It's been a hectic and amazing 2010 for all of us at JBP, and as the year comes to a close it seems fitting to take a retrospective look at all that has happened here on the HHS! blog over the past months. Although HHS! has officially wrapped up for this year—the five stupendous 2010 Hot Shots were announced just this past October —we can't help but keep looking back over the really, really sensational group of contenders from this year's competition.

There are a whole bunch of submissions that we haven't been able to shake from our collective consciousnesses, and we thought we'd take the opportunity (in the downtime between competitions) to look back at some of the images that we featured in (the more than 100!) contender posts over the course of this just-past round.

Have a look at just a few of our favorite images that came in this season, (and click on each artist's name to read a little more about his or her work!)

Cat, by James Luckett

Untitled, from the series Liminal Points: The Woods by Nick Rochowski

Boy playing in his grandfathers WWII tunic, Artemare, France, 2010 from The French by Nick Turpin

Lemonade Stand, Rhinebeck, NY, 2009, from the series Stand Alone, by Robert Forlini

Pink Pillows, 2007/2010 by Dorthe Alstrup

llness, Female, 60 years old, 2010, by Sarah Sudhoff

Untitled #1 (from Future Cities: Lima), 2010 by Noah Addis

Untitled, July 2010 from the series Maho Beach by Thomas Prior

Untitled from the series Pulsar, 2009 by Yuji Hamada

Minute Owl. (Day 61, Camera Trap No.168, Madura Forest), 2009 by Renhui Zhao

Untitled, from the series In the Fulcrum of Our Dreams by Teo Ormond-Skeaping

The Punishment Buzzcut, from the series Exposure in Vivo by Selena Salfen

AF 3231, 2008 by Judith Stenneken

Flowers and Workers I, November 2009 from the series Far Chang by Taylor R. Glenn

The Dollar Room, from the series Roma/Gypsy Interiors by Carlo Gianferro

Untitled by Jennifer Garza-Cuen

Morning of 30th Birthday, 2004 by Melissa Rene Kaseman

Untitled, by Uygur Yilmaz

Untitled, 2010 by Danielle Aseff

Untitled, 2010 by Kate Hutchinson

Untitled, from the series Uncanny Places by Virgílio Ferreira

Jose on Chapulín in Lost Hills, CA. Jose Saldaña wears the traditional dress of the Charreada, or Mexican rodeo while astride his colt Chapulín in the front yard of his home in Lost Hills. Jose, 25, works in the oil fields outside of town and supports his aunt, uncle, sister, and two nieces. On his days off Jose practices the equestrian and lariat events and regularly competes with a team at Charreadas in the Central Valley and Los Angeles., March 28, 2009, from Lost Hills, by Sam Comen

Underneath, from the series Subconscious Pink by Nik Mirus

Untitled, April 2010, from Kabul, Afghanistan, by Lauren Lancaster

Oranges, 2010 by Jennifer Mason

Dr. Wilk D.D.S., Exam Room 1, Instrument Tray, 2010 by Mark Lyon

New Work #43, 2010 by Jordan Tate

As the holidays unfold, most of us will find ourselves partaking in one ritual or another, that's tied to the season. These rituals run the gamut—for some there might be a communal dinner with family and friends; a trip to another state or country, from where the family originates; for others living in more enviable climes, there might be a Sunday afternoon on the beach flying kites. For me and many of my friends who grew up here in New York, the holidays were always the perfect time to spend days bopping from gallery, to museum, to gallery, catching up on all of the wonderful art offering that this city has to offer.

As the skies get grayer and the temperature drops, there is perhaps no better way to stay warm and combat the cabin fever than by getting out and seeing some great photography. Here are a few shows that you might want to include in your own end-of-year art ritual, as you reflect on the months that have passed and the new year to come.

Entering the Nethermead by Joseph O. Holmes

Joseph O. Holmes: The Urban Wilderness
Opening Reception: Friday, December 10, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
On view through January 23, 2011
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012

As we mentioned earlier Joseph O. Holmes, who holds a dear place in the JBP family's hearts, will be having his first solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery. Stop by the opening and enjoy these astoundingly beautiful renderings of winter in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, as captured by Joe.

Ernesto Alonso, Señor Telenovela by Stefan Ruiz

Stefan Ruiz: The Factory of Dreams
On view through December 13, 2010
F.L.O.A.T. Gallery
539 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11217

Though we've mentioned it before, there's no harm in reminding you again about photographer and former HHS! panelists Stefan Ruiz's captivating show up at Brooklyn's F.L.O.A.T. Gallery. The show—a collection of photographs taken over the course of six years at Mexico City's most prolific telenovela producer. Televisa Studios—will be coming down next week, so be sure to check it out!

