Hey, Hot Shot! Entries for Hot Shots News

Pete and Friend by HHS contender Rachel Graves

I tend to be drawn to conceptual work and often to work that examines the medium itself. So I was immediately interested in aspiring Hot Shot Rachel Graves's work with found/family photographs. Full disclosure: I, too, sometimes work with family photos. Whereas I isolate details in order to explicate all I can from a single image, Graves reports,

"For this I am working directly with the family photographs my parents have - every single one of them, and rephotographing each one until it is so disintegrated and so far removed from what it was that I can no longer find anything familiar in what I see."

What great work.

With that, and with my confessional, I inaugurate this cycle's round of Contenders posts. Check back every day for a quick peek inside the submission portfolio of one of the entries for the current edition of Hey, Hot Shot! And, also, you should enter now!

CSAV Chicago, New York by Summer '07 HHS winner Shuli Hallak

Summer '07 Hot Shot, Shui Hallak, has a show at Chelsea's Moti Hasson Gallery. The gallery will show work from the same series that won her a coveted HHS spot.

CARGO, a solo exhibition of photographs by SHULI HALLAK is up from MAY 8-JUNE 29, 2008 at Moti Hasson.

Congratulations, Hot Shot!

Shuli Hallak's recent photographs document cargo in its state of transit between production and consumption. Almost every manufactured product humans consume spends time in a shipping container, yet consumers remain largely unaware of the process by which goods are actually transported. Hallak describes a cargo ship as a "sublime, moving city" and finds beauty in the fundamental necessity of the shipping industry, in the romance of travel over sea, and in the raw, precise, purely functional architecture of ports. In "Cargo," Hallak unveils an essential stage in the delivery of goods from manufacturer to consumer and invites viewers to share in her process of discovery and in her fascination with what she finds.

Visit Shuli's HHS page, her website, and her current show.

The past few weeks have been great, but, look, we need a break.

And, by "break," I mean a short pause here as we get ready, technically, to launch the first Hey, Hot Shot! edition of 2008.

So grab your portfolio, and start working on your statement and bio; I look forward to seeing them when we return.

Today's 20x200 edition is photogaphs by Luke Strosnider, who, as Ms. Bekman points out in her newsletter, is a colleague of Hey, Hot Shot! alums Kirby Pilcher and James Rajotte at the Visual Studies Workshop.

You don't get her newsletters? You're missing out. Sign up to get gossip like this and first crack at each 20x200 edition.

Ian Baguskas's Rincon Artificial Island and Pipeline, Ventura, California, 2007 40x51" C-print

Peggy Roalf reviews Sweet Water, Spring '06 Hot Shot Ian Baguskas' current show at Jen Bekman Gallery, in Design Arts Daily.

She writes:

"In the last several years, photographers around the globe have taken up the plight of the earth, further endangered today through climate change, deforestation, and drought. The landscape, with human activities accepted as a 'natural' aspect of the view for better or worse, provides the raw material, from both a visual and philosophical standpoint. One of the most beguiling exhibitions on view in New York is 'Sweet Water,' photographs by Ian Baguskas, at Jen Bekman Gallery."

Baguskas' Sweet Water is up until May 3, 2008.

Carlo Van de Roer's Hey, Hot Shot! winning entry.

Carlo Van de Roer, a Fall 2007 Hot Shot, is almost a sell out. And he will be, soon, surely. For the second time. His Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia), 2007 is today's 20x200 edition. And there are only two prints left! His previous 20x200 edition, Untitled (Astoria Park, Queens, New York), is long gone.

Carlo's work is in high demand. He won the 2006 ADC Young Gun Award, the 2007 IPN Go Indie Award, the 2007 PDN Pix Digital Imaging Award, and most recently he won 1st place for fine art at the 2007 APA Awards. So you should hurry.

• The New York Times reports that MFA students at SVA show at the MoMA. In the bathroom. The show lives on, online.
• In the 40th anniversary of New York Magazine, they attempt to define a New York Canon from 1968-2008, and they also run a few Q&As with "iconic New York artists about creating their masterworks." Mark Stevens talks to Cindy Sherman about her Untitled Film Stills. She discusses process, character creation, and, to some extent, intent.


• Earlier this week, the Pulitzer Prizes were announced. Adrees Latif of Reuters won for Breaking News Photography "for his dramatic photograph of a Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar." Preston Gannaway of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor won the Feature Photography category "for her intimate chronicle of a family coping with a parent's terminal illness."


• Mike Stimpson uses Legos to recreate famous photos from Robert Capa's Death of a Loyalist, to Cartier-Bresson's Behind the Gare Saint Lazare. "Strobist.com taught me everything I know," he says.


• It's photo auction time. Controversy over the oldest — or just an old— photo. Even Gawker's covering the photo auctions, drawn to the nudes. Phillips de Pury canceled a sale of Diane Arbus prints because of concerns about a recent lawsuit. There was even a Fine Photobooks Auction at Christie's.


• Cathy Horyn discusses Juergen Teller's role in Marc Jacobs' ad campaigns. How great is it to see a photographer so in charge of a commercial campaign? Small thing: the NYT blog swapped out the photo they initially had (Teller's ad that featured Victoria Beckham's legs splayed out of a shopping bag) at the top of the post. Why?

Winter '07 Hot Shot Mickey Smith

Why visit one gallery, when you can visit 75+ all at once? The AIPAD Photography Show runs today through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory. "More than 75 of the world's leading fine art photography galleries will present a wide range of museum quality work by contemporary, modern and 19th century masters at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City," says AIPAD.

"AIPAD is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying and selling photographs as art. Acting as the collective voice of the art photography dealers that make up its membership, AIPAD maintains ethical standards, promotes communication within the photographic community, encourages public appreciation of photography as art, concerns itself with the rights of photographers and collectors, and works to enhance the confidence of the public in responsible photography. AIPAD members provide a wide range of services to the public, such as exhibitions, appraisals, expert opinions and consultations."

And while an armory full of exhibitors can feel like overload, it's also a great chance to quickly visit with some people you might not usually have the time (or the access) to see.

From The Town and the City, by Spring '07 Hot Shot Mark Marchesi

Spring 2007 Hot Shot Mark Marchesi has a solo show at Nelson Hancock Gallery, in DUMBO. In The Town and the City, Marchesi travels between New York City and his home in southern Maine. He compares and contrasts, but also proves some similarities that might not be noticable at first glance.

"The Town and the City" is up through April 26.

Stay tuned for more from Mark and interview updates with other Hot Shots too.

You Are Important by Spring '05 Hot Shot Stephanie Cinelli, one of this week's 20x200 editions

9-11-02 by Spring Edition '07 Hot Shot Nina Berman, available now at 20x200

Writing from Fotofest in Houston, Texas, where she's currently conducting lots of portfolio reviews and "hobnobbing with the photorati," Jen Bekman declared, this morning, that it's going to be an all photo week on 20x200.

First up is 9-11-02, by Spring Edition '07 Hot Shot Nina Berman. Berman's work brings the war home in a quietly stunning and heartbreaking way. She's not screaming about the war, but her images are strong and certainly vocal.

Of her Purple Hearts show, last summer at Jen Bekman, Holland Cotter wrote, in the New York Times, "One of the more shocking photographs to emerge from the current Iraq war was taken last year in a rural farm town in the American Midwest. It’s a studio portrait by the New York photographer Nina Berman of a young Illinois couple on their wedding day." That image, Marine Wedding, went on to win a World Press Photo award.

Untitled #17, from "Stories," by Winter Edition '06 Hot Shot Jessica Bruah, which I wrote about in The Village Voice, back when they paid me to think about art shows in neat little 75-word blurbs.

Hi. I’m Jen Snow. I’ll be blogging here at Hey, Hot Shot! I used to write about art and shoot gallery openings for some newspapers and magazines. My photos and writing have also appeared in/on places such as The New York Times, Artforum's "Scene and Herd," McSweeney's, Rolling Stone, and Gawker's "Team Party Crash." I have a couple of jobs and a few websites and I’m excited to join Jen Bekman just as Hey, Hot Shot! is preparing some great big changes and a fancy new redesign. More on those soon. Please be in touch with comments and tips.

Please join me in congratulating the 2007 Hey, Hot Shot! Ultras:

Nina Berman
Karolina Karlic
Brad Moore
Birthe Piontek

Browse the links below and you'll get an idea of how hard it is to choose just four people from the forty talented photographers who have exhibited in this year's editions of Hey, Hot Shot!:

Fall 2007
Jennifer Boomer * Scott Eiden * Todd Forsgren * Shauna Frischkorn * Georg Parthen * Birthe Piontek * Marie Sauvaitre * Ross Sawyers * Ian van Coller * Carlo Van de Roer

Summer 2007
Dan Boardman * Afshin Dehkordi * Rachael Dunville * Jonathan Gitelson * Shuli Hallak * Beth Herzhaft * Gregory Krum * Kalpesh Lathigra * Ari Salomon * Willamain Somma

Spring 2007
Clint Baclawski * Nina Berman * Michael Julius * Karolina Karlic * Mark Marchesi * Casey Orr * Justin James Reed * Pavel Romaniko * Kelly Shimoda * Daniel Traub

Winter 2007
Holly Andres * Colin Blakely * Jeffrey Krolick * Juho Kuva * Molly Landreth * Brad Moore * Kirby Pilcher * Ben Roberts * Mickey Smith * Ka-Man Tse

Nina, Karolina, Brad and Birthe are now represented by Jen Bekman Gallery and will all participate in the upcoming exhibition Ne Plus Ultra, the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, which opens on Friday February 8th, 2008.

2007 was a great year for Hey, Hot Shot! We had an amazing array of international talent exhibiting at the gallery, and getting involved in all kinds of other gallery related programs: art fairs, jen@joe and 20x200 among them.

2008 is shaping up to be extra super great. We're making big changes to the competition as it enters it's fourth year: there's a site redesign in the works, there will be some significant (and awesome!) changes to the competition's format and we're cooking up an amazing array of opportunities for Hot Shots past, present and future.

We'll start accepting entries for the Spring edition in a few short weeks, and will be sharing all the juicy details with you then.

For now, be on the lookout for 20x200 editions from the Ultras, and from many of the other talented Hey, Hot Shot! alumni.

Ne Plus Ultra, the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, opens @ Jen Bekman Gallery on Friday February 8th and will remain on view through Saturday March 15th, 2008.

Image Credit: Ahern Rentals, Westminster, California (2006) by Brad Moore

From the series Sub Rosa by Birthe Piontek

At last! This Fall's Hot Shots have arrived. Someone just got back from Paris Photo mere hours ago and was appropriately exhausted - hence the delay of a few hours before posting the winners. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. Or should I say roll wiz ze panshez. We learned that in Paris.

Without further adieu ado:

Jennifer Boomer
Scott Eiden
Todd Forsgren
Shauna Frischkorn
Georg Parthen
Birthe Piontek
Marie Sauvaitre
Ross Sawyers
Ian van Coller
Carlo Van de Roer

Congratulations! Pencil in the opening for the Fall HHS Showcase on Wednesday, December 12th from 6-8. The showcase will be up until Sunday the 16th - you have four days to check it out!

Extra special thanks to our shining panel stars: Joerg Colberg, Stephen Frailey, Darius Himes, Youngna Park, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Ian Baguskas, Christine Collins, and Joseph Holmes.
It wasn't easy to decide between all you talented hot shots, but here's a list of some very honorable mentions: David Balhuizen, Jason DeMarte, William Hannigan, May Heek, Mickey Kerr, Adam Krause, Mollie Murphy, Nandor Ordog, Toni Pepe, Corine Smith, Damian VanCamp and Jon Wasserman

A big merci to everyone who participated, and congrats again to the winners.

Zanele Ndlovu by Ian van Coller

Ian van Coller
Currently residing in Bozeman, Montana

Website
www.ianvancoller.com

Work Statement

This project focuses on the intersection of post-apartheid black and white identities via photographic portraiture and oral recording of black domestic workers.
There are more than 1.5 million black South Africans, primarily women, who still serve as maids and nannies in white households. Although these domestics and their employers remain separated by an enormous gulf in race, culture, education and poverty that characterizes much of South Africa today, they are often wedded by an intensely intimate, personal, and awkward interdependence. In this project, my intent is to capture some of the complexities that all South Africans face in creating and asserting post-Apartheid identities in the face of dramatic economic and cultural realities.
The women in this portrait series were photographed in the homes where they are employed. They were asked to choose their own dress and posture as a means to express their identity within that environment, and became active participants in the construction of these images.

Bio

Ian van Coller is an artist and photographer who grew up in apartheid era South Africa. After receiving a National Diploma in Photography in 1991 from Technikon Natal in Durban, van Coller moved to Arizona in the southwest of the United States. He spent nine years in Tempe where he completed his BFA degree in Photography (from Arizona State University) and worked for 5 years as a photogravure collaborative printer and partner at Segura Publishing, a small fine art printing company in Tempe (www.segura.com). In 2000 Van Coller moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he received his MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico. He currently lives in Bozeman, Montana where he is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Montana State University. Van Coller returns to South Africa every year to work on art and photography projects. His work has been widely exhibited in the United States and South Africa where his work is included in many museum collections including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Fogg Museum, The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and The South African National Gallery (IZIKO).

Untitled (One) by Ross Sawyers

Ross Sawyers
Currently residing in Seattle, Washington

Website
www.rossawyers.com

Work Statement

The spaces in my photographs are influenced by living in increasingly smaller spaces in closer proximity to others in increasingly dense neighborhoods and housing developments of a city like Seattle. I construct the situations I photograph as a way to challenge my understanding of the buildings and neighborhoods I am referencing. Building, then photographing models allows me to exaggerate and over-state what I observe in my surroundings rather than simply replicating it. The environments depicted in my photographs are close to the actual, but deliberately are not accurate copies of reality.

Recently my intentions have shifted from representing specific received ideas to the exploration of why I am so attracted to these types of environments. As the spaces I create and mediate get further away from the reality I know, I have found it increasingly important to incorporate details familiar to us as humans in living spaces in order to ground the images in a sort of reality while at the same proposing situations outside the expected.

