Internet has rendered copying and plagiarizing in the visual arts easier and more socially acceptable.

For those of you out in Colorado, Parsley's work is also on view at the 2009 International Exhibition of Fine Art Photography juried by Andy Adams (of Flak Photo), at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO. The opening reception is tomorrow, Friday, October 2nd from 6:00–9:00 p.m and will also feature images by 2008 Hot Shot Yijun (Pixy) Liao and Jen Bekman Gallery artist Brad Moore.

The Center for Fine Art Photography also has two open calls for juried exhibitions with deadlines on October 20th and October 27th. The first, New Visions will be juried by Michael Itkoff, founder of Daylight Magazine and offers the opportunity for cash prizes and being featured in various online galleries. The second, Portfolio Showcase, Volume 4 has an open theme and will select fifteen photographers for an exhibition, with the image from the winning portfolio to be used as the cover for the Volume 4 publication. Click on the above exhibition titles for more information about submissions and prizes!

And, last but not least: our 2nd Edition 2009 Hey, Hot Shot! competition closes in just a few, short weeks! The deadline is 8:00 p.m EST on Friday, October 23rd. Enter here!

Thanks to all who came out to the gallery last night to see the work of our five newest Hot Shots. We're excited to have their work on our walls and hope you'll stop by while the exhibit is up through Saturday, September 19th.

One of the prints it seemed everyone was gushing over was Kurt Tong's Guangzhou Zoo II, part of the People's Park series which we found out this morning won Kurt the editorial category of the Photography.Book.Now competition. And if that alone doesn't impress you, Kurt also received second runner-up honors in the category for his submission, In Case It Rains In Heaven.

Congratulations, Kurt!

Darius Himes, lead judge of the competition, wrote of Tong,

The fact that two of [Tong's] books were chosen as winners really speaks to the quality of his photographic vision and the strength of the projects themselves...The judges were really pleased to be able to support him.

We also extend hearty applause to the other winners of the competition, including the recipient of the Grand Prize, Rafal Milach for Black Sea of Concrete, Joshua Deaner in the art category for I Sell Fish, and Dennis Kleiman for Volume One in the commercial category.

All of the winners' books are for sale via blurb, and we hope you'll stop by and see Kurt's work in-person at the gallery as part of the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Exhibition.

We're pleased to pass along info that there's yet another great grant opportunity being offered to you photographers for all those projects you've been putting off until 2010:

Too much chocolate, which connects photographers of all ilks over the web is partnering with Kodak in an inaugural grant program that will provide 10 photographers with film for a personal project to be completed in 2010. All photographers who do not currently have representation are eligible to apply. The projects of the grant recipients will be exhibited online, in print, and in gallery spaces.

The cost of submission is only $10, so we encourage you to submit your work to this fantastic group of panelists:

Marcel Saba, Director of Redux Pictures
Clinton Cargill, Associate Picture Editor of the New York Times Magazine
Conor Risch, Features Editor of PDN
Andy Adams, Editor / Publisher of Flak Photo
Alison Morley, Chair of ICP's Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program
Audrey Jonckheer, Director of Worldwide Pro Photographer Relations at Kodak
Jake Stangel, Founder / Editor of too much chocolate

An FAQ about the grant can be found here and submission info will be available on too much chocolate on September 1st.

Untitled from the series Mongolia: The New El Dorado by Carlo De Keyzer

The Open Society Institute is now accepting submissions from both established and emerging photographers for their Moving Walls 17 exhibit. Moving Walls, founded in 1998, is committed towards supporting photography exploring humanitarian issues around the world. Applicants are asked to submit a body of work reflecting a complete body of work focused on a human rights or social issue and the OSI lists a number of topics of ongoing interest to them. These include: statelessness, migration, LGBTQI issues, Muslim communities in Europe, Women in post-conflict countries, economic downturn in the United States, Public health issues, and many others which you can see on the guidelines page for entering the competition. These topics are only meant to serve as an example—rather than a comprehensive list—of the types of portfolios of interest to Moving Walls.

