Response to Print of Kudzu, Texas, 2010 by Laura Plageman

Our final Q&A with the First Edition 2011 Hot Shots is with Laura Plageman. The images she submitted from her Response series were not only visually arresting, they also warranted closer examination. To create the striking landscapes, which featured buckling, torn and surreal land and skies, the photographer responded to her original prints by manipulating and interacting with them—tearing at and crumpling the paper, and experimenting with lighting—then re-photographing them with a large-format camera. First selected to be a Contender, Laura's images landed her a Hot Shot win, which led to being in the Hot Shot group showcase currently on view at Jen Bekman Gallery through January 22nd. Laura is now also a 20x200 artist.

You can own your own print of Response to Print of Kudzu, Texas (above) by clicking here.

Living in: Oakland, CA (SF Bay Area)

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography:
MFA from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA; BA from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

How you pay the bills:
Photography, teaching photography

Best advice you ever received as a photographer:
Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes. (John Cage: Some Rules for Students and Teachers, Rule #8)

Three artists who inspire you:
James Welling
Gerhard Richter
Lee Friedlander

Reading now:
Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography, by Errol Morris

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work:
The Response series images are more true for me than some of their first generation counterparts. What I remember of a place I photograph is what draws me to it—the feeling of plants interacting or taking over a space, for example. So altering the image and rephotographing it helps me to get closer to its true nature, as I experience it.

Next project(s): I'm developing a few new projects, but I'm still focused on the Response series.

Hot Shot Laurie Kang is an artist who combines photography, collage, sculpture and installation to create her work, often creating new abstractions or "surrealities." Of her winning submission, Party Alone, Laurie says:

This series is the result of creating images that consist of both 2D and 3D collages, sculptures and installations. It's an exploration of abstraction, and a conceptual exploration of the medium of photography; the images express a 3-dimensionality but are rendered 2-dimensional through the final product of a flat print.

For the Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 Showcase, which is on view through January 22nd at Jen Bekman Gallery, the artist will present her work in its original 3D form.

And check out this great video interview of the artist explaining her work and her competitive nature.

Untitled, from the series Party Alone, 2010 by Laurie Kang

Living in: Toronto, Ontario

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: BFA in photography from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec

How you pay the bills: I work part time at The Power Plant. It's a contemporary art gallery in Toronto with great programming. I also do some freelance work, whether it's photography, collage or album artwork and design for bands. Sometimes I'll sell work. It's always changing; the unreliability of it all keeps me on my toes.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Work that is made with passion will find its place.

Three artists who inspire you:
General Idea
Thomas Demand
Paul Butler

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: Mike Nelson's I, Impostor

Reading now: I just finished Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace last night. I'm now onto the F.R. David series, The Artist's Joke, and Murakami's 1Q84.

Top three photo-related websites/blogs:
I Heart Photograph
JSBJ
Blind Mist

Top non-photo website/blog:
Currently into Super/Collider

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work: Party Alone is a project where I made installations and sculptures within my living space. I used objects that I'd collected, then abstracted and re-contextualized them. They're meant to be ironic and humorous, with darker undertones of isolation and the strange. The work also addresses photography's inherent tensions concerning dimensionality. The photograph turns these 3-dimensional situations into 2-dimensional prints. For the Jen Bekman show, the images will be re-established as 3-dimensional objects through their final renderings.

Next project(s): I'm working with pairing landscape (the organic) with non-organic textures and surfaces. It centers around the idea of psychogeography and creating a psychic experience through the landscape. I'm reconfiguring images of abstract textures and idyllic landscapes that I shot, combining them to make collages, sculptures and photographs of sculptures. Again, underlying this work is playing with the dialogue concerning photography's nature.

Our third Hot Shot Q&A is with Robert Grimm, whose webcam-based portraits of online, amateur male strippers capture the moments of "focus, melancholy and exhaustion, when the performance falls apart and sex objects become human again." (His series of female online strippers, Bust, can be viewed here.) Though the strippers he photographed—believed to be located in Latin America or Eastern Europe—were advertised as amateurs, Grimm points out in his artist statement that "repeated visits to the websites show the same strippers appearing in different rooms and different strippers appearing in the same rooms. This suggests a degree of organization inconsistent with strippers being amateurs." You can view more work from this series at the Hey, Hot Shot! First Edition 2011 Showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery, on view from January 7th through January 22nd.

Candy #3, 2010 by Robert Grimm

Living in: Brooklyn, NY

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I am largely self-taught as a photographer. I started exploring photography in high school and have, with some interruptions, continued since then, working with 35mm, medium format and digital cameras.

How you pay the bills: As a professor of computer science.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: To tell a compelling story.

Three artists who inspire you:
Olafur Eliasson
Pierre et Gilles
Wolfgang Tillmans

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

Untitled (Falling Buffalo), by David Wojnarowicz

Reading now:
Haruki Murakami's 1Q84

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work: In observing strippers on the internet, I was fascinated by the contrast between the carefully staged backgrounds and the moments of focus, melancholy and exhaustion, when the performance falls apart and sex objects become human again. Combined with the ever present theme of watching, they make for poignant photographs.

Next project(s): I am working on a series called Homeward, featuring portraits of my ancestors. They include literal ancestors, women in my family, and figurative ancestors, gay artists, all of whom fundamentally changed how I think, listen and see.

Our second installment of Q&As with First Edition 2011 Hot Shots is with Uygur Yilmaz, who first caught our attention in 2010 with his photographs of a beach at night. His winning submission for the First Edition 2011 round again found the photographer (and poet) oceanside, capturing a desolate beach during off season.

Untitled, from the series Missing Parts, 2008 by Uygur Yilmaz

Untitled, from the series Missing Parts, 2008 by Uygur Yilmaz

Living in: Istanbul

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: Took just a few classes here and there, but I can say I'm not educated [in photography]. I was experimenting to see what can be done with minimum knowledge. I still don't know much technically. But I was very lucky to meet Leyla Gediz. I learned a lot from discussing my work with a painter like her.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Don't try to be a photographer. Don't produce much. Learn how to give up and extract. Learn how to bring together and make sense.

Three artists who inspire you: I'm not really inspired by other artists, at least not nowadays... I dont know in general where the inspiration comes from. Sometimes I think [it's fortunate] we cannot find its source. If we could, I'm afraid, it would already be patented and marketed by Unilever or Microsoft.

But talking about influences, Richard Wentworth's and David Hockney's approaches to photography both had a very refreshing effect on me. William Eggleston used to be like a god to me. I also love him for saying in an interview that he doesn't look at other people's work.

Apart from that, talking about personal likes, I was very happily surprised when I came upon the works of Luigi Ghirri. The same goes for Götz Diergarten. Also, I love the earlier work of David Armstrong. And there are so many painters and poets, besides photographers, I couldn't mention all of them here.

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work: Well, basically, I thought you might like them and share with more people. I would be happy if they added something to your life, your experience.

Next project(s): I'm working on my new poems. It's a new body of work and I think it will take some more time, reduction and editing. In the coming months I'm also planing to produce some objects that've been on my mind for a while—a few sculptural works exploring matters of memory and transition.

Reading now: Beni Deliler Anlar, by Sevim Burak

On Friday, January 6th, the five winning Hot Shots from the First Edition 2011 round of the competition kicked off a group showcase, exhibiting works from the series they each submitted, at Jen Bekman Gallery. Ahead of the opening reception, we introduced each Hot Shot via an interview. Get to know our Hot Shots: their backgrounds, inspirations and future endeavors. The first is Kevin Kunishi, who shot portraits of Sandinistas and their opposing Contra veterans, and photographed artifacts, in war-torn Nicaragua over the course of two years.