Bio

Born in 1979, Ross Sawyers moved from Iowa to Kansas City Missouri in 1998 to study photography at the Kansas City Art Institute. He received his B.F.A. from KCAI in 2002 and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2007. Sawyers was recently chosen by the Art in Loop Foundation in Kansas City to be the inaugural artist for the semi-annual commission ArtWall. Concurrent with the unveiling of ArtWall, he was invited back to the Kansas City Art Institute in November of 2006 as a visiting artist. In March of this year Ross was invited to present his art work at the Society for Photographic Education national conference “Look Out� in Miami Florida where he was also presented with the Crystal Apple Award. Sawyers’ work is part of the Belger Family Foundation Collection in Kansas City, the Joseph and Elaine Monsen Collection and the King County Portable Works Collection, both in Seattle. He was selected for the 2006 CoCA Annual His work was seen in his recent solo show at Platform Gallery in Seattle in July and looks forward to a solo exhibition at Gallery 4Culture in January.

Slab City, USA by Marie Sauvaitre

Marie Sauvaitre
Currently residing in New York, NY

Website
www.mariesauvaitre.com

Work Statement

Reflecting on globalization, mobility and the new roles of borders, ERRANCES - French term for something between exile and wandering - explores and pays homage to nomads’ home through color landscape photographs.

For months I traveled across cultures and continents, living amongst nomads, while creating a poetic visual evidence of their “homes�. Starting in Jordan’s Bedouin tents, to Slab City’s trailer parks in California, through the gypsy outposts of Beauduc, France, I then explored New York and completed my photographic journey in Israel’s Negev desert.

From my own experience of exile, I am drawn to these tensions between the pulls of nomadism and the search for the feeling of home. When looking at nomadic dwellings, I am touched by their vulnerability, their transience and the enigmatic play between interiority and exteriority that they engage with the landscape in which they integrate.

My belief in the social responsibility and moral agency of the artist made me choose these places carefully: they cover various regions (the US, Europe, the Middle East) and religions (Muslim, Christian, Jewish). By juxtaposing these economically and religiously contrasting cultures in my images, the arch-narrative of the project goes against a dichotomization of the world. My goal is to challenge the viewer’s curiosity for nomadism, and in a bigger scheme, “Otherness�.

In today’s hybrid post-modern world, one must welcome difference, tolerance and the cohabitation of antagonisms.

Bio

Marie Sauvaitre is a French photographer, now residing in NYC.
After graduating with an MBA from the University of Houston in 1994, she obtained her MFA Photography from the NY School of Visual Arts in 2005.
Her fine art work has been shown since by various galleries in:
- New York: in 2007 in Chelsea at the Robert Steele and Mixed Greens galleries, in 2006 at the Storefront for Arts and Architecture and in 2005 at the Exit Art Biennial.
- Buffalo: Chautauqua Center for Visual Arts and
- California: Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Davis.
Her editorial work is published in magazines internationally (Photoeye Magazine or Time Out New York - USA, Masa Acher - Israel, Korean Photography - Korea, Il Corriere della Sera - Italy) as well as in books such as: Title TK (Anarchive Publications France), New York Downtown Style (Garden City, Taiwan) and Witty Design Objects (Garden City, Taiwan).
Over the past two years, she expended her teaching experience to being a Guest Lecturer in Undergraduate Photography, as well as an Adjunct Professor for Graduate Photography, at the NY School of Visual Arts.

From the series Sub Rosa by Birthe Piontek

Birthe Piontek
Currently residing in Vancouver, British Columbia

Website
www.birthepiontek.com

Work Statement

Similar to numerous other photographers my first take on photography was rather journalistic. Inspired by artists like Jeff Wall, Stephen Shore, Anna Gaskell and the work of David Lynch my pictures became increasingly staged over the last years.

In order to tell my stories, I frequently use a combination of portraits and stills, which currently constitute the lion’s share of my work.

Two subjects have always been of great interest to me: innocence and adolescence – both of which playing major roles in my latest project Sub Rosa.

The intimate moments captured in Sub Rosa oppose the innocent vulnerabiliy of youth to otherwise rather somber settings. We are confronted with introductions and conclusions of stories from a world we once were privy to – all the while hinting at secrets and revealing none.

Bio

I was born and raised in Germany and studied Communication Design and Photography at the University of Essen where I received my M.A. in 2004.

During my time at University, I started working as a freelance photographer for various clients and magazines. To get the experience of living and working in another country I moved to Vancouver, BC in 2005.

Since then my work has been exhibited internationally, and featured in publications and magazines including 'The New York Times Magazine', 'The Globe and Mail', 'Stern' and 'Die Zeit'. My work has been recognized a number of times, most recently by being honored with the Santa Fe Juror's Choice Award in 2007.

Village by Georg Parthen

Georg Parthen
Currently residing in Dusseldorf, Germany

Website
http://www.georgparthen.de

Work Statement

My "Lanscape" series is an ongoing project about reality and its photographic representation. I digitally construct photographs of landscapes that are implausible but appear authentic at the same time. It is up to the viewer whether to believes them or not. I want the images to arise doubts whether the shown reality really does exist or not. This works best when viewing the images in real-life size. Also the images represent my personal interpretation of beautiful landscapes.

I studied documentary photography in Essen with Jörg Sasse and just got my diploma a few weeks ago. All my former works are rather strict documentary works about contemporary phenomena as for example carports and mulitplex cinemas. In my new series i try to transcend the idea of documentation further. What is a documentation of a place that does not exist?

Bio

I grew up in Wiesbaden, Middle Germany, then did my social service in the middle of nowhere in the Harz mountains near the former German-German border and then moved to Essen to study photography. I did that for the last 7 years and got the best education I could ever imagine.
The thing that always interested me most in photography was the fact that you tell something or create a feeling without actually saying it.

Robert (Playing Smuggler's Run: Hostile Territory) by Shauna Frischkorn

Shauna Frischkorn
Currently residing in Willow Street, Pennsylvania

Website
www.shaunafrischkorn.com

Work Statement

My work explores popular culture through everyday life.

Game Boys is an ongoing portrait series of young men engaged in a familiar pastime—they are playing video games. For the past three years, I have been photographing video game players who come to my studio, sit in the dark, and play for hours while I quietly watch and shoot. The studio setting lends a theatrical quality to this commonplace activity. Sometimes, I watch the game to see a particularly interesting sequence, but mostly I just watch the game players. I seek to explore the popular culture phenomenon of video games by examining the “gamers� who play them. Because my work is rooted in the tradition of portrait photography, I look beyond the hype surrounding video games and focus on the players themselves. Traditionally, the belief has been that a portrait could tell us a great deal about a subject: a window into a person’s inner character could be found through facial expressions. Although the expressions on my subjects may appear to be passive, the gamers in these photographs are actually performing fast-paced maneuvers and executing split-second decisions, making these portraits of intense concentration.

Bio

Shauna Frischkorn received her MFA in photography from SUNY Buffalo in 1998. She currently lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and teaches photography at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She had a two person exhibition at Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art in New York in April, 2007. Publications include American Photography 20, Time Magazine, and Mother Jones Magazine.

Painted Bunting, 2007 by Todd Forsgren

Todd Forsgren
Currently Residing in Boca Raton, Florida

Website
www.toddforsgren.com

Work Statement

To create his paintings, John James Audubon shot birds and contorted their bodies into dramatic poses by wiring and pinning them onto boards. The quirky and flamboyant postures he used were not immediately popular with the scientific community, but today they are renowned.

It was Roger Tory Peterson who pioneered the idea of a field guide. His guides highlight observable marks, pointed out by carefully placed arrows, which allow for the identification of birds at a distance. Peterson painted thousands of systematic illustrations of birds in static poses which he based on photographs, bird skins, and field observations. Field guides have allowed hobbyists, artists, and scientists to identify birds with binoculars instead of a shotgun.

Ornithologists now use mist nets instead of shotguns. These nearly invisible nets are set up like fences and function as huge spider webs, catching unsuspecting birds. The researcher carefully extracts the bird from the net. Each bird is measured, aged, sexed, and banded with an individually numbered anklet. Then the bird is released.

I photographed these birds while they are caught in mist nets, moments before the ornithologist extracts them. Here, the birds inhabit a fascinating space between our framework of the bush and the hand. It is a fragile and embarrassing moment before they disappear back into the woods, and into data.

Bio

I grew up along the shores of Lake Erie, just was of Cleveland, Ohio along a major migratory bird flyway. John James Audubon’s Monograph, Birds of America, and Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America were the first pieces of artwork I loved. I spent days studying and trying to emulate Peterson and Audubon as a bird-watching teenager.

As an undergraduate at Bowdoin College in Maine, I studied biology, focusing on using molecularly biology explore ecosystem ecology. However, when I picked up a camera during my senior year, I realized that my youthful passions of birdwatching and gardening lay in photography, not biology. When I graduated in 2003, my only desire was to take pictures.

Since then, I have traveled widely with my camera. My work grew substantially in 2004-2005, when I studied at the SMFA in Boston for a year. Aside from the bird photographs in this portfolio, I have spent much of my time photographing urban and community based agriculture projects. Across the US as well as in Cuba. Next February I begin a Fulbright Fellowship to look at the new agriculture projects in Mongolia.

Sequim, WA by Scott Eiden

Scott Eiden
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY

Website
www.scotteiden.com

Work Statement

As a history major in college, my senior thesis was a study of the history of the Utopian colonies in the 19th century in the Pacific Northwest. This involved a great deal of traveling to these locations and meeting with people who had some type of link to the colonies. But as I was traveling, I began to meet people who, in their own way, were trying to find their utopia. These people and this search stuck with me for a long time. As I began to take photography more seriously, I wanted to go back and explore this theme further. Having moved to New York, the trips to the Northwest became more personal (being able to visit family, friends, memories, etc) and the project took a more intimate turn. These are images of an admittedly idealized utopia of the Pacific Northwest - my Home. The images are a type of fiction in many ways, an idealization of a place I could no longer live in.
The title of the project comes from a book by Edward Bellamy that was credited with starting the surge of the Utopian movement, and a quote from Thoreau - "It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning around."
The images submitted were photographed with an 8x10 view camera.

Bio

I grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and attended the University of Puget Sound, where I graduated with a BA in History. I have no formal training in photography, but have been taking pictures since I received my first camera at 11 (a Yashica from my mother - I still have it). I began printing my own work in 2000 at the Photographic Center Northwest, and continue to do so in New York. I also print for other photographers (Sze Tsung Leong and Len Jenshel among others) as a freelance printer.

Foreign Vessel in Harbor, Dutch Harbor, Alaska by Jennifer Boomer

Jennifer Boomer
Currently residing in Dallas, Texas

Website
jenniferboomer.com

Work Statement

After I finished studying photography in school, I made the move that so many other aspiring photographers make and I headed straight for NYC. I lived in the city for a year, working as a freelance digital technician for various fashion photographers. I worked hard, learned the business and more importantly, learned what type of photographer I did not want to be. After my year of living in the city came to an end, I made the decision to stop assisting, to build a portfolio and to begin my photographic career on my own terms. In the back of my mind I had always kept stories that an old boyfriend had told me about his former job as an Alaskan fisherman in the Bering Sea. He painted a picture of a vast and colorful place, somewhere that I wanted to experience firsthand. I chose to move from Manhattan to The Aleutian Island Chain in Alaska since it was the furthest place west I could possibly move in Alaska and still be in the United States. I have always been attracted to extreme lifestyles and isolated places, so moving to Dutch Harbor, Alaska seemed to be a great place to live and to work at becoming a better photographer. Photography is how I explore my surroundings and what results is photographs from my fascination with what I find. The following “Greetings from Dutch Harbor� series is the result of my intimate 2-year relationship with the environment and community existing on the edge of the earth in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Bio

I was born in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas in 1979 and went to the same school with the same group of students from preschool through high school. I discovered photography in high school and it afforded me the opportunity to stay out of trouble and saved me from otherwise boring weekends hanging out at the local mall. At 16, I saw Diane Arbus’ photograph, “Retired man and his wife at home in a nudist camp one morning, N.J. 1963.� It was Arbus’ nudist camp photos that inspired me to venture out of my comfort zone and to photograph people hanging-out at the Downtown Dallas Bus Station. I became facinated with the transitory lifestyle and was eager to photograph the people at the station and to learn their stories about where they had been and where they were going. Needless to say my mother almost had a heart attack when she found out that her teenage daughter was spending her weekend nights at a seedy bus station. Since leaving NYC in 2006, I've been living the gypsy lifestyle, traveling across the country while documenting people and places that I discover.

Untitled #6 (Catskill, NY, USA) 2006 by Carlo Van de Roer

Carlo Van de Roer
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY

Website
www.carlovanderoer.com

Work Statement

I am interested in the landscape as a recreational and social space. Swimming pools and the sea dominate much of my work, as I attempt to examine and reconnect with the environments that surrounded me growing up in a small coastal community.
This series focuses on outdoor swimming pools that have been drained or abandoned.
When full, the surface of a swimming pool is a flat continuation of the pool edge, obscuring what is below the surface. When drained, the depths are revealed -- allowing us to examine the empty pool postmortem.
These locations were once bustling social environments, and visiting them was a collective, public experience. Now deserted by swimmers, the experience of visiting these pools is solitary, still and private. Some have become bogs, homes or gardens -- new lives that often go unobserved. Photographing them can be a voyeuristic and dark experience. I have focused on an intimate view of these locations, using tight crops which also emphasize the absent, making these photos as much about what is not there as what is there.

Bio

Carlo Van de Roer was born in 1975 in New Zealand, where he received his BFA in photography from Victoria University. Since leaving New Zealand in 1999, Van de Roer has traveled and photographed extensively in countries throughout Central America, Asia, Europe and the United States. He currently lives in New York.

"Kay" from Rachael Dunville's Springtown

If you're in New York and haven't yet made your way to Peer Gallery to see Summer HHS! Winner Rachael Dunville's solo-show Springtown, you need to A-S-A-P. Up since mid-September [and closing 10/20] the show has gotten oodles of press and praise. In the current edition of The New Yorker, you can find Vince Aletti's write up on the show. Very cool. And maybe you noticed that the New York Post's Page Six Magazine dubbed the show "enchanting." Very true. And then there are the props from all across this wide blogosphere - Rachael is getting her dose of well earned love.