Seven portfolios of 15-20 images will be selected from the pool of applicants, which must be accompanied by a one-page statement, and bio. The images must be submitted both as prints and in digital form. Submissions will be accepted through October 23, 2009 and the selected artists will be notified in late December 2009.

The OSI has provided tremendous support to a huge roster of talented photographers including Edward Burtynsky, Ed Kashi, and our own JBP artist and Hot Shot Nina Berman. Click over to Moving Walls to see some of the fantastic slideshows and essays from previously exhibited photographers.

A few weeks ago we mentioned the photographic duo, Day 19, was having a contest to win their (Jeremy & Claire Weiss') Canon 5D + one of their prints in exchange for a print of the winner's. Well, the talented final 10 have been selected and you have until next Friday, July 24th to vote! Click on over to the Day 19 blog to see all the finalists and cast your vote.

Submissions are due next Thursday, July 16th for the prestigious Aperture Portfolio Prize, so head on over and check out the guidelines because the deadline is fast approaching! The judges (including Lesley A. Martin who is one of our very own Hey, Hot Shot! panelists) are looking for an innovative photography portfolio of up to 15 images created in the last five years. One caveat: you have to be an Aperture subscriber to enter.

Here's what's at stake:

First prize is $2,500. The first-prize winner and runners-up are featured in Aperture's website for approximately one year. Winners are also announced in the foundation's e-newsletter, which reaches thousands of subscribers in the photography community.

Be sure to check out last year's winners, which includes Runner-up Colin Blakely, a Winter 2007 Hot Shot and two-time 20x200 edition-maker. In fact, Colin won for the very same portfolio that was the source of his two wildly popular prints on 20x200!

P.S. Both of Colin's prize-winning 20x200 prints (below) have sold out in the smaller sizes. But don't worry, they're both still available in our 30"x40" size for $2000!

Recollection of the Battles Fought Maintaining the Home Front by Colin Blakely

The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between by Colin Blakely

Image by Hot Shot and 20x200 favorite, Carlo Van de Roer

Holy cannoli!
You definitely want to secure a space on the Critical Mass Top 50 list, trust me. Have a glance at the index of past winners and you'll see many familiar stars from HHS, 20x200 or JBG fame. Wondering what exactly Critical Mass and Photolucida are all about? Well, in their own words:

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

The Critical Mass competition is juried by the best of the best in the photography universe (Jen is one of them, of course), so you should buckle down and register your best efforts here. The deadline for entries is around the corner on July 22nd! Hop to it and buona fortuna!

More information on photolucida.com.

The curated multimedia slideshow and potluck dinner known as Slideluck Potshow is back in New York for its thirteenth event at Canoe Studios at 7 p.m. on August 6th. Organized by Spring 2006 Hot Shot Casey Kelbaugh, the brand new Canoe Studios is located on the 14th floor of the historic Starrett-Lehigh building at 601 West 26th St., Suite 1462. Previous events have been held at renowned photo studios and events spaces all over New York, and all over the world.

Those selected present a maximum of 5 minutes with 15-40 images and an accompanying sound piece. All submissions are required to have accompanying sound, whether it be music, spoken word, or another form of noise. Submissions to Slideluck Potshow XIII will be accepted through next Monday, July 13th Tuesday, July 21st; there is a $15 handling fee for all entries.

Visit the website for more details regarding entry format and the schedule and organization of the night itself. The potluck dinner starts at 7 p.m. and is followed by the slideshow that starts at 9 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there!

Update!: The submission period has been extended to next Tuesday, July 21st.

London-based photography and fine art printer, theprintspace, is running a monthly photography competition judged by photographers Julia Fullerton-Batten, Harry Borden, Rob Jarvis, and Editor & director of 1000 Words Photography Magazine, Tim Clark.

Each month brings a new theme and a new round of the competition; photographers can submit up to 5 images each month. All images selected for monthly competitions will also be included in theprintspace's two-week long grand bi-annual group show at their gallery in East London, opening at a TBD date. Winners of the monthly competitions will also receive a mounted 20x24-inch print of their choice from theprintspace studio, an entry on the 1000 Words photography blog and continued exposure from theprintspace.