Of the war, Kunishi wrote:

In 1979, after over a decade of struggle, the socialist Sandinista movement in Nicaragua overthrew the dictator, Anastasio Somoza. The Sandinistas quickly began the work of applying their social and ideological values in the hopes of creating a better Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the United States government had other plans. In the Cold War environment of the 1980s, the prospect of a socialist/communist government gaining a foothold in Central America was deemed unacceptable. The CIA began financing, arming and training a clandestine rebel insurgency to destabilize the government. These anti-Sandinista guerrillas became known as Contras. Between 1980 and 1990, Nicaragua became the battleground of conflicting political ideologies; the promise of a bright future was lost as the nation descended into civil war. Although these two sides held polarized political philosophies, their survivors are united by the burden of a war-torn history. As political ideology evolves, dilutes or disappears, the horrors of war endure.

Nelita, 2010 by Kevin Kunishi

From: Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently surrounded by eucalyptus and redwood trees in the hills of Oakland, California.

Formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I received my BA in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara and my MFA in photography from the Academy of Art University. Outside of my formal education, I have been extremely lucky to have been mentored by various photographers over the years, who have shared their time and knowledge with me.

How you pay the bills: I assist various editorial, commercial and corporate photographers to eat, pay rent and fund my own projects.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: "What must you photograph now?" —Robert Adams

"Each photographer's struggle is accompanied by a question: Are the new pictures I have made true? If that cannot be answered affirmatively, there is no peace to be found in the profession." —Robert Adams

Three (or four) artists who inspire you:
Terrence Malick
Robert Adams
Jim Goldberg
Timothy O'Sullivan

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head:

A Room Maid in the Urashima Hotel, Katsuura, Kii, Japan, by Leo Rubinfien

Reading now:
Hawaii Pono, by Lewis Fuchs
Of Walking in Ice, by Werner Herzog
Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes, by William D. Westervelt

Top Three photo-related websites/blogs:
American Suburb X
Fraction
Daylight

Top non-photo website/blog:
TED
The Black Harbor

Quilali, 2010 by Kevin Kunishi

Tell us a little about the inspiration/impetus behind the series you submitted, and why you felt it was important to share this work: Most of my work comes from my own deep rooted questions. I usually start with a basic premise or subject. From there the work expands or contracts. In the broadest sense, I am drawn to the aftermath of events and the variations within human nature.

This body of work was created between 2009 and 2011, over the course of several extended periods in the highlands of northern Nicaragua. I have always been interested in the events surrounding the Nicaraguan civil war that occurred in the 1980s. I wanted to move beyond the broad recital of policy and ideology within the textbooks I read during my undergraduate studies and explore the personal experiences of individuals directly affected by those policies.

For me, this work is many things: It is a journal of sorts, a dialogue and exploration, but most importantly, it is evidence. I hope these images function as a catalyst for engagement and discussion.

Next project(s): I'm working on three projects right now. All are rooted in aftermath and identity. Currently my work in Hawaii, entitled Okaga Sama De, occupies my mind the most. I am in the process of ingesting large amounts of information to consider as I continue to move forward.

I am also in the process of editing and sequencing my work in Nicaragua for publication. It will be released in the fall of 2012 by Daylight Publishing.

Wailea Road, from the series Okaga Sama De, by Kevin Kunishi

Procession of the King, from the series Okaga Sama De, by Kevin Kunishi

Sarah & Arnold, 2006 by Michael Bodiam

Since announcing Michael Bodiam as a 2010 Hot Shot, his work has been included in a group exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery and he has released two editions on 20x200 from his winning series Dickins & Jones. Last time we caught up with the talented photographer, we learned a little about what inspires him and his photography background. With the competition closing in just five (!) days, Hey, Hot Shot! reached out to Bodiam to learn more about his winning series and what he's been up to since, as well as to get some words of advice for prospective Hot Shots.

Congrats again on being a 2010 Hot Shot! I'd love to know more about your winning submission, Dickins & Jones, and the origin of that series. What inspired it? Do you still occasionally shoot for that series?
The main inspiration behind the Dickins & Jones project was a solitary view through one of the only doors that wasn't boarded up in the store. I was sufficiently intrigued and inspired by what I could see inside to warrant nearly a month of phone calls and emails trying to gain access to the building. Eventually, the powers that be buckled, and they just gave me access to the building whenever I wanted. I had free access to seven floors of what looked like a vision of a post-apocalyptic department store.

Throughout the time I was shooting the project, the building was in a constant state of flux. Now it has been fully converted into several new shops, so the project can no longer be added to even if I wanted to: I don't have any interest in the space as it is now. The project was a focus on a space in transition, and for the time being it has a new fixed appearance. Give it 20 years, though, and I might just end up back there again.

Could you tell us a little about what you've been working on since then?
I've worked on many projects since this one, as I shot this in 2004, but last year I had a brief stint shooting for a project called Residential & Industrial Landscapes from East London. I accumulated the locations over the period of a year or so and then spent a couple of days at the end of last summer shooting them back-to-back. I'm now searching out more locations and will shoot them when the summer ends and the classic milky grey skies of England return.

I also spent six weeks in Chile and Argentina at the end of last year, so I have a mass of material to work on from that. I'm looking to produce a book eventually, but it's going to take a while to edit it down.

Do you approach your projects differently, from Anonymous Places to Dickins & Jones, and from Hangars to East London? In your opinion, is there an overarching viewpoint/theme present throughout?
Whatever I am photographing, I approach the subject matter with the same eye. Although the themes of what the image is about can vary, the viewpoint is a crucial factor for me that ties all the images together. Over time, I want to create a body of work that sits together comfortably, whether it has been shot during night or day, inside or outside, large-scale or small.

Any advice for prospective Hot Shots?
Be honest with yourself, be brutal with your edits and don't try to second-guess what judges might want to see—it will only dilute what you are about.

What do you shoot with?
Mamiya 7ii / Wista 5x4 Field Camera / Canon 5Dii & a Hasselblad 503CXi with a P45+ Phase One digital back.

What are you currently reading?
Words: Dispatches by Michael Herr

Pictures: Andreas Gursky: Works 80-08

Any other news you'd like to share with us?
I'm currently at the very early stages of putting together a group exhibition—I'm thinking it will be for one night only, but with a printed publication as a more permanent reminder of what it was. Watch this space.

Since we announced Chikara Umihara as our 2010 Ne Plus Ultra about two weeks ago, he has almost taken over this space with his images, and he himself has been quite the superstar here at the office - everyone who has met him has been eager to share their favorite Chikara moments. So, where is he now and what is he up to? With the First Edition 2011 competition now open, we thought it would be a good time to catch up with Chikara and share our conversation with all of our friends, both old and new.

It's been a little while since we last saw you in New York. First of all, congratulations on becoming the 2010 Ne Plus Ultra! Do you mind telling us how you'll use the $10,000 grand prize? What's the next step for you? Are you working on anything that you can tell us about right now?

First of all, thank you so much and I'm still very surprised to be named the 2010 Ne Plus Ultra! It is a great honor to be selected from the pool of diverse and exceptional submissions from the 2010 Hey, Hot Shot! finalists. I'm in Bangkok now and started a new project. (I've wanted to start this project for two years.) Also, I'm starting the MFA program in Photography at the Hartford Art School. The grand prize will definitely help keep me moving forward.

You have already participated in the Hot Shots group show in February with the Aggressive Girls series. Any plans for your upcoming solo show at Jen Bekman Gallery?

Aggressive Girls is an ongoing project, and I try to shoot more every time I come to New York. I've just started photographing in Thailand and have another project I want to start this summer. So, I have to see which series would be the strongest body of work to be presented at that time.