In Toronto? Check out Rachael's work in the Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward at Lennox Contemporary up through 10/21 - details here. Hot Shot Alums Andrea Chu and Shen Wei are also in the show which heads to New York in November.

And wait, there is more, much more.

Wednesday evening Rachael will join her fine work at Peer for a discussion on the show. What better way to spend your Wednesday night than with Rachael? RSVP now.

October 17th, 6:30pm Peer Gallery - 526 W 26th Street | suite 209 | 212-741-6599

And the cherry on top, her brand spankin' new catalogue is available for your order here and here. Or you can pick up a signed copy when you stop by Peer this week. Rachael is rockin' and oh how proud we are!

Fourth Runner Up by Liz Kuball

A rerun yes, but a rerun worth another look. Hey, Hot Shot! Summer 07 Honorable Mention Liz Kuball is coming back for round two. And not only did she get her entry in early, she has also been keeping us abreast of her goings on, and my, my, my has Liz been busy.

Perhaps you recall our previous post on Liz's work? Let me refresh your memory. A Southern California-based photographer, in her ongoing series In Store Liz scrutinizes consumer society, summing up our material nostalgia by turning her camera on the spaces we send our most special of junk to fester and die. I'll be the first to say, I find her images a bit scolding, as I try not to recall that at the age of 22 I already have storage units in three cities across the country. Need to be reminded of the precious goods you stored away just to loose the key? Go check out the work here.

Now, allow me to take this moment to toot our horn... According to Liz's jam-packed newsletter, not only has she been cranking out new work, but it seems her appearance on this dear blog followed by a HHS! HM got her quite a bit of attention. And I quote her, "being featured on the blog brought lots of visitors to my site, including Ian Hunter and Star Rosencrans, owners of the Shotgun Space gallery in Los Angeles, who asked me to participate in a two-person show this fall with Johanna Reed, featuring work from my In Store series." And lucky you in L.A. - the show opens tonight and runs through the end of the month!

Inside/Outside @ Shotgun Space
2121 San Fernando Rd, Suite 11
Opening tonight! Saturday, Oct 6, 7 - 10PM

It's always a treat to see how many super cool photographers cross our path and to see just how many of them are makin' it happen. Because the fun doesn't stop here, Liz also has work in two group shows opening this month.

See, Make, Document @ White Wall Gallery - Detroit 2750 Yemans Street - Hamtramck, Michigan Opening: Saturday Oct 13, 7 - 10PM

Photography Now @ The Julia Dean Gallery
801 Ocean Front Walk Ste 8 - Venice, California
Oct 19 - Nov 30 - Opening: Friday Oct 19, 7 - 10 PM

And to top it all off, Liz has updated her website, so go take a peek and let her know what you think. [She also keeps a consistent blog worth your love and attention.] Liz, keep it up!

It's the weekend. Time is on your side, so use it. Get it in + get it out there. Enter today!

An image I found here when I googled "Russia" as Dan Boardman suggested I do to get an idea of what he is working on.

Let's play a game of "Where's Waldo?". Or how about an HHS version of "Where Are They Now?" So, where are they now? ('They' being the infamously talented and lucky winners of the most recent edition of HHS.) Well, the answer is: all over the place. In fact, I recently heard from a few of our latest additions to the Hot Shot family and they really are showing there work all over the place.

Jonathan Gitelson is currently exhibiting his work in Germancy alongside another jB friend in a show entitled Chicagraphy: Jonathan Gitelson, Matt Siber and Brian Ulrich, which is at Galerie f5.6 in Munich. The show runs from September 15 - November 3, 2007.

And on this side of the Atlantic, a lady Hot Shot, Miss Ari Salomon, will be participating in the 3rd Annual IAPP Juried Panoramic Photography Contest and Exhibition which is presented by the International Association of Panoramic Photographers. The show will run from October 16 - November 2, 2007 at the Valley Photo Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. Salomon will also be participating in "Landscape Revisited: Challenging the Traditional Approach to Landscape" held at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, California from November 2 - November 21, 2007.

And as for the always humorous Dan Boardman, he writes, "Right now I've been eating a lot of candy and working my new project Russia, but that won't be done until the end of the winter for sure (I hope). If you want a preview just Google image search Russia or Tetris, or just play Tetris." Aside from all the candy, Boardman will be participating in a group show entitled "Multiples" held at Gallery 831 in Columbus, Ohio, which runs from October 13 - October 28, 2007.

From the entire jB team, we wish our winners the best of luck with all their shows this upcoming fall and we hope that those of you who happen to wander into Munich, Mendocino, Massachusetts, or Ohio (at the appropriate times, of course) will make your way to these galleries and support these awesome photographers!

As for me, I can be found on my boyfriend's couch, attempting to cram in a last-minute reading of Walt Whitman's Memoranda During the War. Tune back in for more from me later!

So, to re-cap: two major events collided on my calendar last week and created an eventful, pleasant evening out of a typical Wednesday night. That is to say, the Summer 2007 Showcase of Hey, Hot Shot! opened to a lively reception over at the gallery whilst simultaneously the Jewish world celebrated the incoming new year (shana tova!)

Having been all over the place last Wednesday (and all of last week, as well), the exhibition was as new to me as it was to all of the wonderful neighborhoodies who turned up for a glass of white wine and a look at the show. And what a pleasant surprise it was! Having sifted through the work consistently throughout the summer and have followed the process, it was incredible to see the prints in person, which were extraordinarily more beautiful seen face-to-face.

Plus, we had an awesome turn out of people who were dangerously spilling out into the street with their *ahem* glasses of water... And, it was nice to see the jB crew (whom I have been so far away from now that I am swamped with schoolwork). Also, the Summer '07 Hot Shots were well-represented at the event: Rachael Dunville, Gregory Krum, Willy Somma, Dan Boardman, and Kalpesh Lathigra (who came out all the way from Britain) were all spotted mingling with their eager audience.

Unfortunately the showcase is now over--I know, it's sad! but we had to make room for HHS alum Kate Bingaman-Burt's show, which opens tomorrow! If you didn't get to see it, don't fret! The Hot Shots are now popping up all over the place. If you haven't done so yet, check out their websites and roam the NYC gallery scene for more of there work. For example, Ms. Rachael Dunville is the star of her first solo show over at the Peer Gallery, which runs through October 20th and features images from her Springtown series.

Otherwise, I hope to see you all before sundown at tomorrow's opening over on Spring Street, and keep checking in with the blog where we will be posting continuous updates on our big, happy family of Hot Shot photographers.

Until then, adieu!

A Hot Shot, an Ultra, a 20x200 staple - Kate Bingaman-Burt is a bonafide bekman star. And tomorrow night her anxiously awaited solo-show opens here at the jb!

Yes, Kate Bingaman-Burt's Obsessive Consumption opens this Friday and quite a show it promises to be. Initially winning us over with her photographs in the Summer 2006 Edition of HHS! [perhaps you recall the rack of wedding dresses or the mountain of shopping carts] this time around she's taking over our humble abode, filling it to the brim with Obsessive Consumption goodies, a KBB wonder world.

And in the meantime [because by this point you're bound to be bursting with excitement] you can get your hands on a Bingaman-Burt print over on 20x200. Ms. Kate is part of our fantastic launch pad, her piece "I Bought All of These" is hand-colored and out of this world in its greatness.

So let's make it a date! Tomorrow night please join us at the jb and help us celebrate Obsessive Consumption with some smashing + schmoozing soiree fun.

Obsessive Consumption - Kate Bingaman-Burt
Opening Reception: Friday September 21 from 6-8PM
September 22 - October 27, 2007

jen bekman
6 Spring Street [between Elizabeth + Bowery]
gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday 12-6PM

See you soon!

Have you heard the news? Or I guess more like read the news. This past Wednesday, the New York Times published a story on Nina Berman's Purple Hearts exhibit, which is now on view at the gallery and has been receiving a lot of attention from the press lately. You can check out the article here.

I was at the gallery the other day as camera-toting TV men came in, one after another, to interview Nina. And the phones were ringing off the hook! I spoke with several war veterans from all over the country--Texas in particular, who were all itching to say a few words to the artist. With all this attention, the show has luckily been extended an extra week, until Saturday September 8th, so those of you who haven't braved a visit to the gallery have a little more time to do so now.

Also, you may have heard through the gallery's mailing list about the exclusive Artist Talk we're hosting this upcoming Wednesday evening, August 29th. Unfortunately, the event is overbooked, but if you want to try to squeeze in, shoot an e-mail over to us and get yourself on the waiting list!

So, you may ask, why do I bring this information up here, on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog as opposed to the gallery blog? Well, it's because Nina is one of our most recent Hot Shot winners from this year's spring edition! While at the gallery last Thursday, Nina was talking about how she entered the contest at 2 AM on a restless night after hearing about it from a friend. Fast-forward just a few months later and she has to her own widely acclaimed solo show at the gallery. Wow!

It's exciting to see what good could come out of the competition--and so soon! Meanwhile, Jen is busy curating the upcoming HHS! Summer Edition Showcase, which is set to follow Berman's show and I must say, it's going to be good!

Wasim Khan by Spring '07 HS Nina Berman

I'm sitting here at the gallery with the frightening pieces from Nina Berman's solo exhibition Purple Hearts, which opened last night at the gallery.

Purple Hearts is series of portraits and interviews with U.S. soldiers who have been injured in Iraq. You can get a sneak preview of the images on view and the press release here. I'm absolutely terrified of the photos, I have to admit. When I told Nina last night that I was afraid to be alone with the photos, she nodded and said, "Yeah, they're like ghosts." She told me that I had to find one I could relate to and I've found a few, one of them being the sad portrait of Wasim Khan, pictured above.

Berman is actually a recent Hot Shot winner from last season's Spring edition. Marine Wedding, which is featured in the current exhibit, was also on view at the gallery during the Spring Hey, Hot Shot! showcase.

Come see the show at the gallery while it lasts and enter the competition, because being a Hot Shot sure pays off!

ATTENTION READERS!

Alison Grippo, a member of the jb family and Spring '06 Hey, Hot Shot! winner, has participated in the whirlwind Master-Disaster Photography Duel, which is a timed photography competition between teams of photographers and stylists.

We think her photos rock and you should think so too. And when you do think so, you can click here, and then here, and finally here, and vote for Alison's photos! Each of those links should bring you to a page showing 5 photos competing in each category, so click on the photo you want to vote for and a vote button will appear at the bottom of the list. So, check it out!

Assignment One: Character
Assignment Two: Dialogue
Assignment Three: Inspiration

Voting ends Monday, August 6th, so vote now and let's wish the best of luck to Alison!

It's prime Hot Shot season here at jen bekman and submissions are beginning to roll in. That means its about time for you readers to get a glimpse into what kind of Hot Shots are competing this summer. So, that's where I come in. I'm Marina, a recent add-on to the jen bekman bandwagon and a new, enthusiastic blogger. You religious readers should remember me from a previous post I wrote where I introduced myself with great fanfare. However, if you don't, I will benevolently forgive you and offer you this generous re-introduction. With Alice away traipsing around Europe, I'll be filling in as your dedicated Hey, Hot Shot! newscaster. Stay tuned for daily updates on the competing photographers as well as announcements about the competition.

Meanwhile, for those of you looking to enter, you have until Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 11:59pm to submit your work. So, get the ball rolling and enter the Summer 2007 edition of Hey, Hot Shot! here.

hello hot shots and friends! i'm marina--one of the newest additions to the intern crew here at jen bekman. you may have recognized my excellent art-handling skills on the walls of the gallery in this past week's Spring '07 Hey, Hot Shot! showcase, which i helped hang. so, if anything was crooked or not proportionally spaced, it was all thanks to my poor recollection of fractions.

unfortunately, it is now too late for you to judge me via the the presentation of the show, which came to an end this past sunday. so, hopefully you got a chance to come in and see it. if not, you can take a look at some of the work on our flickr page.

if you did come in, then you'll be able to agree with me that the work displayed was very diverse and the atmosphere in the gallery was vibrant. i thought the most dramatic work shown was nina berman's sole piece in the show: a harrowing portrait of a marine wedding.

you can read an interview with nina berman on salon, where she talks about the wedding portrait, the series it came from, and the couple it features.

on another wall (and in another world) was karolina karlic's colorful photograph we did this, from a series called "the dee" set in detroit.

in another corner were four ethereal casey orr pieces from a series called "by water" and across from them were pavel romaniko's images of simple, homely interiors he shot in russia. i can't stress enough how varied the images were! make sure to check out all the winning artists' sites. you can find a list of them here.

all in all, i found the show to be a great display of different visions in every corner encompassing an array of new talent.

now the walls of the jb are sad and empty, waiting for a fresh coat of paint and a new installation. stay tuned to the blog, all you future hot shots, because we'll begin accepting submissions for the summer competition very, very soon!

We just installed a new edition of jen@joe, our ongoing exhibitions at Joe locations in NYC. The 13th St location is now chock full of Hey, Hot Shot! photography.

Read up on the details over on Personism, or even better, go have a look yourself! Joe serves the finest brew in NYC (in my opinion and all that) and the work looks awesome. Joe is located at 9 East 13th Street between Fifth Avenue and University Place.

Fishing, Port Mahon, Delaware by Spring HS Casey Orr

A friendly reminder––just in case you haven't made your way on over to our home on Flickr, we've posted work from each of our new Hot Shots for your browsing delight. Enjoy.

Untitled (Hanoi no.2) by Spring HS Kelly Shimoda

The list is in! The time has come to announce the 10 artists selected for the Spring 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! And the winners are...

Clint Baclawski
Nina Berman
Michael Julius
Karolina Karlic
Mark Marchesi
Casey Orr
Justin James Reed
Pavel Romaniko
Kelly Shimoda
Daniel Traub

Pencil it in, the showcase soiree in honor of our Hot Shots is Wednesday June 13 from 6â€"8PM. Get on down to the jb, see the work, and support the winners. The show will be up from June 14â€"17, 2007 and quite a show it promises to be!

Special thanks to our fabulous group of panelistsâ€"â€"Anthony LaSala, Lesley Martin, Jörg Colberg, Raul Gutierrez, Jenni Holder, Youngna Park, Christine Collins, and the Ultras, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a whoppin' thank you goes out to all of the participants for sharing their work with us.