This month's theme is Portraiture and the deadline for entries is tomorrow, June 30th. Applicants must join theprintspace's Facebook group for further details about entry terms and conditions. Winners will be announced on July 13th and notified via Facebook. Good luck to all applicants!

Hahnemühle, purveyors of fine art papers that have filled many-a-portfolio book over the years, is celebrating their 425th Anniversary (yes, you read that right) with a photo competition that will award winners €36,000 in non-cash prizes (vouchers for products, gift certificates, etc). Submissions of four photographs printed on Hahnemühle FineArt DIN A4 paper paper along with an entry form must be sent in by mail by next Tuesday, June 30th. Prizes will be awarded in the categories of: People & Portrait, Landscape & Nature, Architecture & Still Life, and Student Awards and the winning images will also be shown in a touring exhibition in London, Berlin, Paris, New York and Tokyo among other cities.

For additional information and an entry form, see the Hahnemühle website.

Hey photographers! Need a new camera? DAY 19, the moniker for Southern-California based husband-wife photographic duo, Jeremy and Claire Weiss, has announced a new photography contest with the grand prize of a Canon 5D + one of their prints. The Weiss', recent winners in the 2009 PDN Annual for the Advertising Category, have made a mark as the West Coast's ultimate lifestyle-documentarians, taking their visions of beach days, afternoons at the skateboarding park and pool parties, to brands like Converse, Nokia and X-Box.

Join the DAY 19 Facebook group to get contest details. Jeremy and Claire will pick their favorite photos at an as-of-yet-undetermined date, due by July 15th, and trade the winner a Canon 5D and a print of theirs for a print by the winner.

Also see Jeremy and Claire's excellent Polaroid Project and blog.

Update!: Read about contest details HERE.

For all of you past, present, and future Hot Shots and contenders, here's another great photo competition for you to apply to: The Ian Parry Scholarship. First a little bit about the scholarship, The Ian Parry Scholarship was created to honor Ian Parry, who died at the age of 24 while on assignment for the The Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. The prize aims to support the career and art work of photography students and young artists alike.

Contenders should submit a portfolio of their work and a brief synopsis of the project they would like to undertake upon receiving the scholarship. The winner will recieve a prize of £2,500 towards his or her proposed project. The scholarship is sponsored by The Sunday Times, Getty Images, Canon, The Getty Images Gallery, The British Journal of Photography, and The Frontline Club. Needless to say, there will be some great people checking out the applicants.

If you'd like to apply, act fast! The deadline for this commendable award is June 24th, 2009 (less than a week away). For more information about the award and submission guidelines, make sure you check out The Ian Parry Scholarship website.

Arild Slicing Meat, 2009 by Erika Larsen

The 2009 Women in Photography grants have been announced and we are ever so excited that Erika Larsen has been named the recipient for a $3000 WIP-Lightside Individual Project Grant for her series Sami, The People. In this series she will be exploring the hunter-gatherer culture in a small village of indigenous inhabitants located in Northern Scandinavia. In her own words she describes her intent with the work as, "I have come on a search to understand the primal drive of the modern hunter by taking an inclusive look at an original hunter-gatherer society. I have come to see if when the land speaks there are those that can interpret its language. I have come in search of silence so that I could begin to hear again."

This isn't the first time that Erika has created a body of work exploring hunting culture and modern society's connection to it. Head on over to her website to look at two of her previous series The Hunt and Young Blood -- work that has won her a 2008 World Press Award, a 2008 Jersey State Arts Council Grant, and an accolade from Review Santa Fe; In addition to being featured in American Photography, Communication Arts Photography Annual, and Photo District News.

Erika's solo show is launching on wipnyc.org today, though its only just the beginning; Make sure you follow Erika's progress on her website.

The grant was awarded by Women in Photography, an organization co-founded/curated by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips (who you will recognize as a second edition 2008 Hot Shot!). The site features women from all experiences and ranks, so it is very exciting for Erika to be joining the club of very talented previous winners.The bimonthly shows on wipnyc.org are surely not to be missed and of course you can subscribe to their mailing list as well.