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 2009 by Chikara Umihara

Tell us your most memorable moment while working on the Aggressive Girls series? The hardest part?

There was always surprise and sensation when working with them. It is a world I've never known. If I had to pick one most memorable moment, it would be the first night I stepped into their party. That sensation, I won't forget. I think every time was challenging to me: from the beginning of this project, to getting to know them, to explaining the reason why I wanted to photograph them and, also, to think about what kind of significance or importance I found between our relationship. It took a while before I took my first shot on this project. Some days I'd go meet the person who promised to be photographed, would wait for three hours and she'd never show up. However, that was just part of my whole experience with this project. So, I've learned a lot from this project.

Untitled, from the Aggressive Girls series, by Chikara Umihara

You got into photography at a relatively late age. Do you think that has any influence on your work? Do you think it has brought you any benefits or challenges?

Before, I studied literature while in university. I've been influenced a lot by the various methods and the way photography pursues the truth. I practiced martial arts for over 15 years and found a similar discipline in both martial arts and photography. I started photography late (I think I was 32 then). My family and friends were surprised when I told them I was going to New York to start photography. However, I had my own experiences in my life and trained in literature and martial arts. For me, the devotion and the quality of
practice is important. I've never thought about the advantage or disadvantage of starting late. Yet, surely I have so much to learn and so much work to do. But it is exciting. I love challenges.

What's been the biggest/main obstacle for you as an emerging photographer? What keeps you moving forward?

Like the many emerging photographers I've known, balancing the act of art making and surviving has never been easy. I work different jobs to save enough money to start a project, and sometimes I don't have the time to photograph because of that. But during these times, I read books, study art history and look through photography books, etc. There are so many counter-practices I can use. I'm trying to learn and shape myself from diverse aspects. I want to make unique and original work.

Rainfall, from the Silent Water series, by Chikara Umihara

What's your experience with 20x200 been like? Your latest edition has been selling quite well. Did you expect that?

I love working with the 20x200 staff. They are brilliant, intelligent, very open and supportive to artists. Meeting with them and having editions on 20x200.com made a big shift in my career. It is an innovative place that has introduced a whole new output for the art world. As an image-maker, I want my work to be seen and be shared, and I want to be able to communicate with the audiences. This is one of the most fascinating parts of making work, I think. I hoped, but honestly didn't expect, to sell well. I sincerely thank the people that purchased and took time to look at the edition. And I am most curious about the kind of dialogue happening between the image and the viewer.

You've spent quite some time here in NYC, so I have to ask you - what's your favorite restaurant in Brooklyn?

That's hard. There are plenty of good restaurants in the neighborhood. Well, I choose the party at my friend's place, where we often hang. We cook amazing Japanese food.

Untitled, from the Silent Water series, by Chikara Umihara

Special thanks to Chikara, who did this interview on a weekend while traveling. See more of his photos on his website, and check out his 20x200 editions.

When learning to paint, artists often create tonal scales, mastering the infinite shades of gray that exist between black and white. In photography, mastering these tonal scales requires a similarly deft hand and deep understanding of how light permeates the camera and the film. We find contrast in juxtaposed brightnesses of light, but how does one crate gray tones that still contain detail and great definition? Hot Shot Zhijie Sui explores the great range of gray tones in his quiet but moving series, ODE. Inspired by The Book of Odes, China's oldest collection of poetry, Sui seeks out the textures, geographies and cultural identity expressed in the poems. They serve as a geographic guide for his own image-making, bringing him to the mountains, to the sea, up high and face to face with the range of natural textures that surround him. Abiding by strict lines and creating almost architectural landscapes, Sui's precise works are sparse but layered with a stony overtone that is concentrated and feels impenetrable. You can see additional images from Zhijie's series ODE on his portfolio.

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Living in: New York & Beijing

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I studied at the China Central Academy of Art from 2003 to 2005 and did film studio studies there, majoring in Experimental media. Then, I came to the US and attended the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for Photography from 2007 to 2008.

How you pay the bills: I get support from my family, and also by selling my photography prints and paintings.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Uh...maybe none...

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Ni Zan (a Chinese painter during the Yuan Dynasty)

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: The Mirror, Nostahlgia and The Sacrifice—films by Andrei Tarkovsky. And, Peter Henry Emerson's photography

Untitled by Peter Henry Emerson

Reading now: Superfluous Things. (The book examines the history of material culture in early modern China—the paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, carved jade, and other objects owned by the elites of Ming China—and describes contemporary attitudes towards them.)

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
eyecurious
Conscientious
Buffet

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Nostahlgia
Ubu
Chinese Etymology

Current projects: ODE: The project is searching for the broad mountains, flowing rivers, ruined walls and ancient paths of the Book of Odes.(Odes is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It comprises 305 poems and songs, some possibly from as early as 1000BC.)

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

Untitled from the series ODE by Zhijie Sui

When one first glances at Laura Bell's works, there is a moment of wondering whether he or she is looking at photographs or paintings. A vase of flowers is lush with the textured quality of brushstrokes, and the moon seems too sharply painted in above crags to have been captured by a lens. Taking cues from the traditions of old master painters, Laura creates still-lifes, landscapes and portraits that are hushed yet luscious. The images range in size, some just a few inches around, and others several feet tall and wide. Playing with the traditional formats of photography—squares and rectangles, she crops many of her images into ovals, circles and elipses and then shrinks or enlarges them in relation to one another.

The Alba Series, from which all three photographs below, are a reflection of her "experiences and psychological reactions" to her two year stay in Edinburgh, Scotland. Now living in the woods of Pennsylvania, Bell continues to absorb the natural elements around her, and crafting images from the impact these environs have. See more work from The Alba Series, and others, on Laura's website.

First Growth by Laura Bell

Floral and Insects by Laura Bell

Moth Specimens by Laura Bell

Living in: Pennsylvania

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: In 2008, I graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a BFA in photography. I've also participated in several internship programs, relating to both commercial and fine art photographic disciplines. Most recently, I interned at a fine art photography center in Scotland called Stills.

How you pay the bills: Currently, I retouch photos for school year books, which basically means that I Photoshop acne all day. It's a funny day-job, but it's nice to think that I might be helping young people feel better about themselves during those awkward teenage years.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: I think the best advice I've ever received as an artist, (be it in photography or any other medium) is to be honest with your self. If you make honest work, you'll most likely make good work.

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Nadav Kander's landscape work, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Joanna Newsom

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: When I was about 15, I saw a photograph by Sally Mann of a large tree with a deep scar through its center. This was the first image that really made me want to pursue fine art photography. I still think about this photograph all the time.

Reading now: I just started In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Women in Photography (the Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips project)
Ahorn Magazine
1000 Words Photography

Top non-photo website/blog:
To be honest, I don't venture very far off the beaten path in terms of the Internet, but I do really enjoy NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Next project: I just moved to an area of Pennsylvania known as the "snow belt", and, as the name suggests, this region accumulates a tremendous amount of snow. I'm planning on shooting a series of landscapes depicting the winter here, but, of course, I'm waiting for the snow to come first.

At our party at Blurb just over a week ago, we were thrilled to see Chikara Umihara's face among the attendees. He'd just gotten off a plane from Japan—yes, Japan!—to come celebrate being a Hot Shot! Chikara's work spans the gamut from documentary to more formal portraiture; our panel was taken by his series Aggressive Girls, which looks at the empowerment of lesbians in Brooklyn through male-dominant Hip Hop culture. Chikara finds his way into the intimate spaces where this subculture convenes and makes images suggesting that sometimes he and his camera are fully bared, with flash out, whereas in other scenarios he is merely a wallflower, quietly observing the colorful world as it moves around him while maintaining a calculated distance.