And what work it is! Our panelists were posed with what seemed the impossible feat, narrowing it down to a mere ten proved just as difficult as expected. Some honorable mentions are in order:

Matias Aguilar, Rob Ball, Nelson Chan, Larissa Cleveland, Kate Copeland, Shane Lavalette, Maria Passarotti, Will Sanders, Michelle Sank, Deidre Schoo, Tamir Sher, Rylan Steele, Joseph Tripi, Ching Wah Lam, Greg Wasserstrom, Emily Winton

Congratulations to all! Stay tuned to the HHS! Blog for more news, fun facts, and other tidbits of information for your pleasure and entertainment.

Procrastination is a killer and old habits sure do die hard. So at this very last of minutes, being our oh so gracious selves, we're going to give you one whole extra week to apply to this round of HHS! A full set of days for you to get 'em in and get it out there. Having said that, why not do it now––Enter today.

Deadline: Monday May 14 @ 11:59PM

Good luck!

Oh yes, our Hot Shots make us proud. The list is out for The Griffin Museum of Photography's 13th Annual Griffin Juried Show and I spy many a' familiar name. Fall 2006 Hot Shot Shen Wei, a regular when it comes to receiving recognition for his increasingly amazing body of work, received The Griffin Award. And Ultra Joseph O. Holmes and Winter Hot Shot Colin Blakely are on the list! The three will join a pretty impressive group of photographers in the show opening late August.

And a little sugar on top, this week's edition of Artkrush is jammed pack full of art blog fun. If you're looking for more daily distraction, they've compiled a nice little list of blogs to read––HHS! + Personism + all the regulars to be reading + more.

As always, more good news sure to come.

Oh the excitement for a Thursday afternoon––Raul Gutierrez has signed on as a panelist for the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Raul, already an invaluable member of the jen bekman family, is a Hot Shot himself, a Spring 2006 Hot Shot to be specific. An amazing photographer, writer, and thinker, Raul's website and blog offer endless hours of consuming pleasure. Mr. Gutierrez has also been working hard with Ms. Bekman on the anxiously awaited, awesomely-awesome 20x200 project. [If you find yourself unfortunately out of the loop, read about that excitement here.] And, you're in luck, an old HHS! interview with Raul can be found here.

Raul Gutierrez is a photographer and design consultant who has had an eclectic career working behind the scenes in Hollywood, on Broadway, and on the internet. He recently showed his long term project, Travels Without Maps, at the Nelson Hancock Gallery in New York and has been in of a number of group shows including Hey, Hot Shot! Gutierrez also maintains Heading East, a website that is often (but not always) about photography. He is currently working on a book of Travels Without Maps as well as a number of photography related internet projects.

We love Raul and you should too! So much excitement, such a f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c panel.

Auditorium by James Rajotte

Summer 2006 Hot Shot James Rajotte is adding another notch to his belt. In addition to being a Hot Shot and featured in PDN's 2006 Photo Annual of Student Work, James has earned his Master's in Fine Arts in photography from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY.

The culmination of his blood, sweat, and tears, (trust me, I am also an M.F.A. candidate and it's rougher than you think) will be on display at the Visual Studies Workshop Gallery, 31 Prince Street, Rochester, NY from April 7th - 27th. That's right, the opening is this Saturday (tomorrow!) at 7:00 p.m.

Scott, 2006 by James Rajotte

With blasted, James joins the ranks of photographers working as sociologists, including, but not limited to, Phillip Toledano, made famous by his portraits of video gamers, and Paul Graham who photographed people watching television in the late 80's and early 90's.

He's in good company but his photos stand out because they are slightly ambiguous. His subjects seem genuinely engaged but sometimes sad, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes alienated, and always alone, illuminated by the off-color glow of a monitor, and seated in surrounding darkness. The work gives rise to the questions he poses:

What, if any, are the visual opportunity costs of an electronic society? Why look at actual reality when we are able [to] fulfill our intellectual and emotional needs anonymously and vicariously via meta-realities?

The show proves to be worth the trip to Rochester. If you absolutely can't make it, do see the work on Rajotte's website.

Hey, Hot Shot! Winter Edition installation view shot by Joseph O. Holmes

We are currently accepting entries for the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!.

The deadline? Tuesday May 8, 2007.

Hey, Hot Shot! offers amazing visibility to emerging photographers - in person, online and, now with our new publishing program, in print.

Our panel keeps getting better and better too. In addition to the usual suspects, we'll be joined by Dana Faconti of Blindspot for this round.

Being a finalist puts you in fine, fine company: the HHS! Alumni are some of the very best photographers around.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet it's not just the finalists who benefit - contenders who are featured on our blog bask in the glow too - their web site traffic skyrockets and their work is seen, and remembered, by thousands.

The Spring Edition Showcase opens at the gallery on Wednesday June 8, 2007. In the meanwhile, bookmark the Hey, Hot Shot! blog and stay up to date on the contenders and Hey, Hot Shot! news. There are some big announcements in the pipeline!

That's right. Tonight is the night to head on over to the gallery for some fun for art's sake. Come see the fantastic work, support our Hot Shots, meet and greet, refresh your palate, inspire yourself to attain Hot Shot status so you too can bask in such glory, whatever motivates you. If every single one of the winners can bring themselves from all over the globe to our homebase, well you can to! And as always, it promises to be quite the scene, everyone who is anyone will be there...except me :(

Hey, Hot Shot! Winter 2007 Edition
opening reception: wednesday march 7 | 6pm - 8pm
on view: thursday - sunday march 8 - 11 | noon - 6pm

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

And if you simply cannot make it tonight, but do live in the 100-mile radius, make sure to schedule in a time to see the show. It's a good one!

Cruisin' by Casey Kelbaugh

Check out the current issue of Photo District News to see Spring 2006 Hot Shot Casey Kelbaugh's favorited photograph Cruisin'. Casey's image, featured in all of its full-page glory, won the Best of Category for Snapshots in PDN's World in Focus: the ultimate travel photography contest. The shot, taken in Belize, also won an Altpick award last year.

See Casey's image and the other selected photographs in the online gallery here.

At this very moment Casey, camera in hand, is in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti capturing more potential award-winning shots. We wish him luck. Our Hot Shot Alums continue to make us proud. What fun and excitement will the Winter 2007 group bring? We expect nothing but the best.

Untitled by Kirby Pilcher

My, how time does fly. You've had a week to become acquainted with our sizzling new set of Hot Shots. If you haven't checked out the HHS! work on flickr, I suggest you do so right now. Here at the jb we are pulling ourselves from the daze of excitement that usually follows the breaking news, and frantically beginning preparation for what I am positive will be yet another wild and crazy showcase. An unusual quirk of this bunch, they've managed to scatter themselves across the globe. Our Hot Shots hail from Oregon, Michigan, Sweden, Washington, California, London, Minnesota, and New York. And you can expect to see their sweet smiling faces when you come support their work opening night.

Be there: Wednesda,y March 7th from 6-8 PM.

As always, more fun to follow.

The Bute Street Goldfish, Kowloon, Hong Kong by Ka-Man Tse

Oh yes, it is here! The time has come to announce the 10 photographers selected for the Winter 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Here we go, the winners are:

Holly Andres
Colin Blakely
Jeffrey Krolick
Juho Kuva
Molly Landreth
Brad Moore
Kirby Pilcher
Ben Roberts
Mickey Smith
Ka-Man Tse

And now the fun begins! Pencil it in: the showcase soiree in honor of our new Hot Shots is Wednesday March 7 from 6-8pm. Make sure to see the work and support the winners. The show will be up from March 8-11, 2007 and what a show it promises to be!

Special thanks to our fantastic group of panelists—Anthony LaSala, Leslie Martin, Joerg Colberg, Amit Gupta, Eileen Gittens, Jenni Holder, Youngna Park, Christine Collins, and the Ultras, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a gigantic thank you goes out to all of the participants for sharing their work with us.

Our panelists were faced with what promised to be the impossible, narrowing it down to a final ten proved just as difficult as expected. With so many fantastic entries coming our way, some honorable mentions are necessary:

Sarah Claire Ahlers, Alejandro Cartagena, Hin Chua, Jill Frank, Nicole Hatanaka, Shane Lavalette, Seth Lower, Jason Reblando, Paula Rebsom, Beth Riemer, Caroline Shepard, Michael Simon, Mandy Sue Springer, Will Steacy, Monika Sziladi, Daniel Traub, Andrea Wallace, Keith Kin Yan, Christopher Young

What a round, congratulations to all! Stay tuned to the HHS! Blog for more news, fun facts, and other tidbits of info for your entertainment.

Fiona by Holly Andres

Holly Andres

Currently residing in Portland, OR

Website: http://hollyandres.com

Work Statement:
The re-occurring themes in my work explore the experiences in my life that have impacted and constructed my identity. I am interested in revisiting, recreating and preserving that history, but am especially fascinated with the interweaving of fact and fiction, and finding a place in which autobiography and fictitious narration come together.

The photographs that I'm submitting are from a series titled, Stories From a Short Street, which is an on-going project inspired by childhood experiences. For this series I have created a fictitious group of siblings that are loosely based on the archetypes of my own family. Each image is constructed to enact a specific moment, convey identity through space, and depict a psychological portrait.

My photo process has been informed and influenced by my early training in traditional painting, my interest in religious Renaissance art, and my nostalgia for childhood television programs such as the After School Specials and Little House on the Prairie.

Bio:
I was born in 1977, the youngest daughter of ten children in rural western Montana. My older siblings voted to name me Holly; born just two days before Christmas my mom told me I was the best Christmas gift ever received. Growing up in a large family, money was scarce and since we didn't have many toys, we entertained ourselves through imaginative storytelling and art making. Organizations like the community church and 4-H gave me my first outlets for creative projects such as photography.

A full-tuition scholarship moved me to the Art Institute of Seattle were I studied architecture and illustration. I received a BFA in painting from the University of Montana, but it was while pursuing my graduate work at Portland State University, that I discovered my love for film-making and photography.

Selected 2006 Exhibitions and Film Festivals include the following:

+ 2006 Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum
+ Annual National Juried Exhibition at Newspace Center for Photography
+ Current Photography: New Directions, Clark College
+ POW! (Pictures of Women), Quality Pictures Contemporary Art
+ Private Contemplations/Private Conversations, Salem Art Association
+ 31st Annual NW Film + Video Festival (Honorable Mention)
+ Portland International Film Festival
+ Portland Experimental Film Festival (Gearhead Filmmaker's Grant)
+ Perpetual Art Machine in New York

Confrontation with the Monster We've Collectively Created by Colin Blakely

Colin Blakely

Currently residing in: Ann Arbor, MI

Website: http://www.colinblakely.com

Work Statement:
As I have gotten older, I have turned more and more towards the familiar for inspiration and subject matter in my photographs.

In the most basic sense, this project is about the 400 and 500 blocks of Keech Avenue, an examination of my immediate surroundings. Bordered on one side by Michigan Stadium and by Almendinger Park on the other, both entities play an important role in the identity of the neighborhood.

My photographs depict this street and the people that inhabit it—both the ones that live here and the ones that visit. Some I know quite well, others are complete strangers. Overall, the work tells the story of a community that is holding on to a vanishing way of life. It is about a group of people living quite literally in Middle America—geographically, economically, politically—at a time when our notions concerning what this means are quickly changing. Having shunned the constant call of the suburbs, we live in a small neighborhood close to downtown. Here, the passing of time is defined as much by the rituals we collectively participate in as by the months on a calendar. This work is a celebration of and possibly a eulogy to our way of life.

Bio:
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, but moved to Houston, TX earlier on in my childhood, and remained there until college. My earliest memories concerning my interest in photography center around my mother and her ongoing endeavors as a serious amateur photographer. My first real explorations in photography began as one of two yearbook photographers for my high school. I don't know when my interest turned into an obsession, as it snuck up on me over the years. Sometime towards the end of college I stopped being able to imagine doing anything with my life that did not involve photography. After receiving a BA from Williams College in Massachusetts I went on to teach middle school for several years before returning for an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Currently, I am a professor of photography at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI.

Oregon Caves 10-24-06 9 by Winter 2007 Hot Shot Jeffrey Krolick

Jeffrey Krolick

Currently residing in: Ashland, OR

Website: http://www.jeffkrolick.net

Work Statement:
I completed a State University of New York campus-wide MFA program in 1983. My career path at that time focused primarily on fine art jewelry and sculpture, but my most consistent (and passionately practiced) artistic endeavor over the past 20 years has been photography. Although my vocation since 1986 has been in community mental heath, I have continued to explore photography in a disciplined way, while compiling a substantial body of evolving work which is just beginning to be exhibited. Photography in particular holds that impossibly seductive promise of learning to see in a new way which is at one and the same time democratic (the "subject"? of each photograph is as worthy as the next) and highly individualized (the unique formal qualities of the picture such as color, framing, lighting and personal, cultural and historical referends which may be conscious choices made by the photographer or serendipitous). Walt Whitman's stance of treating all moments as of equal consequence (the democratic) and Garry Winogrand's stated purpose in taking photographs - to see what the subject looks like as a photograph (individualized seeing) are the essential dynamics behind much of my photography. Formally my work explores how composition can unify disparate materials and seeming contradictory conceptual themes and how my personal aesthetic changes or remains static over time and across content.

Bio:
Jeff Krolick earned an MFA in sculpture, studying with Albert Paley, and worked for many years as a craftsman, metalsmith and sculptor, exploring how composition can unify disparate materials and seemingly contradictory conceptual themes. Photography has been his preferred medium for the past 17 years to discover/uncover these relationships in the seemingly mundane scenes of everyday life and the natural world. He recently began exhibiting his work again after pursuing a career for many years as a counselor and administrator in the community mental health field. His work has been included in a number of shows this year including solo exhibitions at the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA and Dayton University's Rike Center for the Arts as well as group shows in Kansas City, Boston, Philadelphia and New York City.

Jeff's work has been recognized with awards from the Silver Eye Center for Photography, the Society for Contemporary Photography and the International Photography Awards which selected him as Fine Art Photographer of the Year in 2005 and nominated him for a prestigious Lucie award.

