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

Talc, 2010 by Heather Cleary

In her artist statement, she explains:

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

Magazine, 2010 by Heather Cleary

Dot Matrix, 2011 by Heather Cleary

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

Artifact, 2011 by Heather Cleary

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

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

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

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

Of the series, Barker says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kissing, New York, 2010 by Michael Stepansky

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

Latent Light, 2012 by Amy Friend

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

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

Untitled, by Joe Aker

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

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

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

SIXTH SENSE | SENSUAL 07, 2011 by Cathrin Schulz

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

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

Dichotomy, 2010 by Philip LePage

In his artist statement, LePage explains:

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

Other People's Windows, 2011 by Philip LePage

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

Surfacing, 2009 by Philip LePage

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

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

Faust explains in his artist statement:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In her statement, Windsor explains:

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

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

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

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

Mark your calendars:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In her artist statement, Gerrard explains:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray 02, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

In her artist statement, Iveta writes:

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

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

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

Swan Lake, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Swan Lake 02, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Lady in Her Tent, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

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

Safety First, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

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

In her artist statement, she writes:

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

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

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

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

For his series Homies, Contender Adam Amengual spent time at LA's Homeboy Industries, a non-profit organization that provides counseling, job training and other free services to former gang members (and the formerly incarcerated) looking to re-enter and contribute to society.

Daniel Castillo, 2011 from the series Homies by Adam Amengual

Amengual says of the organization, "It is a place that takes people in and sees the potential in them when others do not." Of the series, he explains:

In shooting this project I hope that people can see the subjects for what they are, humans trying to better themselves. The style in which these people have been photographed begs the comparison to a mug shot. Almost all of these people have been arrested and have had a mug shot taken of them. I feel like I have... made a more beautiful version of an ugly picture from their past—just like what the subjects themselves are doing with their own lives.

Cindy Hernandez, 2011 from the series Homies by Adam Amengual

Carlos Nieto, 2011 from the series Homies by Adam Amengual

Adam Amengual was born in Queens, New York, and was raised on the North Shore of Massachusetts. After studying the basics of photography in high school, he continued his photographic education at both Massachusetts College of Art and Parsons School of Design, in New York. After art school, Adam moved to Brooklyn, NY, and began assisting photographers in advertising, fashion, celebrity and music. Over the past six years he has assisted many well-established photographers. He has worked with Ruven Afanador, Don Flood, Danielle Levitt, Norman Jean Roy, Art Streiber and Ben Watts, to name just a few. Adam is currently located in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife, Kate, and dog, Shug. His recently completed project, entitled Homies, has been featured on several blogs, including TIME LightBox, Prison Photography, this is the what, Conscientious and We Can Shoot Too, and it is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Balloon, 2008 by Evan Lane

Contender Evan Lane is a working photographer and director based out of LA. Already having directed music videos for bands like M83 and Filter, Lane's cinematic eye is evident in this submission, which is evocative of a summer road trip. Of the series, Lane alludes to an effortless approach by writing only, "Keep it simple, silly." You can view more works from the series here. Be sure to check out his blog for more, or follow his tweets.

Untitled, by Evan Lane

After graduating Santa Monica High School in 2003, Evan Lane made the move from Los Angeles to Boston. He studied film-making and photography at Emerson College. After graduating in 2007 with a degree in film and photography, Evan lived in India for three months. When Evan got back to the States, he started working as a creative assistant to various photographers and directors in order to kick start his career. Photography has been Evan's driving force in life and he loves nothing more than being on set, traveling and consistently pushing himself creatively.

Wild Cotton, 2011 by Evan Lane

A Different Viewpoint, Golan Heights, Israel 2010, by Beth A. Gilbert

Contender Beth A. Gilbert spent six months in Israel in 2010 as part of her artist in residency in Jerusalem. During that time, she turned her large-format camera on the war-ravaged lands and ruins. The resulting images in Scarred Land "deal with war, the damage it inflicts upon the terrain and the natural recovery over time," Gilbert explains. She adds, "The battle sites and military training zones depicted have not been memorialized or preserved by human beings, and are now naturally recovering, as well as being reclaimed by the earth."

Debris, IDF Firing Zone, Gamla, Israel 2010, by Beth A. Gilbert

Beth Gilbert lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. When not photographing, she also works as a digital technician specializing in portfolio and exhibition print production. Her work has been shown at the Boston University Photographic Resource Center, the Danforth Museum of Art and the Hadassah Gallery in Jerusalem, Israel.

Blue Motel, by Matteo Musci

Kicking off our Contender posts for the First Edition 2012 is Matteo Musci, an Italian photographer turned American road tripper. With their washed out colors, his quiet photographs on the road are reminiscent of film stills from yesteryear. Already making the blog rounds, the work was first exhibited in San Francisco's The Garage Sale Project. In introducing the work in Walkin' Solo, Garage Sale's Jack Halloway wrote:

Mostly void of lifeforms, Musci's images allow us a moment alone to gaze in repose amid the often overlooked beauty of an empty truck stop or musty roadside motel suite.