To be considered for a Women in Photography grant next year, you can submit up to five images and follow the guidelines detailed on the site.

The winner of this year's Emerging Photographer Grant is Alejandro Chaskielberg, whose essay The High Tide explores fictional scenarios staged by real people in the Parana River Delta. Shot in the glowing light of a full moon, the images are a far cry from "traditional" documentary images, where capturing fact is often the declared motive.

Chaskielberg writes,

My photographs set out to document the life and work of the islanders of the Delta. Using long-time exposures with full moon, they have allowed me to light part of the landscape artificially and also give the islanders a strange timelessness: an unknown source of light floods the scene with unreality and mysterious....

I am interested in the poetical and visual power of the water, and the relationship of the people and the environment. I think that the health of this resource is a worldwide problematic issue today.

My intention is to work with photography in the border between reality and fiction.

The grant is funded by The Magnum Foundation and $10,000 goes to Chaskielberg for continued work on personal projects.

See additional work on his website.

Magnum Photographer David Alan Harvey initiated the Emerging Photographer Grant last year along with other members of Magnum Photos Inc. The winning photographer will be selected this weekend at the currently on-going LOOK3 Festival in Charlottesville, NC for a $10,000 one-time grant. Last year, the Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to Sean Gallagher for his essay on the environmental "desertification" of China. Moving photo essays ranging from an essay about poverty in rural Kentucky to another about the water reserves or the Parana Delta in South America were submitted by this year's talented finalists. These two essays, and the 8 others that make up the ten finalists are available at burn magazine, Harvey's journal for emerging photographers. See their essays here:

In the Mood for Love by Cristina Faramo
The White Family by Carl Kiilsgaard
Nordeste by Marco Improta
American Dreams by Victor Cobo
Thirst For Grit by Lance Rosenfield
Missing Link by Tatiana Grigorenko
Lords of the Ring by Eric Espinosa
Sakhalin by Michael Christopher Brown
Aftermath by Simona Ghizzom
Trapped by Jenn Ackerman
The High Tide by Alejandro Chaskielberg

For information on this year's winning photographer and next year's Emerging Photography Grant, stay tuned to burn magazine.

Jen Bekman, and New York Times Photo Director, Kathy Ryan were amongst the curators of this year's American Photography 25, selecting 351 winning photographs from a record-breaking 10,100 submissions to be included in AP25, a hard cover book that will be distributed internationally in November. In addition, 171 images received two votes, and were chosen for the web gallery, which will be launched in conjunction with the book.

Both the book and the website slideshow feature a wide range of images spanning from an iconic portrait of President Obama taken by Peter Yang, to the intimate scene of a family dinner by Hey, Hot Shot! contender Katrina d'Autremont. We also congratulate JB artist Brad Moore, Hot Shot Bob O'Connor, 20x200 edition-makers Kevin J. Miyazaki and Rachel Papo, and HHS! contender Ryan Monaghan who have been selected for either the book or web gallery!

The slide show will be up for a limited time in preparation for the official launch on November 12th and advance copies AP25 will be available in September at ai-ap.com (with a limited-offer discount). Congratulations to those selected for this year's AP25!

Ms. Jen Bekman will serve as juror to the Photographic Center Northwest's 14th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition, Photo-Op. Winning images will be exhibited at PCNW in Seattle July 13th - September 4th, 2009. In addition, cash awards in the amount of $1,000, $500, and $250 will be awarded to first, second, and third prize winners; each will also receive a $75 gift certificate of Blurb Scrip.

Photographers of all levels and processes are encouraged to apply; the juror will look for work reflecting a larger series. The entry fee is $47 with a minimum of five images. Submissions will be received until 9:00 p.m. on Friday, May 15th.

More information about the competition and entry forms are available at PCNW's website.