Untitled (One) by Juho Kuva

Juho Kuva

Currently residing in: Gothenburg, Sweden

Website: http://www.juhokuva.com

Work Statement:
For me, the beauty of pictures has always been important. As a photographer the essential things like light, colour and composition are central elements in my own production. My own production, which focuses on landscape photography, has progressed towards more and more simplified photography. In addition to the traditional light, colours and composition that are basic components of my photography, the horizon, lines, silence, open spaces and large surfaces are important elements in my work. Beauty lies in simplicity, I feel. A simple landscape with plenty of open space is more appealing to me than a photo cluttered with detail and colour. In my photography I have always been interested in its linkages to reality. Apart from beauty, trying to evoke something real, tell of a moment that `really happened` and picture things that are personally important to me are important features in my work. As a summary I think that beautiful picture needs no explanation. It has earned its place with its presence.

"Beauty is based on perfection. It pierces the heart. What are we seeking for with our work if its not beauty?" - A Finnish cultural document

Bio:
I was born in Hong Kong on 6.6.1980. It is quite hard to say where or when this all started. In my childhood my father used to take a lot of photographs and these photographs my father took had a strong impact on me. Our family had a habit on getting together to watch slide shows of Finland whilst we were in Hong Kong, of Hong Kong whilst we were in Finland. Perhaps these familiar landscapes we looked at together, absent yet present, have had an important impact on my work. My fathers style is quite simple and traditional, and the photos he has taken are a beautiful documentation of the history of our family. The works of old masters of black-and-white photos such and from Sebastiao Salgado and Pentti Sammallahti made a lasting impression on me after moving back to Finland. The stunning beauty I felt to be present in their photos inspired my work. As a member of the local Photography club, I loved the traditional work with black-and-white photos in the darkrooms, fell in love and couldn`t turn back. After this it has been a wonderful journey...In fall 2005 I started my studies (MA) in School of Photography, Gothenburg University, Sweden. Our final exhibitions will be shown in the absolutely best places in Sweden like Konthallen in Gothenburg and Centrum A Fotografi in Stockholm.

Simon and West, 2006 by Molly Landreth

Molly Landreth

Currently residing in: Seattle, WA

Website: http://www.mollylandreth.blogspot.com

Work Statement:
Embodiment:This series of photographs is an archive and a journey through a rapidly changing community and the lives of people who offer new visions of what it means to be young and queer today. Coming of age witnessing rapid changes in how gender and sexual minorities are viewed, I began this project as an investigation into the ways this generation of young people is continuing to challenge traditional life narratives within both straight and mainstream gay and lesbian communities. Even with today’s increasingly progressive attitudes, to be visible is to become both empowered and vulnerable. As a result, these images depict subjects who meet my gaze with a rare combination of forthright self-awareness and total abandon, like they are standing in for something much larger than themselves. Paying attention to carefully considered identities and surroundings, I find in a moment suspended, that an overlap is revealed, exposing the subtle outlines of who people are and more importantly, who they wish to become.

As I look from one image to the next I see that although my original investigation is the heart of this project, its blood is more universal. Embodiment, is about love and the process of growing up into ones self. It is about the complexity of relationships found between a diverse group of young people who playfully reveal unique and subtle shades of gender expression and with a glance or a touch re-assemble the sometimes-delicate anatomy of a family.

Bio:
b. 1978, lives and works in Seattle, WA. where she continues to create and exhibit new work, as well as shoot as one half of landreth+riffle.

EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts,
MFA, Photography and Related Media, 2005. New York, NY
Glasgow School of Art
Study Abroad, Commercial Photography, 1 semester, 2001. Glasgow, Scotland
Scripps College
BA, Studio Art with focus in Art History, Photography and Digital Art, 2001. Claremont, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
In a New Direction, wall space, Seattle, WA, February, 2007
Give us Your Best Shot, Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA, February 2007
Group Show #7, Humble Media, New York, NY 2006
Group Show Box Set, Auctioned by Ladies Lotto for Planned Parenthood, The Foundry, LIC, NY 2006
Online Exhibition, Photomedia Center, Erie, PA 2006
See What I Mean?, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY. 2005
Ladyfest Los Angeles Art Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA 2002
Vera Project Multi-Media Exhibition, Vera Project, Seattle, WA 2001
Scripps College Thesis Exhibition, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA 2001
Scripps College Junior Exhibition, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA 2000
New Work, The Motley Coffee Shop, Claremont, CA 1999

AWARDS
Finalist, Critical Mass, 2007
American Photo Image of the Year Competition, Honorable Mention, 2006
Photographic Center Northwest, Printing Sponsorship, 2006

PUBLICATIONS
Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, Oct. 2006

405 & Magnola, Fountain Valley, CA by Brad Moore

Brad Moore

Currently residing in: Laguna Beach, CA

Website: http://www.bradmoore.com

Work Statement:
These photographs were shot in modest, well-worn, suburban cities in central Orange County, California. Built in the 50s and 60s, these cities provided a new home and future to a post-war population. While southern Orange County's coastal cities flourish with affluence, central Orange County struggles. Future prosperity and civic health seem to come primarily from growing ethnic populations, which are reviving and recreating these cities for their communities.

I grew up in central Orange County. After 25 years I returned, and was fascinated by the simultaneous decline and growth. I stayed away from traditional, documentary-style photography, instead I have photographed only select buildings and the nearby shrubbery in primarily static, symmetrical compositions. Together, the buildings and foliage convey change, irony and evolution of place.

Bio
Born 1958, La Jolla, California

EDUCATION
1976-1980 BS Art/Photography, Loma Linda University, Riverside, California

1981 Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1978 - 1981 Photography and Darkroom Instructor,
Loma Linda University, Riverside, California

1981 - 1985 Photofinishing Instructor,
Noritsu America Corporation, Buena Park, California

1984 - 2005 President, Aperion, Inc.,
Irvine, California (manufacturer and distributor of photographic color calibration products)

Untitled by Winter 2007 Hot Shot Kirby Pilcher

Kirby Pilcher

Currently residing in: Rochester, NY

Website: http://www.kirbypilcher.com

Work Statement:
I began studying photography as an undergraduate, and dabbled with it for a few years before finally deciding in 2004 to pursue an MFA at the Visual Studies Workshop. Lately I have been interested in what images can be found when limiting the search area to the spaces that I inhabit on a daily basis. I am interested in finding images where human interaction has left evidence of events that occurred in these spaces. I try to give only fractured clues to the viewer so they must bring their own experiences to the image in order create a narrative.

Bio:
I was born in South Dakota in April of 1977, raised there, and attended the University of South Dakota earning a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in art. I am currently completing a MFA at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY. I was first introduced to photography by my aunt who was a photographer. Over the years she had given me several cheap point and shoot cameras, but it wasn't until she passed away and I inherited her Canon AE-1 that I began to seriously make photographs. I have owned many cameras since getting the Canon but it is the only one that has not been stolen or broken.

At Work by Winter 2007 Hot Shot Ben Roberts

Ben Roberts

Currently residing in: Hackney, London, UK

Website: http://www.benrobertsphotography.com

Work Statement:
I'm a documentary photographer at heart; I started taking photos as way of documenting research for drawing and painting, but before long the painting took a back seat; I'm interested in documenting stories about human behaviour and condition, but the images don't necessarily have to have people in them; I try to look for human traces in both landscapes and domestic spaces to help complete a story. I'm inspired by the work of (amongst others) Mitch Epstein for his quiet appreciation of interiors and objects, and Larry Sultan for the subtlety and variety of his portraiture.

With an emphasis on atmosphere and subtle suggestions of a narrative, I aim to create images that intrigue and provoke a response. My ambition in an image is to evoke a sense of deja vu for the viewer—a tangible sense of familiarity that can be either warm or uncomfortable. To convey these qualities through portraiture and documentary photography is my constant motivation.

Bio:
I grew up in Birmingham, UK, until the age of 18. I then took myself off to Scotland where I completed an MA in Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh. I followed this up with 2 years traveling and compiling an admittedly naive portfolio. Since then I have completed a 2 year photography diploma at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, and haven't looked back since. I am a member of the respected young photographers collective Photodebut.org, and have had my work exhibited in The Museum of London and published in The Fader and The Sunday Herald. I am currently first assistant to the award winning UK documentary photographer Zed Nelson.

I'm 28yrs old now, and am constantly excited and inspired to be living and working in London's vibrant photographic industry.

Money by Winter 2007 Hot Shot Mickey Smith

Mickey Smith

Currently residing in: Minneapolis, MN

Website: http://www.mickeysmithart.com

Work Statement:
The three images submitted to Hot Shots are from my current project, called Volume. I seek out and photograph these titles as I find them on the shelves of public libraries. I do not manipulate, light, or touch the books, preferring to document them as created by the librarian and positioned by the last user.

Searching endless stacks, I am continually struck by physical mass of information and tenuousness of printed works as they fade from public consciousness. The irony and graphic quality of repeating titles fascinate and draw, no matter how mundane, from known to obscure, from Vogue to Blood. I photograph titles that are flirtatious, utilitarian, and personally or socially symbolic.

I am inspired by many artists, but particularly drawn to the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Barbara Kruger, and Edward Ruscha.

Bio:
Mickey Smith was born in 1972 in Duluth, Minnesota. She received a BA in Photography from University of Minnesota, Moorhead. Works from her most recent project, Volume, have shown at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in Saint Paul, Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh and the Society for Contemporary Photography in Kansas City. Smith is the current recipient of the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Photography and a FORECAST Public Artworks Grant.

Untitled, Kowloon, Hong Kong by Winter 2007 Hot Shot Ka-Man Tse

Ka-Man Tse

Currently residing in: Brooklyn, NY

Website: http://www.tsewhat.com

Work Statement:
My photographs are about a desire to see, to touch without touching. I am a photographer because I am a hoarder. I am a cowardly collector of faces, sights seen without cameras, murmurs in the hallway, children's logic, things unsaid, lists and maths found on the pavement. Some of my favorite things are sights and not objects; sights seen for the low-fidelity breaking of a heart, a kind of could-have-been, something born to be a memory of loss. So I gaze without manners, turn my head once more, and squeeze my eyes lest the image fall out.

My work explores common themes of home, childhood, memory, desire, loss, and place. Growing up, I had wanted to see my birthplace, the Hong Kong in my parents' photographs. I began to photograph in Hong Kong in 2004, starting at the location of departure, the decommissioned Kai Tak Airport, and progressing into other spaces of wonder.

Bio:
Ka-Man Tse is the creative director of NYC-based dirtypop Magazine. Her work has been published in Hyphen Magazine, Time Out New York and by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She has exhibited at the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn and currently serves as the Assistant to the Director of Photography at the JCC in Manhattan and as a Teaching Assistant at the International Center for Photography. She lives in Brooklyn, and shoots in NYC and Hong Kong.

Last minute but not least, Anthony LaSala, Senior Editor for PDN and now Hey, Hot Shot! Panelist, has joined our ranks and right in time for the winter review! Anthony is a guiding light for photographers young and old, amateurs and the experienced alike. Already a friend and patron to the emerging photographer, he has helped to bring us PDN's 30—their choice of the top 30 emerging photographer's to keep your eye on. As the newest member of team Hey, Hot Shot!, he'll help this beyond believable group select 2007's initial round of Hot Shots. Yes, today spirits are high. Welcome Anthony!

Since 1997, Anthony LaSala has been part of the editorial staff at the award-winning, monthly magazine for professional photographers, Photo District News. Now a Senior Editor for PDN, he writes and oversees several columns for the publication, and has helped make the international magazine the "bible" of the photography industry. A nominee for Photography Editor of the Year at the 2003 and 2004 International Photography Awards, he has also been a regular contributor to a number of national magazines, guest curator for numerous gallery exhibitions in the New York City area, and a panelist for several annual contests. He is the author of the forthcoming The Brooklynites (powerHouse, 2007) and World's Top Photographers: Nudes (Rotovision, 2005). He currently lives in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York.

I've said it before and will say it again, this all-star team keeps getting better and better. If you need a reminder of exactly who will be looking at your submissions, take a look at the panelist page [or see their sweet smiling faces on the blog].

Count your lucky stars, for today we are feeling generous @ the jb. You've asked and we willingly oblige, the deadline for the Winter 2007 Edition of the Hey, Hot Shot! competition has officially been extended one additional week. You now have through next Monday at 2pm s-h-a-r-p to strut your stuff and get it in.

New deadline: Monday February 12 @ 2PM
Winners Announced: Monday February 19 @ 12PM
HHS! Winter Showcase Opening: Wednesday March 7, 2007, 6-8PM

Be a winter winner and enter today!

Untitled, from the series Concubines of New York by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Shen Wei

Fall 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! winner Shen Wei is one of those photographers who not only finds the time to make massive quantities of work that manage to remain cohesive and, well, good, but also is quite the man about town, with impeccable networking skills to boot. Oh,the juggle, he handles it well. Shen was recently awarded a Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for his documentary project Concubines of New York.

And some older news, Hey, Hot Shot! panelist and celebrity blogger Joerg Colberg named him a Photographer of the Year, along with Amy Elkins and Richard Renaldi. And at the same time our own Jen Bekman was named an Innovator of the Year, Shen received an Honorable Mention for American Photo's Images of the Year.

AND... Shen's work in the Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase received press in two Chinese periodicals, The Sing Tao Daily and The Ming Pao Daily.

A translation from The Sing Tao Daily:

Shen Wei focused most of his work on portraiture, his portraits are sensual and sensitive, fully expressed his idea about body, persona and identity. In this 10 artists photography group show, he showed works from his series Almost Naked, "I like to look at American society from a Chinese perspective".

Oh yes, how impressive our alumni can be! Congratulations Shen.

The news keeps on getting better and better... I am thrilled to announce that Aperture's own Lesley Martin has joined our ranks as a Hey, Hot Shot! Panelist for 2007. As the Executive Editor of Aperture Books, Lesley is much to blame for tempting my book lusts towards many a guilty indulgences. One need only glance at Aperture's recent releases before going on a wild bibliophile-photofanatic spending rampage. Lesley, we have much to thank you for. And I must mention again, along with our very own Jen Bekman, Lesley was named one of American Photo's Innovators of the Year.