HumanKind: A Juried Invitational Photo Show
Opening Reception: December 17, 7:00 p.m.
On view through January 20, 2011
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

This exhibition, presented by The New York Photo Festival, which we are huge fans and supporters of will feature 120 photographs that interrogate the human experience from social, personal and cultural vantages.

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971 by John Baldessari

John Baldessari: Pure Beauty
On view through January 9, 2011
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10028

No holiday museum-going would be complete without a look back at some acclaimed masters, and without a stop at the Met—an incredible structure, filled to its gills with important works. The Baldessari show allows you to kill two birds with one stone, seeing many rarely shown photo-based works from the man who played a large role in American conceptualism and exploring mass-media through the photographic image, at one of New York's most beautiful museums.

Victoria Rubio Diez by Consuelo Mendez

Secrets of Inspiring Women
Pictory Magazine

If for whatever reason you really can't make it out to see some shows, a host of websites, blogs and tumblrs are equipping themselves with gallery interfaces and layouts that bring expertly curated and arranged shows to you. Just reaching its one-year birthday, online invitational photo publication Pictory Magazine invites photographers to submit a photograph and accompanying story related to a new prompt that they release each month. Most recently, Pictory has released an extremely compelling issue, Secrets of Inspiring Women, viewable for free, and written up by NPR's Picture Show. We look forward to seeing even more from this wonderful startup and we hope that those of you itchy to photograph over the Holidays will send some of those photos on for consideration by Pictory.

Stay tuned for more photography shows to add to your own holiday routines!

Long Meadow #2, 2010 by Joseph O. Holmes

Happy December greetings! We're beyond excited to celebrate the season with the opening of Joseph O. Holmes' The Urban Wilderness this Friday, December 10th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Jen Bekman Gallery. The Urban Wilderness features twelve photographs by Joseph O. Holmes and will be on view from December 11th, 2010 through January 23rd, 2011. This is Holmes' first solo exhibition at the gallery.

As many of you know, Joe has held a pretty special place in the JBP family for some time now: he was a HHS! Ne Plus Ultra back in 2006, and the only person to ever win the competition twice (in the Fall of 2005 and 2006). He is also one of 20x200's superstars, with fourteen editions over the past several years—many of which have sold out. So, come join Joe and the JBP team this Friday evening to take in the dreamy landscapes of The Urban Wilderness.

Looking a little further on the horizon, we've also been busily preparing for 2010 Hot Shots' forthcoming exhibition. Save the date: the 2010 Hot Shot! Showcase will open at Jen Bekman Gallery on Friday, February 4th, 2011 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012
e: info@jenbekman.com | w: www.jenbekman.com | p: +1.212.219.0166

Box design by Kate Bingaman-Burt

Breaking news for all you picture-takers and Tumblr-users: The awesome folks at Photojojo have just announced their release of 100 limited edition Polaroid cameras, in collaboration with one of the great champions of analog photography, The Impossible Project. What's even more exciting (and even more pressing!) is that they'll be giving away a Vintage Polaroid Rainbow OneStep to one very lucky person, TODAY!

This is a super-rare, limited edition camera, with a gorgeous—and totally fitting—rainbow-themed box, designed by artist extraordinaire, Kate Bingaman-Burt.

All you need to enter is a Tumblr account, and a little gumption. Here are the instructions, directly from Photojojo:

1. Grab a photo of a Photojojo Store goodie from our site
(any photo you'd like, just right click to save, or click on the download link for a hi-res if it's available)
2. Head to Big Huge Labs or Poladroid to turn that photo into a Polaroid
3. Share your new Polaroid-ized photo on Tumblr with a link back to the Photojojo Store
(IMPORTANT: be sure to tag your posts with #photojojo and #impossible so we can find you!)

The winner will be announced at 8:00 p.m. EST today, so don't hesitate—head on over for full details and your chance to win this amazing camera!

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to experience it, New York-based Slideluck Potshow (started by Hot Shot Casey Kelbaugh) is an innovative organization helping to change the way audiences engage with art. A mashup of a potluck and a slideshow (hence the name!), Slideluck exhibits artist-curated slideshows set to a soundtrack from a variety of photographers, from the well established to the very emerging. Since their first backyard event in 2000, they've grown to an established organization that's organized events celebrating both the edible and the visual in dozens of cities worldwide.

Mexico City 3 (Zócalo, MUCA/UNAM Campus), 2007 by Spencer Tunick

The genius of Slideluck Potshow is that it encourages people to participate in experiencing art as a community. Each Slideluck Potshow is active undertaking- guests provide the potluck ingredients, and the artists shown at each event are local. It's a fun party with serious art, and so markedly different from the traditionally solo, contemplative gallery or museum experience. In keeping with their community-focused ethos, Slideluck Potshow is expanding with a new event series called simply SLIDELUCK. Instead of a potluck, each event will be a collaboration with a local chef, restaurant, farm or dining club.

