Clinging by Clint Weathers

Aspiring Hot Shot Clint Weathers bashfully admits that his passion for photography is the result of a course in Kantian epistemology. For Clint, shooting is a way to keep the boredom away, a "cheap therapy". While I don't quite agree about how economical an activity it is (I think daily therapy sessions might be a bit closer to budget), it does have a way of keeping life just a little brighter. On his photography:

My work falls into two categories: Places people see but never really see, and portraits of people in their headspace. Either way, it's all about getting the viewer to look closer. And then to look closer still.

Well, I am looking closely at this image. Keep it up Clint!

It's November 1st...
Deadline: November 7, 2006
Enter Today!

If you have never been to a jen bekman soiree, here is the perfect opportunity. Tomorrow night jen bekman will host a revolutionary opening for James Deavin's revolutionary new body of work, Photographs from the New World. James, a Summer 2005 Hot Shot and ne plus ultra winner, has put together an amazing show of images taken on the virtual world Second Life. SL is still something rather foreign to me, but after seeing James' work I immediately decided to jump on the bandwagon. There is quite a buzz going around about this not to be missed show. It seems our ultra James has become quite the hot shot to look up to. And the icing on the cake: Tomorrow night jen bekman will go live on Second Life! Does it get any cooler?

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE NEW WORLD by James Deavin
Opening Reception: Wednesday November 1st, 6-8pm

jen bekman
6 Spring Street (between Elizabeth + Bowery), NYC 10012
Phone: +1.212.219.0166
Email: info AT jenbekman DOT com

Read the press release here.

Children's Portrait by Natalie Sorenson

The photographer inside aspiring Hot Shot Natalie Sorenson has been a winner from the get-go. As a teenager she produced a ribbon-worthy image and has had the taste for success ever since. Her work explores her fascination with the domestic space and the cherished possessions that lie within. I like elaborate interiors, collections; objects people select out of obsession. Decor. Like most of us, her work is her play—she produced her most recent body of work while a nanny for a family with a particularly comfortable abode.

Do you have the winner's streak? Less than one week now remains in the competition. The clock is ticking. Enter today!

Untitled (Garden) by Grady O'Connor

Grady O'Connor is interested in the mundane, the simple, and the ordinary. In Grady's words...

One of my favorite things to do is load up the car and explore. Sometimes I go to other states or countries, sometimes to the parking lot behind the A&P. I love to have my camera with me and document the world around me. I'm interested in how other people live their life and utilize the space they live in. As for specific subject matter, I really have no preference, though I tend to lean towards things that are mundane and ordinary, simple.

One week to go! Get'em in!

Ostinato by James Ting

Aspiring Hot Shot James Ting's work has been referred to as cold and lifeless, haunting and surrealistic, abstract structure heaven, and spiritual conduit. For him it's about the initial emotions that force him to pick up the camera and, more importantly, use it. In his words:

It's my strong belief there are compelling relationships between visual, geometric forms and human spiritual emotions. My visual instinct is to see the world in geometric forms, where daily imageries such as buildings, roads, tree lines, and mountains are distilled into triangles, cubes, semi-circles, converging planes, and other lines and shapes. In my work, the goal is to capture ordinary and banal scenes, and transform these scenes into absorbing images via the endless relationships I see being played out among the myriad shapes, lines, planes, and very importantly, space or void.

Spread your vision. Enter today.

Hey! Are you a Hot Shot?

Look at our spiffy new poster. We love it.

Untitled (snowstorm) by Meg Wachter

Last night I once again dealt with the pangs of regret for not having my camera on hand at all moments. I am simply not that photographer. The thought of venturing out with my camera into the unknown is something that, I will unfortunately admit, drowns me in anxiety. There are those of us who shoot incessantly, amassing quantities of imagery that boggle the mind, there are those of us who produce one, two if we're lucky, images a year, and then there are those of us remaining, scattered somewhere in between. As if it was this easy.

Beyond-fantastic photographer, Brian Ulrich, passed along some excellent advice that he got from photographer Saul Leiter this week on his blog: "If you can make one really good picture a year, I mean really good, then in 10 years you'll have 10 really amazing pictures."

Deciding how to work or at least recognizing one's own ways is a frustratingly difficult task. Like all mediums, photography offers us endless and diverse possibilities. As I watch the aspiring Hot Shots' work come in, it never ceases to amaze me how many images can be taken of essentially identical subjects, yet often remain remarkably new. Just last week my advisor, art critic Dominique Nahas, enforced upon me that as long as 3-5% of what you do is unique then you're well on your way to success. An encouraging percentage, but since then that 3-5% has been bearing on my soul like no other...