Lesley A. Martin is Executive Editor of the book-publishing program at Aperture Foundation, where she has worked on-and-off for the past eleven years. In between stints at Aperture, she pursued graduate course work at Columbia College and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and also served as Senior Editor and Production Director of Umbrage Editions. Her writing on photography has been published in Aperture, American Photo, and DoubleTake, among other publications and she has edited over fifty books of photography, including Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer; An-My Lê: Small Wars; My Life in Politics: Tim Davis; and Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names by Alex Webb. Martin is also the coauthor of two volumes on design, Graphicscape: Tokyo and Graphicscape: New York and contributing editor of Full Vinyl: The Subversive Art of Designer Toys.

It truly could not get any better. Lesley joins Joerg Colberg of Conscientious, Photographer Christine Collins, Photographer and SVA Photo Department Chair Stephen Frailey, Eileen Gittens, Founder and CEO of Blurb, Amit Gupta founder of Photojojo, Jenni Holder, previous Director of Edwynn Houk Gallery, The Ultras, and, of course, Jen Bekman herself on the panel. You have less than one month to get those submissions in and show off your stuff to this beyond amazing panel.

Get it in, get it out there: Enter today!

Left: Hot Shot! Matthew Nighswander. Right: Chandelier, Chicago by Matthew Nighswander

Summer Hot Shot! Matthew Nighswander came to us from Chicago. While he recently relocated to Brooklyn, he definitely soaked up some of that communal energy I have mentioned before. Let's jut say it's a good time to be a photographer in the Midwest. This Fall his work was published in the Nov/Dec issue of Adbusters along with fellow Chicagoans and friends Paul D'Amato and Brian Ulrich. And, he was featured in a group exhibit in the online F-Stop Magazine. If you find yourself in the Chicago area, make a point to pass by 33 E. Congress and see his piece above at a colossal scale.

Where were you born, where were you bred?
I grew up in a small town (Gilmanton) in central New Hampshire, near Lake Winnipesaukee.

Age?
36

How do you pay the bills?
I'm currently the Archivist for VII Photo. I worked previously for 6 years as an international photo editor at The Associated Press.

What's your formal background (if any) in photography?
I have an M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago.

What artist drove you to make the work you do? Who inspires you now?
Garry Winogrand originally inspired me to want to be a photographer. Right now I'm pretty into Alec Soth's "Niagara." I like work like Soth's that incorporates many different approaches to photography. Alessandra Sanguinetti's On the Sixth Day, Paul D'Amato's Barrio, and Brian Ulrich's Copia are three of my favorite photo books from this year.

What camera do you use? Is it always with you?
When I'm going out shooting my main camera is a Mamiya 7. Because of its size and fragility I don't keep it with me most of the time, but I will almost always have my Leica M6 or my small Contax point-and-shoot with me.

Do you shoot with a plan or on a whim?
When I set out to shoot, I usually have a plan for an area or subjects that I want to photograph. I try to impose some sort of discipline on myself but only to a point. I want to remain open to any distracting influence that might pop up because this will often lead to the best pictures. Also, it's this kind of open-ended wandering that makes photography so enjoyable. I'm not curing cancer so if it's not at least enjoyable I'd rather spend my time doing something more productive.

What images are superglued into your mind for all eternity?
Helen Levitt's picture of the kids walking down the street with the bubbles floating over the road next to them.

Untitled, New York (soap bubbles and girls) by Helen Levitt

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I'm pretty satisfied with the equipment I have for my own personal work but I would like to eventually get a digital setup (maybe the new Leica) to do assignment stuff.

What are your loftiest goals?
I would of course love to have a book but my craziest fantasy is somehow turning my website into something that could support me. Organizing a website is a great way to get to know your own photography and if I could live off that, I would be fine with never being published or exhibited again.

Do you have any other talents, hobbies, or favorite pastimes?
I played for many years in a rock band called Monobrow. Look for our reunion tour in 2012.

Any big plans for 2007?
My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks.

If you had to choose only one film to watch for the rest of time what would it be?
Michael Mann's "Heat"

Name three songs that would be on your soundtrack?
The Breeders covering "Happiness is A Warm Gun"
Judas Priest's "Heading out to the Highway"
Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony."

Favorite director/composer/author/artist/musician/etc?
Jose Saramago's Blindness--a thrilling combination of brutal, violent realism and the fantastic.

City you would most like to escape to?
Prague or a small town in New Hampshire.

What do you look for in a mate?
I got me one. Ain't looking.

If you had to choose any object/service to be branded with your name, what would it be?
Matt's Guitar Wax.

How do you spoil yourself?
Plugging in my electric guitar.

It was a busy Fall for Summer Hot Shot Sara Macel. A participant in the DUMBO arts festival through The Rider Project, her work was seen in two group shows in October, all while continuing to make new work, and it doesn't seem like she'll be getting a break anytime soon. Sara's work is to be included in Kiss & Tell curated by Kate Menconeri at The Center for Photography at Woodstock opening later this month. Keep it up, Sara!

Where were you born, where were you bred?
Born and bred in Spring, Texas, a stone's throw outside of Houston.

Current place of residence?
Brooklyn

Age?
25

How do you pay the bills?
I'm a photo production assistant and I do my own photography on the side.

What's your formal background (if any) in photography?
I studied photography at NYU where I learned almost everything I know and had some really amazing teachers. But the best way to learn technique is just by trial and error. After school, I worked as Bruce Davidson's assistant for 2 years and he taught me all kinds of nifty tricks.

What artist drove you to make the work you do? Who inspires you now?
Being from the south and a color photographer, William Eggleston is a definite hero. I love Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, and Alec Soth. Christian Patterson is great and other young photogs I know inspire me to keep at it. But most of my inspiration comes from music and books and my personal life.

What camera do you use? Is it always with you?
I mostly shoot with a Mamiya 7II, but I prefer using the RZ for portraits. I'm looking to make the jump to 4x5 in the near future.

How would you sum up your photographic process from start to finish?
I'm an old-timer in the sense that I sort of like bulky equipment and film and printing your own c-prints in the darkroom with weird little cut-out dodging tools.

Do you shoot with a plan or on a whim?
I try to have a general plan or project idea, even if it is just a song that I'll listen to over and over while I'm wandering around looking for something to shoot. There's a Big Star song that really inspired the project I'm working on now.

What images are superglued into your mind for all eternity?
I find old family photos of my parents and grandparents when they were my age a little haunting. And then, there's Joel Sternfeld's photo of the beached sperm whales; Davidson's Brooklyn Gang; Robert Frank's elevator girl from The Americans; Alec Soth's photo of Johnny Cash's boyhood home just floored me when I first saw it. There's just so many.

Elevator - Miami Beach, from the series The Americans by Robert Frank

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I'm a total camera nerd. I am currently lusting for a cherry wood 4x5 Wista- and not because it is the best 4x5 but just because is so damn pretty. And 8x10 is just the cat's pajamas.

What are your loftiest goals?
Just to shoot and wander around and have some nice folks like the photos and want to buy them so I can keep on wandering around.

Do you have any other talents, hobbies, or favorite pastimes?
I like to knit. I can make beer bread from scratch. I won a trophy for pantomime in the 7th grade, but I don't think that really qualifies as a talent. That's really more of my ace card up the sleeve whenever I get into discussions about embarrassments from adolescence.

Any big plans for 2007?
I have a show opening at the Center of Photography in Woodstock in late January. I'm thinking of doing a road trip through Texas with my best friend in March. And my sister is getting married in July. Beyond that, just to find some time to make a couple nice photos.

If you had to choose only one film to watch for the rest of time what would it be?
Big Lebowski

Name three songs that would be on your soundtrack?
Say Something Nice to Sarah - Ernest Tubb
These Days - Nico
Deep in Your Waters - Sonny Oaks
Days - The Kinks
Everyone - Van Morrison...Okay, I'll stop now.

Favorite director/composer/author/artist/musician/etc
Director- Billy Wilder
Author- Salinger and Steinbeck
Artist- Edward Hopper
Musician- Sam Cooke

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
NYTimes.com, Tiny Vices, Conscientious, Modish, HopStop is a Godsend.

City you would most like to escape to?
Every day when I leave for work I wish someone would drive up and say, "Hop in, we're going to Memphis."

What do you look for in a mate?
A goof, a rascal, a good time, a Scrabble opponent, a shared love for aquatic animals (or at least the ability to find my love for them bearable), a bookworm, and a handsome devil.

If you had to choose any object/service to be branded with your name, what would it?
If I could put a copyright on my homemade Chex Mix I would.

How do you spoil yourself?
Bubble baths with my rubber ducky.

Favorite beverage of choice?
Unsweetened iced tea or whiskey when I wanna get messy.

New Year's resolution?
No more whiskey (not really).

Untitled, from the series The Cloverfields by Andrea Chu

Hot on the heels of the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual Exhibition and the release of the yearbook, before we get too buried in 2007, let's check in with some of our recent HHS! winners. It never ceases to amaze me, the endless array of possibilities and activities as an artist and a photographer, yes, life can in fact be grand. With 40 photographers in our 2006 Alumni pool, we have witnessed some pretty amazing achievements over the course of the year. Myself on the brink of graduation, it eases the pressure to see so many emerging photographers doing so many impressive things. Oh how easy they make it look...

For instance, since last hearing from Spring Hot Shot Andrea Chu she has lived out a photographer's dream and traveled to Japan to shoot for Getty Images. And 2007 holds many more international adventures for Andrea. We'll be sure to keep you posted, in the meantime read an interview with her here.

So get ready. In the days leading up to the Annual's opening and the initial days of the competition's Winter Edition, I'll be posting more juicy interviews and tidbits of information on past winners. Hear life stories, explore some links, and find out what it takes to win the heart of a Hot Shot, all here on the one and only Hey, Hot Shot! Blog.

Misty Maiden by Ian Baguskas

And we are off here and what a year it promises to be! Let's not waste a single moment. You heard it here first, the Winter 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! is officially open.

Deadline: Tuesday February 6, 2007
Put your new year's resolution to work and enter today!

Exciting times are on the horizon @ the Jen Bekman Gallery! We are only three weeks away from the opening of the 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! Annual, showcasing the work of the hottest of the Hot Shots from 2006 and our newest additions to the Jen Bekman Gallery family. And then there is the release of the first of its kind HHS! Yearbook, the gallery's 4-year anniversary, four rounds of action packed HHS!, and that is just the beginning! Stay tuned...

Untitled, from the series Friday Night Fights by Alison Grippo

Choosing the best of the best is never ever an easy task. With so many excellent photographers gracing our walls over 2006, it was next to impossible to narrow the number down from 40 to 4, but nothing is impossible for the JBG. We are bouncing off the walls with excitement over our Ultra selection. Not only are they extremely talented, intelligent, creative, and fun loving, they are now the newest additions to the Jen Bekman Gallery family. And how proud we are!

Watch out for our 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! Ne Plus Ultras...

Ian Baguskas
Kate Bingaman-Burt
Alison Grippo
Joseph O. Holmes

Our Ultras pretty much sum up the excellence that is HHS!. The fantastic four will participate in the 2007 HHS! Annual, join the too amazing to believe panel, will be represented by the gallery for 2007, and work towards what I'm sure will be four fabulous solo shows.

Save the date. The Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra Annual opens January 24, 2007. Here we come!

Wednesday night was a huge success! The show looks amazing, there was a great turnout, and all had a good time. If you were not able to make it out to the opening or you're just dying to see the show again, do stop by this weekend and take a peek.

Saturday, the tables will turn. Please join us for a joe@jen event. See the good looking show, have some hot, delicious coffee provided by Joe (I'd venture to say the best in the city), and nibble on some tasty treats. We will also be open on Sunday, leaving you very few excuses to not come in and support the Fall 2006 Hot Shots. We'll be seeing you soon.

Warm Your Toes Open House
Saturday December 16, 2006 | Noon - 3pm
Joe Coffee, tasty treats, and the work of 10 Hot artists—what more could you need?

Exhibition dates
Thursday - Sunday, December 14-17, 2006 from noon - 6pm.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

And last but not least, I give you Hot Shot Hans Gindlesberger. See you tonight!

Current place of residence?
Buffalo, NY

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
A small town outside of Toledo, OH

Your age?
25

What do you do to pay the bills?
I teach at several colleges in the Buffalo area

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
Lou Krueger, one of my undergraduate instructors, did a lot to support my work when I was figuring out what it was I wanted to do with photography. I probably stuck with the photo because of my experience in those classes.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
Teun Hocks, Dan Bern, Beckett

What formal training, if any, do you have?
Its limited to school, recently finishing up graduate school last year.

What camera do you use?
Canon 20D

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
My own large format printer would be fantastic. And a new Mac would be good as well.

What are your loftiest goals?
I suppose like most artists, to be able to sustain myself just by making my work.

Do you have any other creative talents?
I love to cook, but I'm a slave to following the directions.

What are the top three movies on your queue?
The Spirit of the Beehive, Chinatown, Wonderboys

What book connects with your life the most?
I read Winesburg, Ohio shortly before beginning the series that I'm currently working on. Winesburg was based on a town neighboring the one I grew up in and the collection of short stories in there were recognizable to me and influenced the process a lot early on.

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
I compulsively check Boing Boing throughout the day. Alec Soth's blog always is interesting to check in on as well.

Any pets?
Two cats.

It's here! If you haven't already penciled us in, make a point to join us tonight for the Fall 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase. See some amazing work, have a drink, meet cool artist-types and otherwise it will be an event not to miss. Be there.

Hey, Hot Shot! Fall 2006 Edition
Opening Reception TONIGHT!
Wednesday December 13, 2006 | 6 - 8pm

Warm Your Toes Open House
Saturday December 16, 2006 | Noon - 3pm
Joe Coffee, tasty treats, and the work of 10 Hot artists—what more could you need?

Exhibition dates:
Thursday - Sunday, December 14 - 17, 2006 from noon - 6pm.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012

We are now only hours away from the Hey, Hot Shot! Winners' Showcase and what an event it promises to be! For now, get to know Hot Shot Joe Fornabaio.

Current place of residence?
East Village, NYC

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
Born-n-raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Your age?
37

What do you do to pay the bills?
Shoot.