The New York launch of SLIDELUCK will take place this Wednesday, December 8th at Sandbox Studio. The event will be an auction and a fundraiser for the organization, co-chaired by Patrick McMullan and DJ Spooky. Participating artists include Spencer Tunick and 20x200's own Coke O'Neal and Mickey Smith! Limited tickets are still available for the cocktail reception, the dinner, the afterparty or for all three. View the full invitation here.

SLIDELUCK Launch Party and Fundraiser
Wednesday, December 8, 6-10:30 p.m.
Sandbox Studio
250 Hudson Street, New York

David Griffin on How Photography Connects Us from TEDTalks.

There's something about podcasts that's magical and intimate. They're perfect for slow afternoons, long commutes and slightly reminiscent of the fireside chats. You can start 'em and stop 'em as you like, rewinding if you weren't paying attention or hitting replay for an episode or podcast you really loved. Today, we've rounded up some of the best photography related podcasts we've found to date:

About Photography and Its Origins
The Candid Frame
Your Host: Ibarionex Perello
Who It's For: Those looking for inspiration and the ins and outs of the business.
What It's About: The Candid Frame features high quality interviews from artists. In addition to turning you onto new and emerging projects, this podcast covers the business and art of photography.

History of Photography from Jeff Curto
Your Host: College of DuPage Professor Jeff Curto
Who It's For: The wish-I-could-go-back-to-college type.
What It's About: Professor Jeff Curto started this podcast in 2008 with sparse updates, but lately he's picked up the pace and started updating consistently. His informative lecture coverage goes deep into the influences that make photography what it is today and includes everyone from Daguerre to Cartier-Bresson and Meyerowitz. If you're really interested in going back to college with this podcast you can find the class syllabus and more here.

Photography Monthly
Your Hosts: Photography Monthly editors Grant Scott and Sean Samuels
Who It's For: The insatiable photography addict.
What It's About: This relaxed podcast features news, gear reviews, and insightful interviews from photographers with a variety of styles and subjects.

Tutorials and The Tactical
The Digital Story
Your Host: Derrick Story
Who It's For: The spec-obsessed gadget lover.
What It's About: This highly technical weekly podcast features a lot of talk about specs but also offers tips, gadget reviews and more.

Learning Digital Photography
Your Host: Jason Anderson
Who It's For: Digital photographers at any level.
What It's About: The intro of this podcast drags a bit but after that this program flies with informative Q&A's, how tos, and equipment reviews for those looking to advance their art.

LightSource Studio Photography
Your Hosts: Bill Crawford, publisher of StudioLighting.net and Ed Hidden, exclusive iStockPhoto.com photographer
Who It's For: Photographers interested in lighting.
What It's About: The hosts have had technological issues that have prevented them from updating consistently, but when this podcast updates it's always chock full of tips.

For Inspiration
New York Times Lens
Your Host: Photojournalists + documentarians.
Who It's For: Aspiring photojournalists any current events buffs
What It's About: A variety of photojournalists narrate the story of their work against photo slideshows from their journeys. There aren't many episodes of this podcast, but the ones that exist are both beautiful and striking.

TEDTalks Podcast
Your Host: Various Speakers from the TEDTalks Conferences
Who It's For: Anyone interested in the hows and whats of the world.
What It's About: This inspiring video podcast gives you the chance to sit back every now and then and hear the thoughts of geniuses. By no means is everything from TEDTalks is photography-related, but most of it has everything to do with innovation, thought processes, and new frontiers for the world we live in. A few specific talks we love? David Griffin on How Photography Connects Us; Jame's Nachtwey's Searing Photos of War, Frans Lanting's Lyrical Nature Photos, Taryn Simon Photographs Secret Sites; Edward Burtynsky on Manufactured Landscapes.

Did I miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

Confections (couture) #2 by Amy Stevens

2010 Hot Shot Amy Stevens was featured this week on Flavorpill's flavorwire for her Confections series, where writer Judy Berman says, "We can't vouch for how they taste, but these gorgeous and funny cake wrecks, photographed in front of complementary backgrounds, are certainly a feast for the eyes."

To get a taste of Amy's work in person, stop by her show at Carmelita Couture in Philly tonight, Friday, December 3, from 6-8 p.m. The show is part of the 1st Friday ArtWalk event and is guaranteed to be a lot of fun. For full details, check Amy's blog here.

Carmelita Couture
17 North 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Opening: First Friday, December 3, 6-8 p.m.
On view: December 3, 2010- Jan 6, 2011

Street Photography Now published by Thames & Hudson

Presented by The Photographers' Gallery, London along with the authors of Street Photography Now, the eponymous project invites you to dive into the practice of street photography and keeps things fresh by offering a new 'prompt' every day.