Aspiring Hot Shot Meg Wachter's Untitled (snowstorm) motivates me to change my ways. She so susinctly says, "I am inspired by the unusual, the humorous, and the bold."

Let the the approaching one week mark motivate you. Enter today!

Worker housing, Gatun, 2006 by Sam Sweezy

Another fresh entry, Hot Shot hopeful Sam Sweezy's image of the worker housing in Gatun is one of many he captured in an area which will soon be radically transformed once recently approved construction on new locks begins. Allow me to pass the mic to Sam:

I have photographed architecture commercially for many years. More recently I have also done cultural documentation projects. The most recent is a focused photographic exploration of the Panama Canal Zone, an extraordinary place that was shaped by important technological, economic, social, and political events of the 20th century. The work is not didactic but descriptive, however the choice to make images of the Canal Zone inevitably poses questions about this endangered area and its people. The primary goal was to show the landscape and build environment in this 50 by 5 mile enclave. Eleven sites were photographed, which are either towns servicing the canal or former US military bases.

Hot Shots Installation @ Joe on Waverly

The work of Hey, Hot Shot! winners has been catching many latte drinker's eye at Joe of NYC. Not too long ago Jen Bekman partnered up with the hip hangout that is Joe, the art of coffee to give and get exposure to some very talented photographers.

When I first stepped foot into Joe on 13th, not too long before I joined the Jen Bekman crew, I was shocked to see such excellent treatment of the walls. It's a rare occasion to have coffee house art excite you just as much as your steamy caffeine fix!

So go see some excellent photography and enjoy the best cup of joe you've had in a while. In fact, I'm on my way there right now...

Visit both Joe locations at 9 East 13th St and 141 Waverly Place.

Spray by Justin Skinner

Fresh from the entry pool, Justin Skinner is interested in unconventionally portraying the problems of the inner city. Shying away from traditional photojournalism, Justin wants to milk photography as a medium for all is has to offer. Using dramatic lighting with what he calls "intense scenes," he aims to draw the viewer's attention in with lusciously lit and superbly executed images.

I was sent to a mentor at the age of ten being labeled a delinquent. I wanted nothing to do with the man, until he brought up the topic of girls. He had my interest. He told me that if I started working hard at that moment, that someday I could be a Playboy photographer. He didn't need to say anything else. Eleven years later here I am.

Justin's goals have changed, but he remains just as dedicated as he was on the birthday of his ambition. Good luck in all endeavors Justin, whatever they may be!

Time is ticking. Enter today!

Chip's Drawing of a Robot From Outer Space by Spring 2006 Hot Shot Andrea Longacre-White

As we get closer and closer to the deadline—we have officially passed the two-week mark—there is more and more talk about town of Hey, Hot Shot! Props to the competition have been popping up all over the place...Daily Candy, Art Fag City, murketing, Design Observer, Conscientious, Modern Art Notes. A Hot Shot favorite, Alec Soth, recently mentioned the competition on his mandatory blog. Photo District News just gave us a shout out on their blog.

The word is spreading! Hot Shots will be announced on November 20.

Previous showcases have been a shortlist pick in The Village Voice and received mentions in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, Gothamist and Flavorpill, among others.

Stay tuned! Enter today!

Leaves peaking through a motel window try to regain what was lost. by Alana Celii

Alana Celii can see global warming's effects on your soul. Toying with the age old battle of man versus nature, her work compares human nature with its impact on the environment. She is interested in destruction, rejection, and abandonment within both the physical and psychological landscape, the explorer of the forgotten and overlooked.

Within each photograph there is a sense of nature trying to regain loss ground. Through these photographs, I am trying to capture the history of destruction and man made development to the land, and how that same devastation is mimicked within our own nature as human beings. We do not learn from our mistakes, but rather, expose ourselves to the same ruin.

Two weeks remain until deadline. Get it in, get it out.

Deadline: Tuesday November 7 @ 6pm
Enter Now!

Untitled (Backdoor) by Taylor House

Like many an inspiring photographer before him, Taylor House photographs what he knows the people, the places, and the spaces. Rather than spend his time in the classroom, he has honed his fine art of photography by keeping up with many a photoblog and forum.

My photography evolved from a few snaps at the school dance to a slightly psychotic desire for order and documentation. A healthy diet of Klein, Koudelka, and Bresson helped to sharpen my sensibility and composition, and now I can't keep my eyes from constantly searching for photographs.