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
Boredom and a very smart high school teacher.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
Edouard Boubat, Karl Bissinger, Leon Levinstein, Modigliani, Egon Schiele, Alexander Calder, Leonardo DaVinci, Bernini, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Pat Metheny, David Darling, Tom Waits, Duke Ellington, Brian Eno, that's a very short quick list, there's really too many.

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
At least once a day it puts a smile on my face.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
BFA in Photography from SVA, and too many years of assisting.

What camera do you use?
Mamiya RZ 67, Yashica T4.

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
FILM!

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
You really want me to answer that? It'll piss off people.

What are your loftiest goals?
A career behind the camera.

Do you have any other creative talents?
Another? LOL, ya killin' me!

What are the top three movies on your queue?
Charlie Brown Christmas Special

What book connects with your life the most?
The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Who are your favorite musicians?
There's a few above. Bob Marley, Grateful Dead, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Ayub Ogada, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Bland, Claudio Villa, The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine, Juan Carlos Formell, The Temptations, The Supremes, The Flamingos, Radiohead, Ali Farka Toure, Neil Young, Annie Lenox, Steely Dan, Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, gotta stop, too many to list 'em all.

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one luxury, what would it be?
A woman.

Favorite color?
Black.

Favorite food?
Italian.

Favorite possession?
My Mamiya RZ.

Favorite way to kill time?
Watching the world go by.

For this Monday night, I pass the mic to Hot Shot Sasha Rudensky.

Current place of residence?
I split my time between brooklyn where I've been living for the last 5 years and new haven, ct where I go to school.

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
I was born in moscow, russia and lived there till I was 11. When my family moved the states we briefly lived in new haven, then moved to Seattle.

Your age?
27

What do you do to pay the bills?
Now that I'm at school I live in debt, but beforehand I was mostly teaching photography at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
We had a pretty good photography program at my high school and my boyfriend at the time was very into it and he's the one that gave me my first camera. And after that it just happened on its own. At a number of points in my life I was thinking it was time to do something a little more stable and lucrative, but just couldn't bring myself to stop taking pictures.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
I've had a lot of influences - very early on while still living in Russia my parents would drag me and my brothers to museums - I was in love with northern renaissance painting - van der weyden, van eyck, cranach. Though I didn't realize it at the time, I think that's what originally got me thinking about the function of color in art making. i also grew up reading a lot of poetry - axmatova, mandelstam, brodsky. The latter was especially influential in trying to wrap my brain around living abroad, while creatively being connected to the place where one was born. And of course there were photographic heros - koudelka, stephen shore, joel sternfeld.

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
I like not being confined to a studio, I like being in the world, I like the pressure of having to actually meet and engage people when I'm with my camera

What formal training, if any, do you have?
Majored in studio art in college, though I went to a liberal arts school and we only had two photo classes - black and white photo 1 and 2. Now I'm making up for it at grad school when we have more brutal crits than any sane person can take.

What camera do you use?
For years I used a Konica Hexar, a tiny silent rangefinder, which I still adore. When I started shooting color I bought a Mamiya 7 and now primarily shoot with that. Recently I became interested in portraiture and have been borrowing the RZ from a friend, it's a bit clunky for me though and I might switch to something else.

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I never think about equipment - I know very little about it and only use what I have or can get access to for free.

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
Sullen portraits of upper-middle class young people staring at the camera

What are your loftiest goals?
I suppose sustaining myself as a gallery artist - though I will always want to teach as well

Do you have any other creative talents?
I'm a good arm-wrestler.

What are the top three movies on your queue?
I recently saw a Melville film called Army of Shadows, which was absolutely amazing and have been trying to get my hands on it ever since. There is also a devastating Russian film called Ascent by Larisa Shepitko which appeals to my tragic side. Of recent stuff I loved Cronenberg's History of Violence.

What book connects with your life the most?
Do I dare say it? I guess Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Who are your favorite musicians? Do you have an anthem?
Musically I'm very torn - I listen to Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Pavement, but I also love old country - Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams. And Shostakovich makes me cry.

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one luxury, what would it be?
My husband.

Any pets?
My four pet fish died recently.

Brooklyn-based photographer Joseph Holmes is a two time winner with a superb eye and a worthy photoblog. Meet him and many of the other winners in person this Wednesday @ the JGB. Until then, enjoy.

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
I was born and raised in a tiny factory town in Pennsylvania.

Your age?
52

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
These days, every good photographer in the world inspires me, too many to name. Every great photo book and gallery show makes me want to immediately get out and start shooting. And I discover new great photographers all the time. Finnish photographer Esko Mannikko just crossed my radar&mdas;he's amazing.

What I find fascinating is that, even though I can't warm up to Lee
Friedlander's work, though I just can't get on his wavelength, the longer I see his stuff, the more I'm finding that he influences me. What's that about?

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
Photography can be social in surprising ways. I don't often go out
shooting with friends, because shooting becomes a very meditative
experience. There's a kind of zen-like space I've learned to reach for, which doesn't lend itself to chatting. Very few friends are good companions for that. But lately I've been working on some things that involve approaching strangers. That turns out to be a lot of fun.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
My father taught me to use his Miranda Sensorex when I was in junior high school. A childhood in the darkroom is a wonderful teacher.

What camera do you use?
I like my Nikon D200, but I miss film.

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
Oh, where to start? Gas stations in the desert twilight. Lonely
shopping carts. Heroin addicts. Too many photographers seem to be all about reacting to other photos.

What are your loftiest goals?
I'm enjoying today so much that I haven't spent much time thinking
about tomorrow. I suppose my goal is to continue to find photo projects that excite me.

Do you have any other creative talents?
My short story "Keys" is appearing in the next issue of North Atlantic Review. I've won two screenwriting prizes. Long ago I acted in dinner theater and summer stock.

What are the top three movies on your queue?
I don't have a queue, but since we're talking about movies, I was
surprised lately to discover that Dr. Strangelove hasn't aged as well as I thought, while both Vertigo and McCabe and Mrs. Miller are timeless.

What book connects with your life the most?
Continuing in the vein of the last answer, I was recently disappointed to find that Catch 22 doesn't hold up well at all; I loved it as a teen, but I now find it unreadable. Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins also didn't hold up well, but I'm thinking of rereading Percy's The Moviegoer Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker however, remains a masterpiece.

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
They're almost all boring, technical things, but I'm happy to have discovered Alec Soth's blog. There aren't many really fine photographers willing to take that level of conversation online.

Who are your favorite musicians? Do you have an anthem?
My son is my favorite musician. Seriously. And my daughter's an amazing songwriter and singer.

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one luxury, what would it be?
A speedboat.

Today I give you Copenhagen-based Hot Shot Mette Maersk. Happy Saturday!

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
Copenhagen, Denmark. Fredensborg, Denmark

Your age?
36

What do you do to pay the bills?
My best

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
Instinctive flirting with found footage and discarded photographs at a young age

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, David Hockney, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Lynne Cohen, Len Lye, Man Ray, Stephen Shore, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ed Ruscha, Oscar Niemeyer, Gordon Matta-Clark, Gabriel Orozco

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
Being in motion, encounters and seduction. Analog equipment has all the pace and attitude, that I like. I can never fully grasp the implications of what I observe, but I can gradually approach a totality, subsequently. In the meantime, signatures have to be recorded and contours framed, as handles to grasp.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
Mixed and mostly self-taught

What camera do you use?
Yashica Mat, Polaroid SX-70, Richo GR1v ( like to try a Graflex Super Graphic )

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
cars, no guilt

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
The urge for asking artists to produce linguistic meaning and define the sense of their work. Curators are better at that.

What are your loftiest goals?
A loft! Frequent field-assigments and artists residencies. Working with photographic books

Do you have any other creative talents?
I am a documentarist, I thus could unfold my gaze to capture yet unknow subjects. Just ask.

What are the top three movies on your queue?
(un-numbered group) Music of Chance, In the mood for love, Ultimo tango a Parigi, Blow up, Chelsea Walls, Soy Cuba, Playtime, The Straight Story, Boccaccio '70, Jules et Jim, Det Perfekte Menneske, The Conversation, La Linea, Sheltering Sky, The Idiots, Down by Law, Lucia y Sexo, Bonnie & Clyde, The Night of the Iguana, Le Mepris

What book connects with your life the most?
Mac Powerbook

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
zoetati.blogspot.com ( and all the links listed on the blog )
patalab02.blogspot.com

Who are your favorite musicians? Do you have an anthem?
John Lennon, Thomas Dybdahl, Nina Simone, Jan Johansson, Kate Bush, Nick Drake, Cat Power, Gotan Project, Bob Marley, Chet Baker, Tom Waits, Eric Satie, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Beck, Omara Portuonda, Aretha Franklin

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one luxury, what would it be?
A swiss army knife with an espresso-machine, a fireplace and a male surf-instructor attached

Favorite food?
cod roe

Favorite possession?
rare collection of toy caravans

Favorite animal?
puppy

Favorite way to kill time?
Fleamarkets

Untitled (Self-Portrait) by Shen Wei

If Hot Shot Shen Wei isn't out practicing photography, he's probably looking at it online. Shen's favorite way to kill time is a popular one, by surfing the web. His favorite site, also a popular one, is our fabulous panelist Joerg Colberg's Conscientious. If you're in Seattle, plan a visit to The Center on Contemporary Art. Shen is one of 16 artists included in The 2006 CoCA Annual, curated by Jennifer Gately and up through the end of the month.

Current place of residence?
New York City

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
I was born and raised in Shanghai, China.

Your age?
29

What do you do to pay the bills?
Mostly freelance work and selling my prints

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
I came to the US initially to pursue a masters degree in Design; I was initially educated and worked as a designer in Shanghai. Before I started my study at Minneapolis College of Art Design, I only had experienced a Seagull point and shoot camera, but after I took a couple of photography courses, I absolutely fell in love with photography and decided to pursue serious training in photography. I feel much emotionally in control of what I want to express when I ready to take a photograph.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians,politicians, painters, or the like?
Thomas Eakins, Diane Arbus, Lucien Freud, Caravaggio among others are some of the inspirations for me. Composer Keith Fitch's work has been my major inspiration for my film/video work.

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
Capturing the moment that's personally moving + contact sheet surprise.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
I received my MFA in Photography, video and related media from School of Visual Arts, a BFA in photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a BA in Design from Shanghai Light Industry College. I have to mention that two of the most significant mentors during my photography study are David Goldes and Sylvia Wolf.

What camera do you use?
Most of my recent projects were filmed with a Mamiya 67 II and I also used a Toyo 4X5 View Camera for some of my early projects. I also start to use a Canon 5D for documentary and freelance work.

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I refuse to take Polaroids in order to motivate myself to concentrate more on details. I hope that makes sense.

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
When a photograph is all about the lighting technique + overly decorative.

What are your loftiest goals?
To be able to build schools in the poorer regions of China.

Do you have any other creative talents?
Creative cooking

What book connects with your life the most?
The Dream of Red Chamber

Who are your favorite musicians? Do you have an anthem?
Jascha Heifetz, Tchaikovsky and Scissor Sisters.

Favorite color?
Turquoise blue for now.

Favorite food?
Chinese

Favorite animal?
All baby animals and dogs

Any pets?
Emma the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who I have been convinced is a part-alien dog.

Paris-based winnerPatrick Smith enjoys the freedom of being a photographer, and as he should. Our Hot Shot owns, last he counted, a whopping 22 cameras. He also recently redesigned his website—take a look here.

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
Born in Lille, (industrial town in the North of France). Educated in England.

Your age?
50

What do you do to pay the bills?
Write checks. Seriously, I am a photographer (architecture, interior decoration, travel, documentary)

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
It was my father's main hobby when I was a child. My daughter is now following the same path (watch the HHS! competition next year!)

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
Musicians inspire me, because they create emotion out of thin air. It is the same with poetry, I love haikus, and a number of contemporary French poets. I have a long career, so, when I was into BW street photography, it was free jazz performers. Music is important to me to set the mood before I start shooting. I am eclectic, (iPod helps a lot these days), I can choose a boost from rock and roll.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
I was trained as an engineer (mechanics) in England and then took a two-year photography course in France

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
It used to be the Leica, now I am in love with my Walker large format camera, which I used for this project.

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
In photography: letting intellect rule over emotion. In the world: letting emotion rule over the intellect. Or: spending more time reading about photographs than actually looking at them.

What are your loftiest goals?
Make "useful" photography: first, to obtain an emotional response from the viewer, hopefully followed by analysis and reflection from his/her part.

Do you have any other creative talents?
I enjoy making pizzas—those who eat them seem to enjoy themselves too!

What are the top three movies on your queue?
Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders)
The idiots (Lars von Trier)
Get Carter (Mike Hodges)

What book connects with your life the most?
Let us now praise famous men (James Agee)

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
Conscientious
Alec Soth weblog

Who are your favorite musicians? Do you have an anthem?
John Coltrane. Yes "A few of my favourite things"

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one luxury, what would it be?
Pencil and paper (if considered a luxury), otherwise, probably an iPod (you supply the power outlet)

Favorite way to kill time?
I never have any time to kill. If I am waiting in a station, airport, etc, I re-arrange my notes : I jot things down all the time, so I synthesize, rewrite, and throw away.

Any pets?
Peaches, the cat, is on the window ledge looking at Montmartre.

Brooklyn-based Hot Shot Victoria Rich grew up drawing, studied graphic design while in college, and then realized that photography complimented her knack for image-making rather well. And it's a good thing... Perhaps I am far too lost in my holiday spirits, but Victoria has managed to capture something I am desperate to find. See that here.

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
Born in Lackawanna, NY. Grew up in Floral Park, NY.

Your age?
36

What do you do to pay the bills?
I teach at ICP, do freelance production/photo editing, shoot editorial/commercial work. I like being involved in different aspects of photography.

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
I remember always being interested in pictures when I was a kid. I liked the history of any family images. I also liked using the family camera, however unimpressive (110 point + shoot). I also remember getting in trouble for 'wasting film on unimportant things'. I always drew a lot, somewhat seriously by high school. I started to realize my drawings were very photographic, quite detailed, objects or often spaces, interiors w/ a person. I took a photo class my first semester in college which I had been looking forward to for a long time, and it made sense right away. The visceral quality of photographs, regardless of how that can be manipulated, has always interested me.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
Eggleston, Robert Polidori, Paul Seawright. Vija Celmins. Painters such as Vuillard, Bonnard. Raymond Carver.