The New York Photo Festival returns for its second year and has announced a call for entries for the New York Photo Awards 2009. The competition is currently open for submissions in editorial, fine art and advertising, and student categories--and will continue accepting work through May 1st. The winners of the contest will be announced during the festival on May 15th at St. Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

From the press release,

The New York Photo Awards Ceremony is scheduled to return to St. Ann's Warehouse on Friday, May 15, 2009, starting at 8PM. The work of the Award Winners and Honorable Mentions will be presented on the big screen before a packed audience of industry luminaries. Fourteen major awards will be publicly presented to the Award Winners, and 28 artists will receive Honorable Mention certificates.

All Award Winners and Honorable Mentions will enjoy unprecedented visibility for their work. In addition to the New York Photo Awards ceremony, their work will be showcased on the New York Photo Festival website, and published in leading photo magazines. These artists are also automatically eligible for inclusion in a beautifully produced New York Photo Awards Annual, available for purchase online through the New York Photo Festival website.

Works produced or published between January 1, 2008 and April 15, 2009 are eligible for submission. More information about submitting work, the festival, the jury, and the awards ceremony are available at the New York Photo Festival website.

Jen Bekman Projects, Inc. is now accepting entries for Hey, Hot Shot! 2009.

What is Hey, Hot Shot!?
Hey, Hot Shot! offers unrivaled opportunities for emerging photographers to have their work promoted online, reviewed by top-notch panelists and exhibited in our New York gallery. Now entering its fifth year, the international competition has been lauded by curators, critics, educators and journalists.

We are also pleased to announce that photographer and former Creative Director of Colors magazine, Stefan Ruiz, has joined ranks with our seasoned panelists, Jen Bekman, Christine Collins, Dana Faconti, Caterina Fake, Stephen Frailey, Raul Gutierrez, Darius Himes, Jenni Holder, Julia Leach, Nion McEvoy, Lesley A. Martin and Kent Rogowski.

Stefan is just one of many exceptional additions + surprises we have in store. As Hey, Hot Shot! is becoming, increasingly, well, competitive, we're working hard to ensure that it continues to bring photographers — at all stages of their careers — the exposure, recognition, and support they deserve. Stay tuned for more details!

five hot shots x NYC exhibition + (20x200) = incomparable exposure
Our panel will select five Hot Shots to exhibit their work in a two-week show @ Jen Bekman Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, 20x200 editions of each photographer's work are released online.

cold hard cash
Each winning photographer will be awarded a $500 honorarium.

ultras go solo
One photographer of the five Hot Shots will be selected selected as an Ultra. Each Ultra is represented by Jen Bekman Gallery and slated for a solo exhibition.

in it to win it
As always, we'll select contenders to feature daily on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog throughout the entry period. Contenders and honorable mentions will also be considered for 20x200, Jen Bekman Projects' online endeavor which offers limited edition prints at affordable prices.

So what are you waiting for? Get your work out there: Apply Now!

Not quite ready to apply? Join our mailing list to keep up to date.

We only accept submissions online, via this website.

The deadline for entries is Friday, May 1st, 2009 @ 8pm (EDT).

Hot Shots will be announced on Thursday, May 28th, 2009.

There is a $60 handling fee for your entry.
Submissions are open to everyone, from anywhere in the world!
The competition is open.

Questions?

Check out our informative and frequently updated FAQ, follow us on Twitter, or find us on Facebook.

Interested in seeing work from previous winners?

Check out the Hot Shot Index for all our previous winners, visit the Hey, Hot Shot! blog or look at the photo sets on Flickr.

Ready to go? Apply Now!

The deadline for the 50th Annual Communication Arts Juried Photography Competition is just a scant 36 hours away! Any photographs produced or published between March 12, 2008 and March 6, 2009 are eligible for submission and winning images will be published the Communication Arts Photography Annual and on commarts.com. Images will be selected by a jury of designers, art directors, and photographers from all over the country.

Submissions are being accepted in the following categories: Advertising, Books, Editorial, For Sale, Institutional, Multimedia, Self-Promotion, and Unpublished. Visit the site to see entry fees for single images and series' of work (limited to five photographs).

Click here to apply and for more information regarding the competition.