At the Diner, by Matteo Musci

Matteo Musci was born and raised in Milan, Italy. After a couple of years in the late '90s working as an art director in a big ad agency, he began shooting as a professional photographer and founded Zona13 Studio. As a photographer for Zona13, he worked all over Europe for a notable amount of ad agencies. In 2010, he started a new photographic cycle, leaving his ad portfolio behind and focusing on a more personal kind of photography, where neat composition and washy color are the main themes. Now he lives between San Francisco and Milan.

Photographers, hot on the heels of announcing our Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots, we're now accepting submissions for Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2012. Here's your shot at unparalleled recognition and support and cash prizes. Submit your photos now—the $60 fee will increase incrementally throughout the competition; the earlier you submit, the more you save. All entries must be received by March 14th, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?
+ One grand prize winning photographer from 2012 will be awarded $10,000, a solo show at (and gallery representation from) Jen Bekman Gallery in New York City.

+ The five Hot Shots selected from the First Edition 2012 round will each win $500, will participate in a group show—the First Edition 2012 Showcase—at the gallery and will be in the running to win the grand prize.

+ Additionally, all entrants are reviewed for participation on 20x200. HHS! is the only way for photographers to submit work for the limited-edition print site that introduces new art to tens of thousands of collectors around the world.

+ All entrants are also considered for Contender posts, which are shared with our broad photography community via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.

+ All entries are reviewed by our stellar panel of photography professionals, including Aperture Foundation publisher Lesley A. Martin and Chronicle Books chairman and CEO Nion McEvoy, as well as Assistant Director of Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco), and co-founder of Radius Books, Darius Himes.

+ Now in its eighth year, Hey, Hot Shot! has helped launch the careers of hundreds of photographers, including 2010 Whitney Biennal artists Curtis Mann and Nina Berman.

Submit your work now for your chance at our hallmark awards and unprecedented support.

After much careful deliberation, we're thrilled to announce the five winning photographers from the last round of competition in 2011. Please join us in heartily congratulating the Second Edition 2011 Hot Shots:

Meike Nixdorf
Michael Cappabianca
Phil Jung
Cristina De Middel
Brendan George Ko

Each of the photographers has won a $500 honorarium, participation in a Hey, Hot Shot! group show at Jen Bekman Gallery (later this year) and are now in the running to win the Grand Prize:

+ A $10,000 honorarium
+ A solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery
+ Two years of gallery representation from Jen Bekman Gallery

We'd like to also congratulate five photographers who have been selected to win $200 in credits from Blurb, the self-publishing service, to put towards creating their own photo books.The Blurb-prize winners are:

Gregg Segal
Megan Carney
Dave Wyatt
Brianna Treleven
I-Hsuen Chen

Congratulations are also in order for the Honorable Mentions for having submitted exceptional work and raising the bar, making it challenging (but oh, so worth it) to select the last round of Hot Shots for 2011.

The Honorable Mentions are:

Eran Gilat
Daan Brand
Judith Stennekken
Paccarik Orue
Gregg Segal
Megan Carney
Dave Wyatt
Brianna Treleven
I-Hsuen Chen
Zhang Kechun

Many thanks to our panel of exceptionally talented professionals who dedicated their time, energy and critical eyes in helping our curatorial team select the final Hot Shots of 2011.

The next round of competition will be opening soon! Stay tuned to find out when you can submit your entry.

Special thanks to our friends at Blurb.

Barking Wall, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Aquarius, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Ablution, 2010 by Brendan George Ko

Tomb, 2011 by Brendan George Ko

Doreen's Bible, 2010 by Brendan George Ko

Brendan George Ko

Website: http://www.brendangeorgeko.com

Bio:
Brendan George Ko has lived amongst the yuccas and coyotes of New Mexico. He's also surfed with the craziest sons of guns he ever met during his time in Texas. Brendan grew up on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario, and lived half his life moving throughout America, with endless road trips, and faces of so many, dear human beings. He sees every photograph he takes as a document; a document of a memory, a document of a person; a time and place, a feeling and a trace (of something that once was, something worth remembering). He is creating and recreating a history of all that he is, with words, and images, so that he can remember beyond his memory, for a record of being. Formally, Brendan went to school at The Ontario College of Art & Design, where he received his BFA in photography. Currently he shows with Angell Gallery, where his new work can been seen. Occasionally he also curates shows throughout the land, and does editorial here and there.