Every week through October 1, 2011, you may submit a photo that heeds that week's instruction, given by one of a group of leading contemporary street photographers corralled by the creators of this contest. You may submit once, or every week--as frequently as you like:

The Project will run for 52 weeks, and you can join in at any time. The aim is to build a global community of photographers exploring the rewards and challenges of documenting public life. All photographers, including those who contribute to the Instructions, will be encouraged to comment and respond to the images posted to the Flickr groups.

Though not a competition, at the end of the Project one photographer will be chosen who has made the most outstanding contribution to the project across a number of weeks. They will be awarded £1000 of Thames & Hudson books and have their work displayed on The Photographers' Gallery digital Wall for All.

We, at Hey, Hot Shot! are huge fans of crowd-sourced, collaborative and ongoing projects of this nature (like Alec Soth's recent invitation to join in on the From Here to There project). They build community and also allow for a dynamism and evolution in work that is visible as time elapses. We're very excited to see what comes of the Street Photography Now project. No matter what your skill level or equipment, we hope you'll dive in, explore your far-flung cities and submit your photographs!

We know what it's like. The new year is still a month away and yet you already know what's going to top your list of 2011 resolutions. You're going to get yourself back to the darkroom and start making photographs the "old-fashioned" way, the tactile way, the way that involves dodging and burning—and not in Adobe Photoshop.

In your honor, we present you with the New York City guide to darkrooms (from the least to the most expensive).

ABC No Rio
Price: $6/hour; Cash Only; Photo ID Required
Hours: Seasonal hours. Check their calendar here for the most up-to-date schedule.
Phone: 212.254.3697 ext. 324
Location: 156 Rivington St, New York, NY 10002
Note: This is probably the least expensive darkroom in the city, but make sure to bring your own paper.

My Own Color Lab
Price: $12.00/hour with credit card; $11.00/hour in cash
Hours: Monday - Friday 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Saturday noon - 8 p.m.
Phone: 212.696.4107
Location: 18 W 27th St, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001
Note: They also have a Imacon 949 scanner you can rent should the need arise.

Beth Schiffer Conventional Darkroom
Price: $11/hour Single Darkroom; $18/hour Double Darkroom.
Discounts: 10% student discount. One free hour for every four hours you work there and paper discounts if you buy your paper there.
Availability: With reservations.
Phone: 212.219.1553
Email: info@bethschiffer.com
Location: 385 Broadway, Suite 4R, New York, NY 10013

Brooklyn Photo [Studio]
Price: $15/hour (in 3, 6 and 9 hour slots). Cash only.
Hours: Monday - Thursday, 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 a.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.; Weekends, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Availability: By appointment on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Phone: 718-384-1825
Email: mail@brooklynphotostudio.com
Location: 39 Ainslie Street #3, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Note: Black and white darkroom only. Photographers can print in formats from 35mm to 4"x5" and hand process paper sizes up to 16"x20".

Print Space
Price: $20/hour for a private B&W darkroom and every fifth hour in the darkroom is free.
Color, C-41 and Digital Hours: Monday - Thursday 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Saturday noon - 8 p.m.
Black & White Hours: Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday noon - 7 p.m.
Phone: 212.255.1919
Email: darkroom@printspacenyc.com
Location: 151 W 19th St, Floor 8, New York, NY 10011
Note: Prince Space also has enlarger rooms, Mac stations and more.

Beth Schiffer Digital Darkroom
$25/hour
Available: With reservations
Phone: 212.966.3800
Email: info@bethschiffer.com
Location: 385 Broadway, Suite 4R, New York, NY 10013

thesmalldarkroom
Price: Available Upon Request
Discounts: 20% Student Discount.
Available: With reservations. Weekend and overnight times also available.
Phone: 212.243.0170
Email: main@smalldarkroom.com
Location: 437 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011
Note: thesmalldarkroom's clients include Annie Leibowitz, Brian Finke, Matthew Brookes, Lazslo Konrath and many more.

Less Conventional Means For Getting Darkroom Space
The Camera Club of New York has an annual Darkroom Residency Program that gives emerging photographers 24/7 access to their darkroom facilities. The 2011 application deadline has just passed, but it's worth keeping in mind for the future. You can also gain access by joining as a member; members can sign up for three 4-hour sessions of darkroom time weekly. Their facilities are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

The International Center of Photography is known to offer volunteers an hour of free darkroom time for every hour they volunteer with the organization. If you're just beginning to learn your way around a darkroom, ICP also offers both B&W and Color Darkroom classes from the beginner level to the more advanced.

Untitled by Luca Zanier

CENTER, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting photographers, has just announced its 2011 call for entries. Photographers: take note! There are a whole bunch of amazing opportunities available through the numerous and varied CENTER Awards. From their website:

The 16th annual CENTER Awards provide contestants with a prestigious and worthwhile photographic awards program. The prize packages are designed to bring exposure to worthy photographers via exhibitions, publication, and career advancement.