Blurb has announced the second annual Photography.Book.Now International Juried Competition awarding $25,000 to the photographer with the best self-published book. The competition will be juried by Darius Himes, a Hey, Hot Shot! panelist, writer, editor, and the founder of Radius Books, a non-profit company dedicated to the visual arts. (Take a look of some of his required reading!).

In 2008, Jen Bekman artist, Beth Dow (whose work will be exhibited by the gallery's booth at the PULSE New York Art Fair this week) took the grand prize for her project, In the Garden, a collection of platinum palladium prints exploring cultivated landscapes.

Applicants can apply to Fine Art, Editorial, and Commercial categories through July 16th, 2009 and in addition to the grand prize winner, a first-prize winner in each category will have the opportunity for a private portfolio review with the panel.

More information about the application and award are available at Photography.Book.Now.

Magnum Photos and HP have announced the inaugural Magnum Expression Photography Award which aims to raise awareness and inspire change through photography. This year's theme is "Communities."

From the Magnum blog:

A sense of community is at the core of our lives, in some cases it unites us and in others it divides us from one another. This universal force is omnipresent in humankind and our diverse forms of expression, from acts of benevolence and kindness to movements of oppression and isolation. Each manifestation of human action has its causes and effects, its beneficiaries or victims. These impulses and actions are shaped by our individual identities and reflect our collective spirit. The judges urge participants to embrace the theme of communities and consider the expansive nature of how it pervades our lives and affects our perceptions. Participants' submissions may be for a completed project or one that is ongoing.

The award will be juried by four Magnum photographers: Alec Soth, Jonas Bendiksen, Paolo Pellegrin and Susan Meiselas, and one HP large format printing representative will select 20 finalists. The winner will receive a $10,000 grant, HP's large format Designjet Z3200 for fine art printing, archival pigment inks, fine art paper and additional prizes from contributing partners Blurb & PhotoShelter.

There is no fee or geographic constraints to apply and two honorable mentions and the remaining 17 finalists will also receive awards. The award is open for submissions on March 16th and closes on May 31st, 2009. Finalists and winners will be selected in June 2009.

More information and a press kit are available at the Magnum Expression site.

Earlier this week, Kara gave you the run-down on AI-AP's American Photography 25 contest. A month ago, she gave you ample warning about Center's upcoming deadline. And yes, I realize, you may have been stressed and fretting because all calls had the very. same. deadline. tomorrow. January 23rd. And stress makes you procrastinate, of course... Never fear, I have news for you.

The good:
AI-AP's deadline has been extended to January 30th.

The bad (and/or possibly ugly, if you're like me and still editing your portfolio):
Center's deadline is fast and firm. TOMORROW. JANUARY 23rd.

If you haven't yet, get your work together for three incredible opportunities: The Singular Image Competition, The Project Competition, and Review Santa Fe. As if the fame, glory, and cash already associated with winning the Singular Image Prize or the Project Competition, and/or participating in the Review wasn't enough, this year, selected participants will also have the opportunity to be featured on 20x200. 20x200 is a sponsor for this year's competitions and as a result of this partnership, Jen Bekman will select one image from the Project Competition winner's portfolio and one image from the entire pool of winners to create an edition for 20x200. The clock is ticking on these opportunities (TICK, TICK, TICK) apply now!

Wondering what you're up against? Smart, talented and motivated young artists tend to get themselves out there, and I mean, out there, all over the place, kind of like our friend Jen Bekman. See what Jen's been jurying (not mention who she's jurying with) and scope out your competitors (aka the tba winners) here: Center for Photography's Photography Now, here: PDNEdu's Student Photo Contest 2009, and your last and final reminder (maybe), make sure you're in the running here: American Photography 25.

The Center for Photography at Woodstock is a great place. If you haven't visited yet, you should. (Winter '07 Hot Shot Mickey Smith has a show, COLLOCATIONS, there now.) And if you're into photography competitions, then you should take advantage of the Center's extended deadline for Photography Now. And you should take note of the fact that Ms. Jen Bekman is this year's juror.

The deadline, even extended, is soon: this Friday, October 24, 2008. See details after the jump and at the Center's website. Winners will have their work published in the Center's publication, Photography Quarterly.