The macro and micro lenses of Chikara's world are a notable characteristic of each of his series: Aggressive Girls, Playland, Silent Water and Humilade. You can see all of these works on his website and learn a little more about Chikara below.

Outside of the Brazilian grocery store "Banana Boat", Nishikoizumi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, 2010 by Chikara Umihara

Downtown, Brooklyn, 2009 by Chikara Umihara

Living in: Tokyo, Japan

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: I attended a one Year Certificate Program in General Studies at the International Center of Photography, New York in 2007 and interned at Magnum Photos in 2008.

How you pay the bills: Freelancing as a photographer and retoucher.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Photography makes me feel alive.

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Diane Arbus, John Cassavetes and Gerhard Richter

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: Apocalypse Now Redux

Reading now: La Casa Verde by Mario Vargas Llosa

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Hey, Hot Shot! (why thank you!)
MoMA
Dashwood Books

Next project: Thailand

Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, 2008 by Chikara Umihara

Barbershop, Lower East Side, NYC, 2008 by Chikara Umihara

Our second Q&A this week brings us to Hot Shot Amy Stevens, whose colorful confections are both beautiful to look at—and "really edible," informs Amy. Each of her cakes are made from ingredients that—despite their sometimes-psychedelic colors—are safe to consume. She crafts every morsel of the cakes herself: baking, frosting, shaping and styling them from flour and sugar into what you see before you.

On her website, Amy writes of this project:

The Confections series started as a response to turning 30. It was a celebration of birthdays, cake, color, pattern and obsessive absurdity...I ordered a cake decorating kit from Marthastewart.com and watched the included instructional video. When I quickly discovered my cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video and recipe booklet, I was free to make them as grotesque and amazing as possible--my little rebellion.

After four years, Amy continues to craft and fashion her cakes, ever more absurd and extravagant. They are intoxicating to look at, spectacles craving saccharine attention. Head to Amy's portfolio to see her full display case of confections, and to see what she's plating up next.

Confections (adorned) #17 by Amy Stevens

Confections (adorned) #18 by Amy Stevens

Living in: Philadelphia, PA

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: Formally, I received my BFA and MFA in Photography from Arizona State University and Tyler School of Art. Informally, I have dabbled in many aspects of photography and learned a ton from all of the combined experiences. In Phoenix, I worked as a photographer's assistant printing large scale sepia toned prints of nudes, florals and landscapes for an art production company. I lived in Seattle for 4 years where I sold my mixed media photography in Pioneer Square on First Thursdays, worked as a Project Manager for a photo lab and volunteered as a mentor for Youth in Focus, a photography non-profit for teenagers. Just before moving to Philadelphia for grad school, I helped organize the visual arts portion of Ladyfest Seattle and curated an exhibition for the festival. After grad school I learned the most from teaching photography-- and am still learning.

How you pay the bills: I work as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Temple University teaching both digital and traditional photography and also teach a foundations digital imaging class at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in Lancaster, PA.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Technically, I read this, but it's a great quote: "There is no win and no fail, only make." —John Cage

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Robert Rauschenberg, Jessica Stockholder and Lee Friedlander

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: El Morocco 1955 (woman with bongo drums) by Garry Winogrand. Although, this past week I've been thinking about Alex Prager's video Despair at MoMA and can't shake it.

El Morocco, 1955 by Garry Winogrand

Reading now: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (pure escapism), Art/Work by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber (thank you Hey, Hot Shot!) and Digital Art Revolution by Scott Ligon (for my foundations class.)

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Oitzarisme (A Romanian photo blog featuring International work)
Feature Shoot blog
Amy Stein's blog

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Martha Stewart for my cooking and craft obsessions: Whole Living and The Crafts Dept.
Regretsy
Cute Overload

Current projects: Right now I'm working on a few new pieces for a fashion designer who has a boutique in Philadelphia. She has been supplying me with fabrics from her dresses and I am responding with some new Confections. Nothing says couture like a cake with 5 pounds of butter cream.

I'm seeking funding and co-curating (with an Irish artist) a photography and video exhibition of 40 artists from Philadelphia and Ireland for 2 shows, one in Philly (Fall 2012) and one in Ireland for the Galway Arts Festival (Summer 2012.)

I'm also taking a beginning quilting class at a fabric store here in Philadelphia.

Confections (abroad) #7 by Amy Stevens

Hot Shot Michael Bodiam finds his home in London, where he photographs a wide range of subjects, from the images of abandoned buildings he submitted as part of the series Dickens & Jones to nightscapes and cinematic landscapes. Whatever he is photographer, there is a mixed sense of caution and foreboding. When people appear, faces are often shrouded or hidden and more often than not, we observe the rich textures of intersecting walls and building material. Cement meets the polish of a wood's veneer, wallpaper finds plaster and paint greets carpet drawing the eyes to focus on the intersections of these calculated but often ignored spaces.

Stock Room #2 from the series Dickens & Jones by Michael Bodiam

Kew #2 from the series Kew by Michael Bodiam

Blue Lockers from the series Anonymous Places by Michael Bodiam

We touched base with Michael last week to learn a little more about what inspires him, his photography background and what he's working on. You can see many more image by Michael on his portfolio site.

Living in: London, UK

Your formal and/or informal education and training in photography: After years of following my Dad around taking pictures I decided to study photography at school, followed by a Art Foundation course (specialising in photography) and then finally received a BA (honors) in Fine Art Photography at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, UK.

How you pay the bills: A combination of assisting, post production and printing for fine art and commercial photographers as well as shooting my own editorial work and occasional small advertising jobs.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer: Make the work that you want to make, not what you think other will want you to make. If you fall into that trap the meaning of the work gets diluted and it loses it's impact.

3 Artists Who Inspire You: Thomas Struth, Joël Tettamanti, Ed Ruscha

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever: Gregor Schneider's Cellar

Cellar by Gregory Schneider

Reading now: Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Conscientious
aCurator
Powerbastard

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
BUTDOESITFLOAT
ffffound
Yimmys Yayo

(although these all include photography as well!)

Current projects: I've just started shooting a project called Residential & Industrial Landscapes from East London—it's pretty obvious what that one's about!

Great ideas often find their genesis in something that its creator has already been doing for a long while. Writer, curator and collector Larissa Leclair has been embodying this notion in her new project the indie Photobook Library. Founded in 2010, the iPL is an archive of self-published photobooks, zines, catalogs and other printed matter whose intent is to be seen in person through traveling exhibitions and as a non-circulating public library. In addition to Leclair's efforts, the iPL has an advisory board of several people who are likely well known to readers of this blog: Andy Adams, editor and founder of Flak Photo; Darius Himes, co-founder of Radius Books; Shane Lavalette, photographer and founder of Lay Flat; and Gabrielle Reed, of the Massachusetts College of Art's Godine Library. Accepting photobooks from all over the world, the iPL has been enjoying a period of exponential growth. We recently sent some questions to Larissa about the iPL and where she thinks things are headed next.

What is the genesis of the iPL? Did it begin with your personal collection? If so, how long have you been building/collecting it, and what was the impetus to turn it outward and make it a public collection?

LL: My interest in archives began in graduate school, when I spent most of my time researching and working in Manuscripts & Archives at Yale University Library with photographs, postcards, ephemera and books. Now each year I try and return to Yale for the Master Class at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library co-organized with the Photo Memory Workshops, which I had been a part of during school. The class is an amazing opportunity to spend time with an entire collection along with the photographer of the collection or expert scholar on the collection. The most recent Master Class this past April 2010 focused on the Peter Palmquist Archive. Peter Palmquist's life mission after retiring was very inspiring and his collection has and will have a big impact on the history of photography specifically relating to women in photography since the late 1800's. The passion and vision encapsulated in his collection was the final piece of encouragement I needed.