Often judges will show interest in work that is not selected for the awards but that may be relevant for other purposes. To facilitate a relationship, CENTER provides contact information of all photographers who have advanced to the final rounds of judging. No work is eliminated by pre-screening. All contestants stand to benefit from the submission process by having their work seen by the judges.

Here's a run-down of some of the awards and events on offer through CENTER:

The entry deadline for all of these is January 27th, 2011. You've still got a little time, but start getting your submissions ready! More information—including entry details—is available here.

Same Difference - Teaser from Lisa Udelson on Vimeo.

Ever present in the news due to same-sex marriage legislation battles and the recent passing of Prop 8 in California, questions of childhood and family also come to the fore in contemporary photography. We've seen a range of interesting takes on these issues here at Hey, Hot Shot! Recently, contender Glen Erler's Family Tree project delved into the locales and personalities that inhabited the photographer's childhood to investigate "the loss and rebirth" of his family, Elizabeth Clark Libert's work investigated the complex dynamics of growing up extremely wealthy and Kevin C. Moore, whose father was an anonymous sperm donor, searches for his identity through a series of portraits and documents from his personal history .

While there are boundless examples of nostalgia and excavation of family history through photography, we hardly hear from children themselves about family and childhood. Photographer Catherine Opie has collaborated with filmmaker Lisa Udelson to create Same Difference, a documentary that does just that.

Catherine Opie became known for her portraits of California's queer communities, though she has trained her lens on a host of other subjects—Los Angeles' sprawling freeways, Minnesota's ice houses and high school football stars. Her portraits are inquiries into way that identities and communities are formed. This latest project asks children of same sex partners to talk about their family experiences.

A short clip from the film features several interviews with kids ranging from so-young-he-needs-a-booster-seat to 14 years old, speaking in casual, heartwarmingly mature and deadpan manner about their own family structures. The creators' website says of the project:

Renowned photographer Catherine Opie and award-winning filmmaker Lisa Udelson became interested in the lack of children's voices in California during the debate over the anti-gay marriage bill Proposition 8. Questions arose for these longtime friends. Do we want to get married? Raise macho men or boys in pink tutus? Observe traditional holidays? Do we want to fit in? Is it possible to celebrate our differences while yearning, even demanding, to be accepted and treated the same?

Same Difference focuses on the opinions of children with same sex parents...They speak with humor, insight, intelligence and passion about their lives and their families. The film includes their parents and grandparents, including the filmmakers, who daily navigate the landscape of queer family...This is a reflection on the modern American family, not only those within the LGBTQ community, but society at large.

Using the same website through which Zoe Strauss raised funds for her On the Beach project, documenting this summer's Deepwater Horizon disaster, Catherine Opie and Lisa Udelson are hoping to raise $15,000 in finishing funds. Rather than relying on museum and film festival screenings, they're hoping to reach an even broader mass:

Our hope is for Same Difference to reach the widest possible audience, particularly in light of the timeliness of debates over gay marriage...While the film will have a presence at museums and film festivals worldwide, we feel that broadcast television is the perfect venue, where audiences are more inclined to watch programming out of their comfort zone. There is access to deliver this thought-provoking message of recognition and encouragement to a wide array of viewers without asking them to go to a theatre or pay additional cable fees.

Please help them out with a donation, so that we can see this project hit small screens across the country and beyond!

It's getting to be that time of year again—the time when you start filling the wishlists of family, friends and all of your loved ones for the coming gift-giving holidays. And, good news for you: TODAY only at 20x200, if you spend $200 or more on art and photography for all the luckiest people on your list, you get 20% off when you enter code CM200X before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

That means any combination of 8"x10" and 11"x14" prints adding up to $200 are now $160. Larger prints are even bigger bargains:

16"x20" prints, normally $200: now $160
20"x24" prints, normally $500: now $400
24"x30" prints, normally $1000: now $800
30"x40" prints, normally $2000: now $1600
40"x50" prints, normally $5000: now $4000

There are lots of ways to browse the 20x200 inventory--and there are scads of great prints to choose from. You can find work by your favorite artist or peruse our various (not to mention widely varied!) categories—including editions by Hot Shots! Looking to present the perfect present and need some inspiration? Check out the handy-dandy Gift Guide or take a gander at some of Team JBP's staff picks. Or, had your eye on a print for yourself, perchance? There's no time like the present to get it before it's gone.

A few notes about the sale before you start your spree:
- This offer may not be combined with any other discounts or promotional codes.
- A handful of editions are already too good of a deal and not eligible for this discount, including prints by Roger Ballen, Ed Baynard, David Byrne, Todd Hido, Mike + Doug Starn, William Wegman and LAWRENCE WEINER.
- The 20% discount applies to print price only.
- The sale ends at midnight (11:59 p.m. today, Monday, November 29).