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
I like the surprises. While I do have different specific projects or themes that I work on, I never set things up or have very specific ideas about what I am going to shoot. I like finding things along the way. I especially like when I initially think there is nothing to shoot, but then I discover lots of interesting things. That is what I also like about assignments, the opportunity to go shoot something you would not have access to otherwise neccessarily.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
BFA from SUNY Purchase, MFA from Hunter College.

What camera do you use?
My favorite camera for a while has been a 1956 Rollei. I like the square format, and the waist level viewing. Also the fact that there are no battery/electronic components to it. I have a 'modern' 645 and there are sometimes malfunctions. I also have an old 4x5.

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
Sometimes I look at other Rolleis, but then I feel guilty. I would not mind having a Hasselblad.

Do you have any other creative talents?
I've gotten pretty good at embroidery.

What are the top three movies on your queue?
Atlantic City
Midnight Cowboy
Badlands

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum (www.tenement.org). There are virtual tours + history.

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one luxury, what would it be?
lip balm

Favorite color?
Red. Or green.

Favorite food?
There are many. Kale and figs top the list.

Favorite way to kill time?
I run a lot, though that's not really killing time.

Any pets?
Yes, 2 cats, by default (stray rescue)

Untitled by Chad Muthard

Hot Shot Chad Muthard is not only a talented photographer and Photoshop master, but he also writes and plays the guitar, all at the prime age of 23. I give you Chad.

Current place of residence?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Kensington)

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
Allentown, PA I grew up in Catasauqua, PA

What do you do to pay the bills?
I work as the Print Center Coordinator at Moore College of Art and Design at night, and during the day when I'm not pacing around or making art, I work as the Creative Director at Wonka Vision Magazine, where I am in charge of getting artists and photographers for the Artist Feature and Photo Essay articles of each issue.

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
I'm not quite sure how it began, maybe it was just something to do since I couldn't sit still, but what I think it has evolved into is a medium where I can start to analyze/criticize moments in life with better clarity and that is what has kept it as a constant for me. Most of my photography now is initiated by conversations with people or events that occur throughout the day or in the past. Recently, it has been more about questioning the purpose behind the actions of myself and others, whether that be conscious or subconscious decisions.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
To be honest I think I am more inspired lately to create work from listening music and reading books, then I am by other photographers or painters, there is something about the intangibility of words that lets my mind wonder. Some musicians I listen to now are people like Micah P. Hinson, Tim Kasher, Maria Taylor, Jenny Lewis, Lucero, Jena/Berlin. Authors I have been reading are: alot of John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, Jeffrey Eugenides, J.D. Salinger, Brett Easton Ellis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But, I would truly be a liar to say that there have not been past influences from art, people like Jeff Wall, Duane Michals, Thomas Demand, Doug Aitken Jake and Dinos Chapman. Most of their work has guided my direction in how to go about using narration in art.

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
Freedom to do whatever I feel and capture it instantly as a moment. That's the old cliche line, right? I don't feel much differently. But, really I think its all about connections, putting your personality out there, your life experiences, your problems, your ideas, and communicating with others. The images I create are mostly fictional, but under that they have real emotions, real stories, real philosophy and personality that other people can connect with, or take and interpret to connect their own life with mine. That's what I love about art and I think that's the most important part.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
I went to Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, there I was taught the basics. The best "formal" training it gave me was how to analyze art, and how to constructively criticize the work to get it to a higher level. Also, at Tyler I did a lot of work collaboratively with my friend Nils Orth, which was a great experience on many levels, and helped me to think differently about art, and opening up to different ideas and views on how to create.

What camera do you use?
Lately, I have been shooting with a Nikon D2x. I have a Mamiya RZ67 that I actually like a lot more but haven't used it lately because of the cost of film and the time it takes up to scan and dust, maybe one day I will bring it back and/or be able to afford a digital back.

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I'd have to say Photoshop, I construct all the work I make, don't get me wrong, everything you see in the photographs is actually there in real life, but I am just insanely nit picky about things like layer masking. It gets to the point where a friend will look at my file and click layers off and on and have no idea what changing, sometimes I even have to stare at it for awhile til I know whats happening.

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
Jesus, that's a loaded question. In reality, a cliche is anything the public deems it to be, one moment everyone is saying its cliche to have trashy looking fashion shots, then its cliche to make narratives, then anyone who is creating digital composites is cliche, its all based upon whats hot for this moment. I try not to let myself get caught up in that kind of stuff, I make work I like to make and if I stop liking how it looks I will switch it up.

What are your loftiest goals?
To be able to make a living off of making artwork

What are the top three movies on your queue?
Mickeybo and Me (the best film in years)
Royal Tennebaums
High Fidelity

What book connects with your life the most?
Right now, I'd say Ask The Dust(I can't help but personify myself as Arturo Bandini).

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
tylerpaint.com (art blog started by students)
fallonandrosof.blogspot.com (art blog run by Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof)

Who are your favorite musicians? Do you have an anthem?
Elliott Smith. If I had an anthem it would be...the Broken Social Scene CD You Forgot It In People

Juliana and her dog, Moishe Godoshevitz Beasley

Let's start with Jersey City resident Juliana Beasley. I had the pleasure of meeting Juliana and seeing some of her work first-hand last week. A disco fiend, if not out and about with her camera, she can be found at home dancing with her beloved pet, Moishe.

Birthplace? Where were you raised?
I was born in the East Falls part of Philadelphia, PA. I was raised in Philadelphia, New Rochelle, New York, and Florence Italy.

Your age?
I'm 39 years old.

What do you do to pay the bills?
I worked as a career stripper for eight years. Now, I take photos.

What initiated your committed romance with photography?
As a child, I was obsessed to create a sense of self and a personal history through my mother's intricately made photo albums of family snapshots. I began shooting my own work after modeling for my ex-boyfriend Christoph. I changed majors from Italian and French to photography in my third year of school.

What artists inspire you, whether they be photographers, musicians, politicians, painters, or the like?
I was inspired early on by Charles Addams, Oliver Sacks, and Robert Crumb. Later and now, I am inspired by Larry Clark, Boris Mikhailov, Jim Goldberg, Bill Burke, Kent Klich, Eugene Richards, and E.J. Bellocq. Wow, I picked all male artists...that's gotta' change.

What do you like most about being a "photographer"?
I enjoy getting to break boundaries and get close to my subjects. I like going to the point of "no return" when you go through the manic spells of the creative process.

What formal training, if any, do you have?
I studied at New York University for two years and graduated with a B.F.A. in photography.

What camera do you use?
I'm still trying to figure out if I should stick with one format. I can see the benefits of all of them...it's like changing your clothes, or better said I'm non committal in my format selections. So, here goes, I shoot with a Rollei Twin Lens, a panoramic, a polaroid, a Mamiya 645 and a Contax 35mm. I suppose I'm most fond of the square format. While working on a project, I will use several formats.

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I love to color correct....I love getting down to the subtle nuances of color correction and the feeling of my own color vivid persona.

What do you find to be the biggest cliche in photography these days?
The dead zombie look of staged scenes crafted after Philip Lorca di Corcia. Children and adults naked and frozen in surreal situations. The lighting is flawless but the photograph is devoid of feeling and depth. After a while it begins to look like an exercise in masturbatory lighting technical finesse.

What are your loftiest goals?
Really simple. Have the means to travel as much as I can and photograph as much as I can and make more books. And get a deep tissue massage once a week.

Do you have any other creative talents?
I love to dance to Bollywood Pop music in my apartment with my dog, Moishe. I love words more than I enjoy reading books and I found out in my early thirties that I love writing...finding the right words without using too much vernacular and expressing myself though language to my deepest core.

What are the top three movies on your queue?
I would be lying if I were to say these are my top favorite three...there are too many good choices out there.

Four Hundred Blows
Harold and Maude
Vagabond

Favorite possession?
The air that I breathe.

While our Hot Shots! are busily preparing for the showcase, allow me the pleasure of introducing you to each of them. Check back regularly for the Hot Shot interview of the day. 10 Hot Shots, 10 days until opening.

And don't forget to pencil it in:

jen bekman presents:
Hey, Hot Shot! Winners' Showcase
Wednesday December 13, 2006 from 6-8 pm
6 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

From the series Three Star by James Deavin

Here it is. The second segment of my interview with James Deavin. Enjoy!

Alice: Visually your show is not that different from your earlier work, other than it is shot in another world... It is an impressive body of work. Were you working on the SL shots before NYC, HHS!, and your Ultra status?

James: No I started 3 months before the show opened. In the meantime I made work in the UK, in Bourneouth, a series called 3 Star...And some other stuff in NYC... I was introduced to Second Life and logged in w/ the sole intention of making pictures. I wandered around for 3 months without interacting really with anyone working out what it was all about

A: Did you figure it out?

J: it's a shame the 3 star stuff has been TOTALLY overlooked because of the SL stuff...Figure what out?

A: What it's all about? This Second Life... I'm joking, you don't need to go there. I'm still somewhat in awe over it, that's all.

J: WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT????? SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE. Well I know I have different opinions on what its all about to everyone at Linden Labs. I am writing an essay at the mo, on photography and SL, that makes it all clear.

A: I anxiously await.

J: It just fascinates me how it is possible to approach an entire world through the medium of perspective.

William Henry Jackson and his glass plates and camera gear

A: I can't help but imagine you virtually lugging your view camera around that treacherous landscape... That's still how it is in my mind.

J: Heh...Well that's the funny thing about it. That camera in SL was made for me! I mean its really mad in fact - there is NO way that camera system has been used by anyone to its full potential until I came along... it is a view camera.

A: A pioneer... THE pioneer.

J: How would non view camera users know that, or want to know that, its bizarre in fact... I asked Philip Rosedale about it at the opening. he said: "We made it for you."

A: sweet!

J: ...and 77mb file sizes! who would use that?? Except someone who wanted to make 40/50 prints??

A: It is a bit crazy.

Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

J: The funny thing is... I thought the SL images were a massive step backwards at first. They reminded me of the stuff I was doing in the RW at age 25 or something. You know just wandering around, taking pictures, whistling, taking pictures, all very innocent... Stuff like Three Star seemed to have much more depth to it. It was only as i started reading about and looking at still life painting that the penny dropped, and i saw how the SL stuff could develop.

A: Some of the SL shots would have gone over very very well in my beginning Large Format class...

J: right. its all straight verticals and so on. is that what you mean?

A: Basically.

J: And sharp back to front! Without focusing! Joy!

A: It amazes me how much talk the work generates.

J: I always forget to focus my view camera. it can be really annoying (when i get the film back) I am an expert "sharpener' in Photoshop...

A: How's the SL lens...?

J: what talk, Alice?

A: I got into a 30 min chat with someone in the gallery the other day about the work and SL

J: Wide angle.

A: Some people just won't stop...

J: Which is ok, although use normal to long in RL.

A: Maybe they'll make options...

J: do you get the feeling that people are thinking about authorship???

A: No, I don't...I think it's more the "mind trip" it takes them on...

J: OK...but wouldn't they get that trip through the computer screen too?

A: It seems we're all so caught up in the idea of a photographer documenting another world in the same way that he would document this one.

J: Right.

A: I thought it was a show of novelty at first, I will admit... However, no longer the case.

J: lol

A: It's good stuff. Anyways... Do you have any advice for aspiring Hot Shots and/or the new round of winners?

J: OK. My advice is that you could have a great opportunity on your hands. There can be no better way to get a show up quickly in NYC, with great people. That and remember to focus and stop trying to be William Eggleston...I mean, really!

From William Eggleston's Guide

A: Remembering to focus, not always an easy task. But Eggleston, he might be even harder to let go of...

J: and STAY OUT of SL!! Incidentally, where do you study?

A: Chicago

J: SL is my turf!

A: Oh we're all moving in, and never sleeping again.

J: Do you take pictures? Do you have an avatar? Questions questions! Role reversal!

A: Yes. And in fact I am still taking pictures.

J: What's your avatar's name? (Send them to me.)

A: Alie Wheels

J: Oh yeah? Brill.

A: flickr.com/photos/akwells

J: Do you think Flickr is a good medium for a portfolio?... Alie wheels -that makes me laugh!

A: It's not necessarily bad. But, my website is still a work in progress, stay tuned...

J: So do you need to know anything else, alie wheels?

A: I think that'll do. You're too kind to offer your time...

J: Well get back in touch if you need anything else, pleasure. Nighty night.

A: Will do. Sleep well.

Untitled by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Mette Maersk

Take a look at the Fall 2006 Hot Shots' work. We've got 30 excellent images in our HHS! Winners set, up now on Flickr! Check it out here.

And get ready: you can see all this work live at the Hot Shot! Showcase December 13, 2006 from 6 to 8 p.m. Be there!

Untitled (Three) by Fall Hot Shot Patrick Smith

It keeps getting harder and harder, but somehow we have managed to narrow it down to a final ten! Drum roll please...The winners for the Fall 2006 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! are:

Juliana Beasley
Joe Fornabaio
Hans Gindlesberger
Joseph O. Holmes
Mette Maersk
Chad Muthard
Victoria Rich
Sasha Rudensky
Patrick Smith
Shen Wei

Write it in—the Showcase Soiree in honor of our new Hot Shots is Wednesday, December 13 from 6 - 8pm. The show will be up from December 14 - 17, 2006 and what a show it promises to be! And Fall Hot Shots are also going to be included in the first of its kind HHS! Yearbook, out this December!

Special thanks to our fantastic group of panelists, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a big thank you out to all of the participants!

It indeed was a difficult round for decision making and with so much great stuff to see, some Honorable Mentions are in order:

Joslin Van Arsdale, Alain Astruc, Meg Birnbaum, Karin Bubas, Alana Celii, Larissa Cleveland, Cary Conover, Rachel Herman, Alexandra Huddleston, Siri Kaur, Drew Kelly, Orrie King, Daniel Kopton, Suzette Lee, Nick Meyer, Stephen Miller, Graeme Mitchell, Mark Rubenstein, Lissa Rivera, Angie Smith, Sam Sweezy, Grant Willing, Christ