Statement:
I remember as a kid I used to cover my face with my hands and peek at the world through my fingers. I could see the world, but the world couldn't see me. Nowadays, I find myself assimilating with the hybrid, a creature I share a betwixt nature with, for we are both between two worlds, having multiple origins, and demand our own realm, such as a gothic castle, a tomb, or limbo to serve as a haven. I seek to create a peace with a conflict of belonging. The Barking Wall serves as a vault; a collection of visual memories that cross-pollinate with lived experience, and extended history (of past generations, oral tradition and cinema), and spawn new hybrid moments. Applied layer after layer, these confused memories let go of specific places and time, and drift like phantoms, roaming free through the fields of imagination, meeting the visitor half-way, and letting one create their own narrative.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, by Cristina De Middel

Cristina De Middel

Website: http://www.lademiddel.com

Bio:
Cristina De Middel (Spain, 1975) is a freelance photographer based in London. De Middel's personal and professional work for newspapers and NGOs has been recognized by the National Photojournalism Prize Juan Cancelo (2009), Fnac Photographic Talent (2009) and the Humble Arts Women in Photography Project Grant (2011). She has an MA in fine arts from University of Valencia, Spain (2001), an MA in photography from University of Oklahoma (2000) and a postgraduate degree in photojournalism from Universitat Politécnica de Barcelona, Spain (2002).

Statement:
In 1964, still [living] the dream of their recently gained independence, Zambia started a space program that would put the first African on the moon, catching up to the USA and the Soviet Union in the space race. Only a few optimists supported the project by Edward Makuka, the school teacher in charge of presenting the ambitious program and getting its necessary funding. But the financial aid never came, as the United Nations declined their support, and one of the astronauts, a 16-year-old girl, got pregnant and had to quit. That is how an heroic initiative turned into an exotic episode of African history, surrounded by wars, violence, droughts and hunger. As a photojournalist, I have always been attracted to the eccentric lines of story-telling, avoiding the same old subjects told in the same old ways. Now, with my personal projects, I respect the basis of the truth, but allow myself to break the rules of veracity, trying to push the audience into analyzing the patterns of the stories we consume as real. Afronauts is based on the documentation of an impossible dream that only lives in the pictures. I started from a real fact that took place 50 years ago and rebuilt the documents, adapting them to my personal imagery.

Giant Print, 2008 by Phil Jung

Pile of Clothes, 2009 by Phil Jung

Visor Mirror, 2008 by Phil Jung

Sleeping Mask, 2010 by Phil Jung

588-Verbenas on the Desert, 2008 by Phil Jung

Phil Jung

Website: http://www.jungphil.com

Bio:
Born in New York, Phil Jung has lived and studied photography on both coasts. He is currently living in the Boston area and teaching photography classes to undergraduates at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), in Boston, and at Rockland Community College in New York. He is deeply committed to the field of photography and photographic education.

Statement:
I see this group of images as a contemporary look at our social landscape through the windshields, or windscreens, of parked cars. I am fascinated by how these unique personal spaces can be rendered in a photographic image. A car's interior defines the line between public and private space. While peering into these spaces, I wonder if the interior, often littered with personal articles, can describe the way language, religion, economy, government and other cultural phenomena play a role in the owner's life. The largest challenge of the project is taking something as iconic as the automobile and adding something new to a conversation that has been going on since its inception. The gasoline-powered vehicles that were introduced in 1896 represented freedom, hope, exploration and independence—quintessentially American ideals. By 1947, when the photographer Wright Morris made his image of an aging Model T, those early ideals had already begun to deteriorate. Like Morris's pictures, Windscreen is about a culture that is disappearing. When combing through neighborhoods for cars, I look first for the way light enters a car and renders color. If I find nothing inside its cabin that tells something about its owner, I move on. Above all, the car needs to be drivable or just recently taken off the road. If a car sits for too long uninhabited, it loses something. The composite of this space reflects who we are, where we come from and possibly where we are going.

Photographe de Paris, 2009 by Michael Cappabianca

The Forgotten Girl, 2010 by Michael Cappabianca

Golden Hands, 2011 by Michael Cappabianca

Athens, 2010 by Michael Cappabianca

The Limits of Interpretation, 2010 by Michael Cappabianca

Michael Cappabianca

Website: http://www.michaelcappabianca.com

Bio:
Michael Cappabianca lives and works in Cambridge, MA. He has exhibited nationally with solo shows in Los Angeles; Portland, OR; and Lebanon, NH. He was included in American Photography 26. He can usually be found in a bookstore somewhere in the Boston area.

Statement:
The Material is a series about the interaction with the physical world of books. It takes no feat of the imagination to speculate on the role of the printed book in the future. I found it an important time to investigate the physicality of the boards and bindings of the insignificant as well as the culturally relevant. The arrangements reflect an organization, a mode of ordering within the structure of the interior space. How we think about the material world of books relates to the ways we read them. As we forge ahead into the virtual, how will our necessary conditions for understanding change with how we acquire information?