Ready. Set. GO!

Untitled by Tracy Brown

Just hours after the Thanksgiving holiday comes to a close, another distinctly American tradition commences: countless shoppers gather—some in lines, some in disorderly masses—to partake in Black Friday. Stores open in the wee hours of the morning, boasting unbeatable and limited-time deals as Americans gear up for the winter holidays, and the response is often visually arresting.

Picture Black Friday, created by Jake Stangel and Joerg Colberg and juried by 20x200 edition makers Brian Ulrich and Amy Stein, among others, invites you to submit your own documentations of Black Friday for possible inclusion on the site. Of the contest its creators say:

Picture Black Friday is a photojournalism project that aims to revisit and analyze a combination of forces- a worsening economy, financial desperation, excitement, fear, and a distinctly American cultural tradition- that culminate the morning after Thanksgiving.

More specifically, Picture Black Friday is an open call for photographers throughout the U.S. to go out and produce images that document Black Friday- how you see it, on your terms. Imagine this project as an open assignment: you have freedom to approach this event from any angle you wish, returning with single images or even a mini-project that documents Black Friday like no other media outlet will. A selection of these images will be exhibited on this site.

Photographers are invited to submit up to 5 images of and about Black Friday, along with an optional artist statement. These submissions will be accepted for one week, between Sunday, November 28th and December 5th. Check out Picture Black Friday for more details and to browse a gallery of the work of last year's winner and runners up.

The Complete Edition by Jeff Wall

Given our particular love of photography, and of books here at JBP, we're especially excited when these two passions overlap. We could spend hours poring over photo books - and stunning examples are produced all the time.

Some really amazing publications have been released over the the past year. Just a few weeks ago, we drooled over thousands of them at The NY Art Book Fair and we keep coming back to Douglas Stockdale's fantastic blog, to follow his discoveries and exhumations in the vast and varied world of The Photo Book.

Though photography books are nothing new to the publishing world, they're increasingly recognized not just as accompaniments to, say, an photography exhibition—but as true works of art in their own right. There are an increasing number of awards given to outstanding photography publications: this year, Blurb's Photography Book Now competition honored Judith Stenneken's book of photographs taken at Berlin's Templehof Airport, titled Last Call and The And/or Book Awards' 2010 top prize went to Edward Burtynsky's stunning Oil - a compendium of photographs of "the world's largest oil fields, refineries, freeway interchanges and automobile plants" intended as "an attempt to comprehend the scale of production attending this most politicized of resources".

The most recent attention paid to the art of the photo book is by PDN; we're delighted to see that they have just released their run-down of 2010's notable photography books (they do one of these every year!).

Publications by Lee Friedlander, Dayanita Singh, Collier Schorr, Jeff Wall and Robert Polidori—among others—are featured by the magazine as exceptional books from the soon-to-be-finished year, as well as catalogs from the MoMA and The Walker Art Center.

Blumen by Collier Schorr

You can read several terrific overviews of some of 2010's very best on PDN's website. The article in its entirety is only available online to subscribers, however, so unless you get the magazine, you'll have to settle for just the second part unless you sign up.

And now we open up the forum to you? What were your favorite photography publications of the year, both from publishers big and small? Whose photographs won you over on the pages of a delicately bound book? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Car thief. from the series Interrogations by Donald Weber

2008 Hot Shot and Donald Weber is fresh off of his five year photo project in Russia and Ukraine, and he's giving a workshop at the Roman School of Photography this Friday and Saturday, November 26 + 27th.

In addition to teaching attendees how to turn their aspirational longterm projects into reality, artists will get a sneak peek of Interrogations, Weber's forthcoming book about the way power is bartered and sold in the unjust interrogation rooms of Ukraine. VII Photo Agency has a slideshow of some of Weber's powerful images, which show petty criminals in the process of their interrogation. Weber carefully positions himself between the police and the accused, some of which he describes in a blog interview with Colin Pantall:

I saw some very terrible things and was quite disturbed by the whole process, still am, but I believe I am not a judge of their crimes nor of the methods. I am not there to intervene in the process, that would be a betrayal of my years of trust built up with the police. The work formed in this manner because I was not interested in the physical violence, but the psychological violence that we as humans seem to have a special affinity for.

On the first day of the workshop, Weber will offer a big picture view that explains the process of successfully executing a longterm photo project both economically and logistically. Saturday's agenda will then push into more tactical instruction about writing successful proposals that make future dream projects a reality.