The idea of creating a public non-circulating library has been in my head for many years. It was an idea I wanted to bring to the table for a non-profit organization and at that time my focus was a broad range of international titles and making them available to a US audience. That initiative never materialized, but the idea stayed and evolved. In the last year or two, I have been personally frustrated with not being able to view most of the self-published books out there in person. So the idea of wishing for a central place to look at these kinds of books was in my head on the day I saw Peter Palmquist's collection. I was blown away that a single individual could follow his passion, create a collection, and in the process have an impact on the history of photography. I was not only interested in promoting indie published books, but I was very interested in creating an archive. So two weeks after the Master Class, I plunged into the reality of overseeing a public collection. It was the right time and I knew I would regret the decision if I did not start the Indie Photobook Library.

The iPL was started for many reasons—the two main ones being—preservation and showcasing of these independent, self-published books to be SEEN (not just on the web) and for the future—a collection of books that decades from now people will still be able to see in person. Having a specific collection dedicated to these kinds of books allows for the development of future discourse on trends in self-publishing, the ability to reflect on and compare books in the collection, and for scholarly research to be conducted in years, decades and centuries to come.

Sometimes you wonder where your path is leading you, but once you get there it all makes sense. The iPL is my destination and I will be working on it for the rest of my life.

screenshot of the iPL online

Does the iPL accept everything it receives? What is the curatorial process like? If there is a single criteria for inclusion, what would it be?

LL:For now the iPL accepts everything it receives. But with that in mind the iPL only accepts photobooks that are self-published, independently published and distributed, exhibition catalogs, print-on-demand photobooks, artist books, zines, photobooks printed on newsprint, limited edition photobooks, etc.

Are there plans to make the iPL more accessible online? Perhaps a flip-preview like with Blurb books, or PhotoEye's sneak peak?

Photobooks that are in the permanent collection of the iPL are available online as a catalog record with a photograph of the cover of the book. The site, and thus the collection, can be browsed by image, title or photographer. I have been thinking about video "flip-throughs" or interviews along with a book flip-through similar to what Self Publish, Be Happy has been doing. I like the video idea for two reasons. It gives a better sense of the book and at the same time, from an archivist point of view, for the more delicate books enables someone to experience the book without impacting it physically. There are future ideas along these lines already germinating...

How does the iPL fit into the same milieu as things like Self Publish, Be Happy; The Independent Photobook blog—are you all a part of the same dialogue? Where do you intersect, where do you clash?

LL: I think we are all celebrating the photobook, and specifically the self-published and indie published photobook, but we are promoting them in our own way. The iPL is the only physical archive.

What is your deepest hope for the iPL? What is its ultimate reach?

LL: I have very ambitious goals for the iPL. I hope it will be seen as the "Library of Congress" for self-published books and that photographers will continue to add to the collection as they create new books. Once the iPL has a space of its own, I hope to have the collection listed on worldcat.org. And in thirty years or so, the entire archive will be donated as its own collection to a much larger university or museum archive to be preserved and be accessible for future photo-bibliophiles long after my lifetime.

What challenges do you face in getting the iPL out into the world? What other challenges are there that someone who is not so intimately involved would not think to consider?

LL: Time. The iPL has already turned into a full-time project and I am happy about that, but we will need a full-time staff person to oversee the day-to-day maintenance of the collection so I can also focus on further development. How to do that without financial support is a good question but one that will be answered in the future. Another challenge is the language barrier. I want the iPL to have books from every corner of the globe. We have gotten the word out in Iran through Dide Magazine and I am reaching out to photo communities in the Middle East and Africa. News is spreading of the iPL and already we have books in the collection from Serbia, Iceland, China, Taiwan, Peru, Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, to give you an example of some of the countries.

What is a typical day like working as the curator/promoter/voice of iPL?

We receive submissions every day, so a typical day always includes looking at books that have come in and sending out a confirmation email, cataloging them for the iPL website and our records and then announcing the new books that have been added to the collection through social media, our RSS feed and by email to those following the iPL. Currently we are getting ready for the Flash Forward Festival in Toronto and FotoWeek DC, writing grants, preparing our information for Kickstarter.com and looking for space.

Tell us about a couple of your favorite most recent submissions/finds.

LL:I don't want to label any of the books in the iPL as favorite of mines. But I can highlight some recent submissions that people should check out. NY low and high by Marco Onofri, Clinic, Depressive Landscapes, Waterfall, anything by Matt Austin or Andrea Stultiens, Kitintale by Yann Gross, Pause to Begin... There are just too many great photobooks ... See You Soon by Maxwell Anderson, Eastward Bound, How Terry Likes His Coffee.... In July I met with George Slade at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston and brought with me two boxes of books that I had selected from the iPL. In many ways it was a personal guided tour of the iPL where I presented and compared and discussed, and three hours later, we barely felt we had begun. So I could go on and on about which books you should look at. And I am pleased to say that George will get to spend more time with some of these books, because he and the PRC will be hosting a curated exhibition from the iPL collection next Fall 2011!

Aside from traveling festivals, are there plans for a more permanent home for the iPL?

Yes, the iPL is actively looking for a space. The traveling exhibitions are an initial way to showcase the books in the collection, but ultimately I hope to have a public space that operates like a non-circulating library where people can come in and browse the shelves. I would also like to have a small gallery area in the space for rotating exhibitions from the collection. And I am interested in the idea of letting larger institutions borrow a book if needed for an exhibition they are mounting.

If and when the iPL has the happy problem of outgrowing itself, how do you see yourself adapting to the duties and demands of its growth, and what steps to grow it even further would you like to take?

LL: I am smiling. The iPL has already outgrown my office and I am looking for that space you asked about in the previous question much sooner than I originally anticipated. The iPL will be continually adapting to the duties and demands of its growth—and I like that. That makes it exciting and limitless. As far as the logistics of an ever-growing collection, that is where it will get challenging. The iPL has applied for a grant and will soon be joining the other fundraising projects on Kickstarter.com and we have welcomed Stephanie Obernesser as our first intern this fall.

Has your role as the curator/caretaker of this collection influenced your own buying, viewing and book-appreciating habits? Would you, for example, still want to put your hands on a popularly or more widely produced title by one of the more well known art presses, or is there a kind of conversion that takes place, where your independent values must be lived and choices made by them?

LL: In the end they are all photobooks. I am still just as interested in traditional trade editions as I was before. I have been collecting photobooks for over ten years and most of them fall into the category of what you described as "produced by the more well known art presses." And I have a section in my personal collection of titles relating to contemporary African photography. What has changed recently about my buying habits is that I am now buying more "indie" publications. Through the iPL I have the opportunity to see more non-traditional publications and because of this am buying more books. And I hope that same impulse will affect other people looking at the books in our library.

Is there room for everybody in the art press publishing world? Room for every kind of approach? In your view, are the more tried and true traditional ways of doing things (i.e. big, expensive, prestigious presses) dying out?

LL: I wouldn't say dying out, but with the surge of self-publishers and indie labels, I assume it is probably a lot harder for the traditional presses then it used to be. The photobook market is only so big and there is so much out there to buy and collect.

What is some of the feedback that you've received about the iPL that has most surprised you?

LL: The feedback and support of this project has been amazing and overwhelmingly positive. I am hearing that photographers are selling books after someone has seen it in the Indie Photobook Library. That is some of the best kind of feedback.

Why is it important to collect photobooks at this particular place and time? In an age of fleeting ephemerality, is there something counterintuitive to trying to hold onto the material?