My submitted photos are from an ongoing set of Tucson at night, and attempt to explain the unique ambiance of this used city.

Have a Safe Trip by Scott Hammond

One fine day Scott Hammond accidentally became a photographer. Since then he's traveled the land, out to capture that banal side of American life which we all so dearly love, giving us our nostalgic fix in the process, and all with the ultimate of Americana devices, the Polaroid camera. In his own words:

I travel the country looking for mundane, ordinary moments to record with my Polaroid camera. Why? I'm still not quite sure. I'm conflicted whether I'm recording moments in American life or just moments in my life. Or maybe they're both...

Holly Lynton | Solid Ground : Hymenoptera

This isn't specifically Hey, Hot Shot! related, but it is fabulous gallery-related news! The excellent Vince Aletti writes about Holly Lynton's exhibition Solid Ground in this week's edition of The New Yorker.

HOLLY LYNTON

Exploring the possibilities for fantasy in her own back yard, Lynton turns it into a wild kingdom for a series of color photographs that assume the point of view of a playful and inquisitive child. Lynton's nearly naked little girl and a bare-chested friend take on a fairy-tale presence in a landscape rendered mysterious by worm's-eye-view closeups. He's a giant seen through a scrim of leaves; she's a sprite, crouching to catch a sprinkler's spray in her mouth. But some of the most intriguing images are unpopulated: a tunnel in the snow; a bird caught behind the netting on a raspberry bush; leaves, petals, dead bees, and dry ice floating in a plastic pool. Through Oct. 28. (Bekman, 6 Spring St. 212-219-0166.)

We'll be hosting a Q+A between Holly and Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City on Thursday October 26 from 6pm - 8pm. (There will be wine + beer, the talk starts around 7ish.)

Space is very limited, so please RSVP: rsvp AT jenbekman DOT com. The show remains on view through Saturday October 28, and the gallery is open Wednesday - Sunday from noon - 6pm or by appointment.

Lydia on Her Bike by Nick Meyer

Nick Meyer knows how to have fun and luckily the camera gets to play part in it. On a cold and windy New York City night his green grass, good times, and hip friends are looking rather enticing. In his words...

They are photographs that toe the line between formal portraits and simple snapshots. They are between city and country. The images are between joyous and brooding. These are all things I believe to be true about my work, but in the end I have a group of friends that like to relax, go swimming, drink beer and be with one another, just like you do.

Joe as Jack by Siri Kaur

Perhaps it is just because Halloween is right around the corner or that I am a Jack fan just as Joe... But of this image, I am quite the fan. Siri Kaur loves strangers and, even more, working with them to get that perfectly odd portrait.

I do not objectively record a situation; rather, I subjectively create an alternate universe unique to each photograph. These images are my fantasies about the lives of people who willingly invite me into their homes. My strangers are eager participants in the fantasy we create together.

Keep it up, Siri! Check back from now until the quickly approaching deadline for my aspiring HHS pick of the day. Get your entries in, I want to see what you've got.

He's the hand that guides so many of us through the quickly condensing photographic-web, the man who consistently brings us new artists to ogle and old favorites to rehash. He's the one we can depend on for genuine thoughts and opinions, the one who brings us outstanding interviews and always keeps us entertained. He's a photographer, a thinker, a writer, a blogger, and an astrophysicist. He's a staple for us all, the photography/life/art/culture blogger of bloggers, and the mind behind Conscientious—Joerg Colberg, our Special Guest Panelist for Hey, Hot Shot! Fall 2006.

In his own words...

I was born on 15 February 1968 in what was then West Germany. I wish I could write that my interest in photography started when I found an old camera as a little boy. But alas, that didn't happen. Instead of using it I took it apart when it didn't work. In this spirit of wanting to know how things work - instead of being creative - I went to school and university. Eventually I ended up with a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics, a degree that doesn't have all that many applications in one's daily life (but, hey, it's quite interesting). In a sense I could write that I turned to photography after I had learned how - literally - the Universe worked, except that that's also just partly true (but it sounds good). In any case, I picked up photography at around the age of 30, again by chance. This time I had to buy a camera, because apparently there are only so many free cameras in one's life time. In parallel to learning how to take photos (by making each and every mistake that one could possibly make) I started compiling a weblog about contemporary photography, Conscientious. I guess it would have been harder to pick up theoretical astrophysics at the age of 30, so I'm not complaining.

We are thrilled to have Joerg on board and along for the Hey, Hot Shot! ride. This November he joins our amazing group of panelists in looking at your work. We are four weeks away from deadline, so get it in and let Joerg be the judge!