To learn more about the upcoming workshop, please contact the secretary at the Roman School of Photography at 064957264 between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Donald Weber Workshop
Roman School of Photography
Friday November 26, 4:30pm - 8:30pm
Saturday November 27, 10:00am - 2:00pm

O and H Auto Repair by Joseph O. Holmes

We've been thinking a lot about work-spaces lately—more specifically, how they correspond to creative production. Only last week, we got a glimpse of Carrie Marill's beautiful new Phoenix studio, which was featured on Kate Donnelly's blog series From Your Desks, dedicated to visiting and considering the places where artists make art.

Interior design website Apartment Therapy, as well, has keen and very understandable interest in the office, and this week—despite their admitted tendency to focus on spare and modernist spaces—they've made an excellent exception for Joseph O. Holmes. They feature the Fall 2005 and 2006 Hot Shot (and 20x200 superstar!)'s navigation of cluttered but moving and intensely personal places where business, (both artistic and otherwise), is done, featuring photographs from his aptly-titled Workspaces series on their site Unplggd.

Joseph himself describes Workspaces as an "impossible amount of work in an impossibly small space"—and the photo tour reveals this statement as certainly-not-inaccurate. In spite of the seeming chaos of the depicted offices, studios, and bars, there emerges a purposefulness to the spaces Joseph photographs. His aesthetic sensibility is revealed in these places—not mess, not clutter—but rather an unexpected sense of order and beauty. (Note for example the beautifully balanced signs/photographs/post-its/etc. on walls/desks/bulletin boards/etc., or the four matching mini-lamps perfectly framing the bar at CBGB). Unplggd writes of Joseph's photographs:

These spaces are the antithesis of what we propose and promote here on the site, but the Where's Waldo effect of the layered textures of places where everyday people get their work done is arguably inspiring in itself. Joseph has been kind enough to allow us to share the worlds where work is done without regard for those damn minimalist sensibilities (aka the "mess is mine and I know where everything is" system)!

CBGB by Joseph O. Holmes

If you're part of the art world that'll be flocking down to Miami the first week of December, then be sure to stop by Jen Bekman Gallery's booth at PULSE Miami 2010!

The gallery will be bringing work from a number of their artists, including Hot Shots: Ian Baguskas, Nina Berman, Derek Henderson, Joseph O. Holmes, Gregory Krum, Brad Moore, Colleen Plumb, Mike Sinclair and Kurt Tong.

Pool, Palm Springs, California, 1983 by Mike Sinclair

PULSE is located at the Ice Palace, 1400 North Miami Avenue (at NW 14th Street) and will run from December 2nd to December 5th. JBG will be in Booth B-403, so if you're in Miami, swing by and visit us.

Fair hours are as follows:
Thursday, December 2nd: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. (VIP Brunch and Preview); 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. fair opens to the public
Friday, December 3rd: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, December 4th: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, December 5th: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is $15, $10 for students and seniors and $10 for groups.

Hot Shot Colleen Plumb also has work on view in the Wynwood Art District's Dina Mitrani gallery through Christmas Day—December 25th—from her series Animals Are Outside Today. Be sure to catch her in at least one--if not both--of these spots.

The camera is often a tool for attempting to capture reality, but it is also a great instrument in creating optical illusion. 2009 Hot Shot Jessica Eaton repeatedly questions our grasp on visual perception, using light filters and properties of reflection, refraction and multiple exposures to great effect. In her fourth solo exhibit, STRATA, Jessica presents new works from her series Cubes For Alberts and Lewitt, for the very first time. The exhibition opens tomorrow night at Red Bull 381 Projects in Toronto, from 6-10 p.m.

Red Bull 381 writes:

The cube appears variously as a three dimensional model of classic optical illusions, as a metaphor for a pixel, as a subject submitted to motion blur, colour separation, in-camera masking and out of camera masking via the reflective values of monochromatic elements. Ranging from a single exposure to many exposures, all of the images are composed on sheets of 4x5 film. This precarious and experimental process results in a body of work that frustrates the representational nature of the image through seemingly impossible compositions.

In addition to the opening tomorrow night, if you're in Toronto on December 9th, Jessica will also be on site for an artist talk from 7-9 p.m.

STRATA
Red Bull 381 Projects
Suite 200 - 381 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 2A5
Hours: Thursday & Friday, 5-9 p.m.; Saturday, 12-5 p.m.

Artist Talk:
Jessica Eaton artist talk with Nicholas Brown
Thursday December 9, 7:00 p.m

Untitled, 2010 by Jordan Tate

Just a few days ago, our friends at Aperture announced the finalists for this year's edition of their prestigious Portfolio Prize. A little more about the competition from their website:

The purpose of the Aperture Portfolio Prize is to identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists whom we can help by bringing them to a wider audience. In choosing the first-prize winner and runners-up, we are looking for work that is fresh and that hasn't been widely seen in major publications or exhibition venues.