It's time! We are now accepting entries for 2008's first edition of Hey, Hot Shot! We're all super excited about the great changes in store for applicants and winners. And, remember, all applicants are also potential contenders for features on this very blog.

Hey, Hot Shot! offers unrivaled opportunities for emerging photographers to have their work promoted online, reviewed by top-notch panelists and exhibited in our New York gallery. Now entering its fourth year, the international competition has been lauded by curators, critics, educators and journalists. This year we'll sharpen our focus on fewer hot shots, giving them even more exposure. Read on for the details.

Fewer hot shots + longer exhibitions = more exposure
The competition will now be bi-annual. In each competition 5 photographers will be selected to be part of a two-week showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Cold hard cash
All winning photographers will be awarded a $500 honorarium.

Ultras go solo
At year's end 2 Ultras will be selected from 2008's 10 Hot Shots. The Ultras will be represented by Jen Bekman and slated for solo exhibitions at the gallery.

In it to win it
As always, we'll be selecting contenders to feature daily on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog throughout the entry period. Contenders will also be considered for 20x200, Jen Bekman's newest online endeavor which offers limited edition prints at affordable prices.

So what are you waiting for? Get your work out there: apply now!

We are only accepting submissions online, via this web site.
The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, June 17th @ 8pm(EDT).
Winners will be announced on Wednesday, July 9th @ 1pm (EDT).
There is a $60 handling fee for your entry.
Submissions are open to everyone (from anywhere in the world!).
The competition is open: APPLY NOW!

A few weeks ago, Rob Haggart at A Photo Editor put out a call for work. He curated a slideshow meant to forge new relationships between photographers, photo editors, and art collectors. It's up now, on his blog, and with an embed code so that others can host the show too. It's called I Like These Photos (to the point, perfect), and it features the work of 297 (!) photographers. It's a novel way of collecting images, for sure.

He writes:

Attention art buyers and photo editors, this is a free promo that’s meant to supplement all the other ways you find photographers to hire. I created it see if there might be an easier more efficient way to quickly look at 200-300 photographers. Compared to the weekly promo pile this works pretty good. Plus, if you’re like me, you remember a picture and not necessarily who took it so you can come back to this slideshow and find the name and website of the photographer whenever you like. This project only works if you find work you like and hire the photographer. I can create more of these but it’s a complete waste of time if it doesn’t connect buyers with photographers. That’s the only reason I did this.

Are you a photographer who missed out this time? Don't worry, Haggart promises, "we’re going to do this again with different editors in a couple months."

By Rachel Hulin, shown in the Hey, Hot Shot! Spring 2005 Showcase

Rachel Hulin at Shoot the Blog has done all of the hard work for you. She's compiled a list of opportunities -- competitive, fellowship, grant, publishing -- open right now to photographers like you. It's an exhaustive list, so, seriously, you should really thank her. And report back on your progress.

P.S. More info about our own competition, Hey, Hot Shot!, coming soon.

P.P.S. Hulin, herself, is a Hot Shot; she showed in Spring '05, our very first show.

It seems to me that one of the most difficult things about being an artist is getting one's act together and getting work out there. If only each of us would jump on every opportunity we ran across, well we'd be a lot better off—procrastination can be a killer.

Here is one not to miss, The Photographic Resource Center's annual juried exhibition EXPOSURE. An amazing resource, the PRC is "an independent non-profit organization that serves as a vital forum for the exploration and interpretation of new work, ideas, and methods in photography and related media." Their Annual Juried Exhibition promotes some of today's most promising photographers and is an opportunity not to pass up.

AND, our own Jen Bekman has been asked to be guest juror for 2007 and will be giving a lecture there in March as part of the amazing line-up of speakers for the spring.

The deadline has been extended through February 18—that's Sunday!

Exposure: The Annual PRC Juried Exhibition
Deadline: February 18, 2007
Entries can be postmarked or hand delivered to the PRC by Sunday and the entry form can be downloaded here.

You're reading about it, thinking about it, so why not enter before it passes you by. Good luck!