LL: It is inherent in my own behavior to collect. I understand the nature of collections and archives. I don't like the fleeting ephemerality of information, images, time and really enjoy looking at history through an accessible archive. I started the Indie Photobook Library just days before I read the article that appeared in the Boston Globe on May 24, 2010, titled "Harvard's Paper Cuts." I read it in a nervous sweat. The article made me second-guess my decision as I thought about what I had just started. If one of the largest libraries and archives was collecting less physical material, what was I doing? Archives shouldn't follow trends but collect the things that shape them. On a consumer level, digital material may be more practical, but I am still interested in the physical object and I think the role of the archive should be too. What is shifting within archives is how the collection and material is used and shared. And for that I think the more that is digitized and available online the better.

What do you see in the independent, self-published book market that is different and/or of a particular and rare value from the mass market?

LL: Individuality and creativity. It may be an idealist's view but the physical expression of the book as object and idea is not as influenced by commercialism. The production of the indie book may be approached from a different perspective than a mass market book. The photographer is in control of the decisions and thus the end result is just as much an expression of the artist as is any of the photographs. It goes beyond just a book of photographs.

Tell us a little bit about the inaugural iPL event, the Toronto Flash Forward festival. How will people be encouraged or inclined to use the library? What will distinguish it from an art press book sale stand?

LL: Stephanie and I are busy getting ready for the Flash Forward Festival and we are very excited to be part of the "Self Published Book Expo." The iPL will be showcasing its entire cataloged archive and people are invited to spend hours looking through all the books. It is such a diverse collection, from exquisite hardcover books to softcover zines, newsprint books to limited-edition artist books, print-on-demand books from Blurb and MagCloud, and everything in between. Check out our website to see the books that will be on view. Self Publish Be Happy will also be there showing a curated selection and I look forward to seeing the books selected by Bruno. None of the books in the iPL are for sale, nor is the iPL set up to sell books at the Flash Forward Festival, however on Saturday October 9 from 4-6pm, if you have a book in the iPL and will be in Toronto you are invited to bring copies of your book to sign and sell during that time to festival visitors.

Many, many thanks to Larissa for taking the time to so thoughtfully answer our questions about collecting and the world's first Indie Photobook Library! Keep up to date with news and chances to view the iPL over on their website. The iPL also has a twitter feed and a Facebook page. If you have a book that you are interested in submitting to the collection, check out the submission page.

Untitled from City Beautiful

Earlier this month, 2009 Hot Shot + Ultra Mike Sinclair, one of the newest artists added to the gallery's roster, came to visit New York from his hometown of Kansas City. He stopped by JBP HQ and the gallery, and a few of us were fortunate to have the chance to talk to him about his practice and see prints of images he's made over the last several decades. At the gallery, he chatted with Associate Director Jeffrey Teuton about his experience becoming a Hot Shot, releasing editions on 20x200 and how these experiences made an impact on his career.

Fourth of July #2, Independence, Missouri by Mike Sinclair

Mike: I think, like a lot of photographers, I entered HHS! not thinking that I might succeed, but more motivated by the chance to get my work in front of the several judges whose opinions I respected.

Jeffrey: How did you choose what to send in?

Mike: When I finally made the decision to submit to HHS!, it was difficult then deciding what to send in, because I've been at it a while and have quite a lot of work. I had just finished spending about a year photographing Kansas City's parks and boulevards system, and that was the work that I was very involved in. [see image above]

Gladstone Community Center, Gould Evans from Architecture: Public portfolio

Jeffrey: And how has it been over the years, transitioning from commercial photography into fine art, and walking that line? [an image from Mike's commercial portfolio is pictured above]
 
Mike: Well, in college I studied as a fine arts photographer and then - instead of teaching - I decided I'd prefer to be a commercial photographer and I've made my living as an architectural photographer for many years. I've always done personal work, but it's only been recently that I've started showing that work. I'm in a lucky situation in Kansas City where I have some great architectural firms that use me, and they're also very interested in what I do in the fine art world. If something has changed, it's that the two bodies of work have started to grow together, and that's great.

Jeffrey: How did becoming a Hot Shot impact your career?
Mike: Well, to find out that I was one of the finalists was amazing, and immediately all kinds of things started happening. You know, congratulations from people who had gone to see my work for the first time, and I got a call from Time magazine to go photograph in Detroit—The Detroit Symphony Orchestra—which was an amazing job. And things continue to happen! While I was here in New York this week, Penguin Books emailed me about using one of my photographs for a book cover. The experience continues to help get my work in front of people.

Check out more of Mike's work on his website, and follow in his footsteps by entering HHS! before August 31st, 2010!

Mike also has four editions available on 20x200: Midway, Neshoba County Fair, Philadelphia, Mississippi, Las Vegas, Nevada, November 2000, Rodeo Stars, Strong City, Kansas and Fourth of July #2, Independence, Missouri

The School of Visual Arts in New York is already known for their outstanding photography program and over the years has sent many artists by way of JBP. This year, they are offering a new intensive residency program, Photo Global, specifically for international students to have the opportunity to fully immerse in a critical dialogue of photography. The program is full-time for one year and offers opportunities for photographers who already have experience to advance their individual work through rigorous critique, dialogue, practice and visits to New York's myriad photography institutions.

Past and future speakers to the program include a wide variety of photographers and photo professionals, including: Tina Barney, Charlotte Cotton, Elinor Carucci, Roe Etheridge, Joseph Maida, Roxana Marcoci, Vik Muniz, Eva Respini, Collier Schorr, Taryn Simon, Larry Sultan, Eric Weeks and James Welling.

I had the chance to talk to Stephen Frailey, the Chair of the Photography Department at SVA (and a Hey, Hot Shot! panelist) about the program and why it might be the right fit for you or other photographers you know who are looking to bring their body of work to the next level:

Youngna Park: What was the evolution for the Photo Global program, and how is it different from the undergraduate degree in photography?

Stephen Frailey: I wanted to create a way to create a liaison with photographic communities around the world. As an international location for photographic practice and dialogue, New York City offers infinite opportunity and information, and the community of SVA a threshold for that experience. The goal of the certificate program is a multi-cultural and international learning experience that will enhance the knowledge and understanding of both the resident undergraduate students and those who will gather from various parts of the world. The program was started three years ago as a way to increase our understanding of photography on an international level, to elevate the undergraduate program by the strength of work from those who were somewhat more advanced, and to share our community and facilities.

It is different from the undergraduate program in that the participants are more advanced in their careers, thinking and practice.

YP:How does this program combine photographic practice with theory and immersion?

SF: Through the critique class, and by the choice of other electives that we offer that engage theory and critical thinking. The applicant for the program will be judged based not only on the originality of the work but its theoretical insight.

YP: Who is your ideal student?

SF: One whose work is advanced, fairly sophisticated and original, and is informed by the broader issues that animate photographic thinking specific to their genre. One who is, perhaps, at a turning point in their work and will take advantage of a new context and community and the resources that SVA and New York offers, and one who has an open mind and heart.

YP: What can international applicants learn from the Photo Global program that other programs don't offer?

SF: The program features a lecturing faculty that, individually, has shaped the discourse of contemporary American photography. In addition to the full resources of the BFA Photography Department, the resources of the MFA photography program will be available on an informal basis. It is an opportunity for non-American photography students to work in technologically advanced facilities with renowned photographers who bring critical rigor to the work of the advanced student. The function of the program is to progress the content of individual work through critique, lectures, museum and gallery visits and dialogue with other participants. The full breadth of the most advanced photographic technology is available, including studio, darkroom and digital facilities, as well as all formats of camera.