In 2010, first prize is $5,000 and an exhibition at the Aperture Foundation. The first-prize winner and runners-up are featured in Aperture's website for approximately one year. Winners are also announced in the foundation's e-newsletter, which reaches thousands of subscribers in the photography community.

The jury from Aperture's editorial and limited-edition print departments reviewed nearly a thousand portfolios, and narrowed these down to five finalists, from which one will be selected for the top prize, to be announced this coming December. We're excited to see that this talented five includes two of the stellar semi-finalists from this-just-past 2010 edition of of Hey, Hot Shot!: Julian Röder and Jordan Tate, (for their respective series Lagos Transformation, and New Work).

Earlier this year, Youngna wrote about Jordan's work:

The works, including images of other images, captures of computer and television screens, and visual puns of faces within other objects of faces, suggests that seeing (the act) and what we're looking are not simply the sum of 1 + 1 (the looker and what's being looked at), but poses a new question unto itself: what is the relationship between the two parties? In the act of looking at a medium in which other objects are projected--we are not seeing the object, but the screen or device which contains it, whether this is an iPhone, iPad or television. Our relationship to said objects is then a relationship to the representation--and in our age of ever-increasing technological dependency (and growth), Jordan might suggest that our "experience" with what we see is also an increasingly mediated one.

Central business district on Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria, 2009 by Julian Roder

Roder's work, in contrast, captures the crowded metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria, creating order out of the cacophony of buses, tin-roofed shacks and marketplaces that exist on a fragile and rapidly changing infrastructure. Taking large-scale portraits of a city that is the fastest-growing in Africa, and one of the largest in the world, Roder confronts the duality of a growing city that geographically, has no place to grow.

He describes his experience of photographing in Nigeria as such:

What interested me about Lagos was the interchange of chaos and order in such a rapidly growing city. I already got a sense of this on my very first day there. I went to the Ministry of Information in order to obtain an official permit to photograph. There were goats in the hallways; noise was coming from a flat-screen TV on the wall; there was music playing somewhere. The only time it was quiet was when the electricity went out. I wandered through the building until I ran into the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, who told me to go see the Director for Public Enlightenment. Luckily, the director was immediately willing to write me a permit by hand, but when he finished, the secretary who was supposed to type the text had to go home. I gave her money so that she could take a taxi later. As she typed the text, her boss suddenly realized it would be better to use the wording from an official master copy. As it turned out, this master copy was on the computer of a colleague, who was no longer there. Then someone suggested the director simply sign his business card, but he did not want to do this without talking to his supervisor, the ministry's Public Relations Officer. When he finally reached her, she asked why the permit hadn't been issued already.

As a photographer, this is a system Roder must participate in, despite its many obstacles. On his website, be sure to read his "commentary" on his experience and observations photographing in Lagos.

Kathryn Parker Almanas, David Favrod, and Anne Golaz were also among those selected as finalists. Big congratulations these five photographers. We can't wait to see who will take home first prize—and will of course keep you posted!

We recently awarded each of our five 2010 Hot Shots $1,000 towards making their own photography books at Blurb. But, what does publishing a photography book really entail? The task can be daunting, starting from selecting the images that will be included in the publication, all the way down to details like which typeface to use, what paper weight is best, and how many pages the book should be.

On Wednesday, December 1st, photo book experts Darius Himes (Founding Editor of Radius Books) and Mary Virginia Swanson will offer a free lecture at the New York Public Library: Publish Your Photography Book. They'll offer pointers about the current temperature of the photography book publishing industry, address how to market a book, and offer insights into what they've learned from their years in the publishing world. The talk shares a title with their forthcoming book from Princeton Architectural Press, to be published in January 2011, which you can pre-order now.

Princeton Architectural Press writes of the book:

For the students and working artists who have chosen photography as their primary means of expression, having their own photography book is seen as a passport to the international photography scene. Yet, few have more than a tentative grasp of the component parts of a book, an understanding of what they want to express, or the know-how needed to get a book published. Publish Your Photography Book is the first book to demystify the process of producing and publishing a book of photographs. Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson survey the current landscape of photography book publishing and point out the many avenues to pursue and pitfalls to avoid. This expert guide is organized in six sections covering the rich history of the photo book; an overview of the publishing industry; an intimate look at the process of making a book; a close review of how to market a photo book; a section on case studies, built around discussions and interviews with published photographers; and a final section presenting a wealth of resources and information to aid in the understanding of the publishing world.

If you're a photographer who's trying to make the move to bound, printed matter, or curious about the publishing industry, be sure to head to NYPL next Wednesday and hear about the art of photo book publishing from a few seasoned experts.

Publish Your Photography Book
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum, 2nd Floor, Rm 227
Wednesday, December 1, 2010: 6:00 p.m. (doors at 5:30 p.m.)
First-come, first-served