To learn more about the Photo Global Program, visit the program website. The deadline for applications is April 30, 2010 for the upcoming fall residency.

Untitled, from Drapery by Marisa Aragona

Today we conclude our Hot Shot Q&A series with questions for and answers from 2009 Second Edition Hot Shot Marisa Aragona. Marisa's work stands out for the vibrant tableaux she creates with figures and fabrics in tight interior spaces. "I photograph both myself and others in their homes during periods of isolation and transition. In doing this, I wish to reveal a character in the midst of confusion, transition, chaos or even adventure." 2010 is off to a great start for this San Francisco-based photographer, whose work is currently traveling around Lithuania as part of a public art exhibit, will be published in Aperture's juried Photo Review Journal, will be included in a show at Meridian Gallery, and, of course, will appear in the Hey, Hot Shot! exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery this March. For more about Marisa, including a full bio and statement, visit her Hot Shot profile. Marisa also just relaunched her website this weekend with some new work, so make sure to check it out! And now, Marisa Aragona:

From:
I grew up in Fort Washington, Maryland. It's both a unique and ordinary place. Rural and urban are side-by-side, [there is] no in-between. Growing up, I'd go to my best friend's farm, less than a half-mile from my house, where we would play with the animals and graffiti the barn. I once watched her father help a cow to give birth, if you can imagine that! On the other hand, just a few more short minutes up the road is the Beltway to DC. I drove by the Washington Monument every day on my way to high school. Bill Clinton once jogged right in front of my car with his security team...and he winked at me!

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I feel lucky I got to go to art school...twice! I got my BFA in 2000 from the School of Visual Arts in New York, which gave me an amazing foundation and photo skill set. At SVA, so many different kinds of photography were happening all at once. This total immersion was critical to my ongoing fascination with photography. Then, in 2005 I received my MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. The critiques at SFAI were challenging and diverse. Moving to the West Coast and being exposed to conceptual and performance art in grad school really blew my mind wide open.

How you pay the bills:
Like a lot of artists, I do a lot of different things, the main thing being teaching. My day job is educational and arts programming for the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco. I also teach photography to adults at UC Berkeley and get a few photo gigs here and there.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
The collective wisdom of my most beloved mentors and friends consistently has been to trust myself (and shoot a lot of film).

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
For today, my answer is Eva Hesse, Ana Mendieta and Lynda Benglis. It goes without saying that I can't really answer this question though.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head,
ever:

It's been a few years now since I saw Cornelia Parker's Colder, Darker Matter at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in SF. The piece consists of bits of charcoal, which came from a church in Texas that was struck by lightning, suspended in the shape of a cube—absolutely brilliant on so many levels. Being in the room with that piece was an experience that made me lose my breath, and I still think about it all of the time. The image doesn't really compare to seeing it in a huge space as I did.

Reading now:
Good New Year's reading for me is Yoko Ono's book of instructions and drawings, Grapefruit.

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
Sprayblog: interviews with young artists and other good stuff (search my name to find an interview with me).
Amy Stein Photo: always great.
Horses Think: my friend Ofer keeping me in the know.

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Cliché Site: "Easy as pie," my favorite website! How amazing to search clichés alphabetically. Totally genius!
SF Burlesque: Local, stay-in-the-know entertainment listings.
Super Tight Stuff: Just learned of this one last week. Check out the 10 greatest places to swim in the world.

What project or idea are you working on now?
I remain really interested in the body and continue to shoot self-portraits mostly, as well as lots of clothes and color. Lately, I'm photographing myself interacting with my clothes, searching to understand my own changing relationship to my body. I enjoy the excess of my old clothes, like bodies or old selves.

Thanks to Marisa and all of our Hot Shots for taking the time to answer our questions. We can't emphasize enough how excited we are to work with these amazing photographers, and we're counting the days to the opening!

And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum 4, 2009 by Justin James King

Justin James King's work immediately distinguished itself among entries during this round of competition. Conceptual, witty, and critically reflective of photography itself, his series And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum depicts sightseers gaping and pointing at a null black void. At such tourist sites, it seems redundant to actually depict the vistas, because, as Justin says, all we really see are "preconceived notions and pre-experienced views." Read Justin's bio and statement on his Hot Shot profile, and more on our contender post; herewith, a Q&A with Hot Shot Justin James King.

From:
I was born and raised in Saratoga Springs, New York. I lived in Florida from about age eleven to fourteen, but we moved back to Saratoga just before I started junior high school. I didn't know it at the time, but growing up in an historic town would come to have a big effect on themes in my work.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I went to art school in Boston at The Museum School, but my real education came from reading Beuys and Duchamp. They taught me to see meaning in everything. School gave me the formal language to talk about my decision-making, but it was reading other artists that taught me how to think critically about my choices and consider all the possibilities.
I shoot primarily with a 4x5 camera. Using a large-format camera was something that I learned on my own; it is an expensive way of working but the results are worth it.

How you pay the bills:
Ah yes, paying the bills. When I first moved to New York, I worked in retail and as an intern for two of my favorite artists/photographers, Mike and Doug Starn. Getting a chance to work for them was a gift. Retail is where I am right now (a manager). It's flexible, it pays pretty good and the people I work with are great...it works for now.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
(in that order?!)
Put your head down and work—trust your ideas.
The other bit of advice is from a bumper sticker I saw a long time ago. It goes: When all else fails, go fishing!

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
I look at tons of work and the list of people whose work I like is long...but three artists that I always come back to are William Henry Jackson, Richard Long, and Frederic Edwin Church.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head,
ever:
Images that are starting to form and that I have yet to shoot, those are the images that I can't get out of my head.

Reading now:
Rebecca Solnit, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics
Charles Saatchi, My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic
George Stewart, Names on the Land

Top websites/blogs:
Here are a few blogs that I look at pretty regularly:
Fecal Face
American Suburb X
Mossless
Welcome to the Broadcast

What project or idea are you working on now?
I'm working on more images for the And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum series. I went out to Wyoming last year with a few specific shots in mind and was unable to get them because of a giant snow storm in June; the roads were closed and everything was shut down. I'm going back to Wyoming this spring. The trip will include shooting locations in other states and a few other projects will begin to take shape during those travels.

Untitled, from Fragmented Cities, by Alejandro Cartagena

In case you missed Monday's kick-off with Hot Shot Leah Tepper Byrne, welcome to our series of 2009 Second Edition Hot Shot Q&As. Today we have a few questions for artist, lecturer, writer, and Hot Shot Alejandro Cartagena. Alejandro is currently documenting suburban sprawl south of the phenomenon's North American birthplace: Mexico. With his photographs, however, he does "not overtly condemn these development projects;" rather, he seeks to examine the "yearning of a society for a fairer world in which to live." Alejandro's full statement and bio can be found on his Hot Shot profile, and don't miss his contender post which ran during the competition. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Alejandro Cartagena:

From:
Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Raised in La Romana and Monterrey, Mexico.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I received a bachelor in Leisure Management and am currently in an MA program in Visual Arts at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) in Monterrey, set to graduate in 2011.

How you pay the bills:
I work at a photography center and also teach in the Faculty of Visual Arts at UANL and other schools.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
Find a deeper meaning to whatever you are photographing.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Eugène Atget, Joel Sternfeld, Paul Graham

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head,
ever:
Glen Canyon Dam, Page, Arizona by Joel Sternfeld

Reading now:
Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
A Photo Editor, A Photo Student, Conscientious

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Series Yonkis (I have an addiction to Fringe, Lost and The Office), TED, iTunes U

What project or idea are you working on now?
A few things: a project on urban layering, another on the US-Mexico border, and one called Daydreamers, which is like an Episode One of the Suburbia Mexicana series.

Our huge thanks to Alejandro for taking the time to answer our questions! Join us again on Monday for another Hot Shot Q&A.

Untitled from the series Still Lives, by Leah Tepper Byrne

A few weeks ago we announced the 2009 Second Edition Hot Shots, an awesome group of photographers who we can't wait to work with! For the next few days we'll be running a Q&A with each of our newly crowned Hot Shots to get to know the people behind the cameras. All this, of course, will lead up to the Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase in early March at Jen Bekman Gallery, followed by solo shows from the year's to-be-declared Ne Plus Ultras.

Today we're kicking off the Q&As with 2009 Second Edition Hot Shot, Leah Tepper Byrne. Aside from graduating from one of the world's top programs in photojournalism, Leah is a performer trained in corporeal mime, a style of acting which emphasizes the creation of drama through body language rather than dialogue. Perhaps this is the source of the intense and silent empathy that seeps from Leah's photographs. Her ongoing series, Still Lives, tells the story of The Children's Village, a 150-year-old residential treatment center for teenage boys in upstate New York. It was these evocative images that caught the eye of our panel of judges and earned her the title of Hot Shot. You can read Leah's bio and artist statement in our previous post about her, but now without further ado, a Q&A with Leah Tepper Byrne:

From:
I was born in Montreal and grew up in Toronto, Canada.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
In undergrad I studied a combination of art history and critical theory, with some studio practice mixed in. When I graduated I was doing a lot of work with kids in difficult circumstances, which led me to a professional training program in trauma studies. That was before I started thinking seriously about photography. I moved to England a few years later, and while I was there a group of forensic anthropologists took me under their wing and trained me in the kind of field photography necessary for exhumations. I was interested in documenting how such efforts can help communities with the mourning process in the aftermath of war. It was fascinating, but at the same time very technical, with little room for creativity. Last year I went back to school to attend the photojournalism and documentary photography program at the International Center of Photography, which I finished in June 2008.

How you pay the bills:
I do a lot of odd jobs, both photography and non-photography-related. I also work at a bar in Brooklyn.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
The most important thing you can do in this life is make yourself happy.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
I have big trouble with favorites, but 3 artists whose work I really love are Egon Schiele, Anders Petersen, and Maya Deren.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
Untitled, from Case History by Boris Mikhailov

Reading now:
Low Life, by Luc Sante

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
There are so many! The ones I look at tend to rotate, but a few I really like and have been looking at recently are American Suburb X, nofound, and Prison Photography

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Radiolab on WNYC, Simply Recipes (I love to cook...), and TED

What project or idea are you working on now?
The work I submitted to Hey, Hot Shot! is part of an ongoing project, so mostly I'm continuing to work on that by collaborating with different organizations in the New York area committed to youth in the juvenile justice and foster care systems.

Thanks to Leah for taking the time to answer our questions! We'll be back with another Q&A with one of our 2009 Second Edition Hot Shots on Wednesday, so stay tuned.

Girl on Wilshire by Bryan Formhals

Bryan Formhals has enough creative activity going that he merits an extended post. As a curator (or, visual editor? more on that below) his online exhibition endeavor La Pura Vida Gallery, which presents innovative monthly group exhibitions, just turned two years old. Pooled from Flickr and presented with a simple PREV/NEXT navigation, these shows have an unmediated intimacy that exemplifies what an online gallery should be.

But of course Bryan is himself a photographer and worthy Hey, Hot Shot! contender whose Girl On Wilshire is from a body of work created on peregrinations around his former base of Los Angeles, where the "pure, golden, electric sunshine" seduced him into photography. It also embodies the creative ambiguities inherent in his photographs; here a woman-shaped outline hovers among a conflation of picture planes and reflections at indeterminate distances. It is an image of fugitive images.

Bryan took some time out to answer a few questions about La Pura Vida and how his photography coincides with the practice of editing and curating images.

What seemed missing from the way that photography was presented online that you wanted to address when you started LPV Gallery two years ago?
I'm not sure I was addressing the wider spectrum of photography online, it was more related to how photography was presented and organized on Flickr that I wanted to address. I was an admin for HCSP (Hardcore Street Photography), which was my first taste of editing photos. After doing that for about a year I become a bit bored with editing a single type of genre. My interest in photography was expanding and I simply wanted to investigate a wider variety of work. The way photos are presented in pools on Flickr is basically a constant stream. It's hard to sequence and really present a selection of photos in an interesting way. So really, I wanted to take some of the great work we were finding on Flickr and present it in a more manageable and interesting way, which meant taking it off Flickr.

When you started out how did photographers find you to submit their work?
Like I mentioned, LPV spun off from HCSP which is one of the most prominent documentary/fine art groups on Flickr. Most of the photographers that initially found LPV came from there and through basic networking and promotion on Flickr. These days though, the blog, Twitter, and Tumblr also bring in new submissions.

What I think is unique about LPV and the network of groups we have established on Flickr is that we're essentially crowd sourcing the editing. There's the perception that finding work on Flickr is challenging and it can be, but if you network and follow certain people and groups, the good work gets filtered up to you. I have the 'favorites' of a few dependable people on my RSS and keep tabs on a few pools, so that's how I find the work. And really, that's how much of it bubbles up to LPV. It's actually very interesting how it kind of organically happens.

As a photographer, when did the path of curating engage your curiosity, and how?
I was in L.A. because I wanted to be a screenwriter and about 4 years ago I got burned out and just lost the motivation to write, but I still had creative impulses that needed to be satisfied. So I started bringing a camera with me on my walks around LA. As is the case with many people, I became addicted and started to study the history of photography. But at the same time I was networking with other aspiring amateurs on Flickr and eventually fell in with the street photography crowd.

As I continued to study photography, I quickly learned that lesson that everyone interested photography learns, which is that you need to look at lots and lots of photography. And right now, there's really no better place to find a high volume of new photography than Flickr. Editing and curating forces you to make choices. I enjoy that. I like deconstructing a photograph and figuring out why I like it (sometimes I have no idea why!). The process of fine tuning one's sensibility is one of the joys of consuming and appreciating art. The simple act of discovering new photography is thrilling to me. And for my own work as a photographer, it's absolutely necessary because I want to improve and expand my photographic vocabulary. It's a never-ending process I imagine.

Untitled by Lina Scheynius

At first the shows were "edited," but now they are "curated." Is this just a difference of phrasing or is there a philosophical difference?
Back at the beginning I did most of the edits and I can't call myself a curator with a straight face, so I always put "edited by." But when I started bringing on different editors each month, they would say "curated" by and I would just leave it. For me, what we're doing on LPV is editing. I know online curation is a bit of a buzz term but I'm not sure it's appropriate. I think people are probably throwing it around because it adds a bit of gravitas to what we're all doing. But essentially, I think we're editors.

Your show titles and themes have an allusive, poetic quality to them. What defines an LPV Gallery show?
The titles and themes were an accidental quirk. We really didn't even have themes until April 2008. I was doing an edit and when I saw this photograph the phrase 'beautiful consciousness' just popped into my head. From there, I went with it and we started using quotes, songs, and book passages as the themes. This probably isn't unique to LPV, but I think it's part of what defines an LPV show. We take our inspiration from more poetic or philosophical ideas rather than anything too literal. An LPV show is kind of a mash-up of vernacular, documentary and fine art photography. I don't really like looking at photography through the prism of genres though. It gets too rigid for me.

You also seem to follow issues around copyright, appropriation, and larger theoretical debates about representation. How do these issues inform your "big picture" (yes, pun) of the state of photography today? And does this change the kind of work you are interested in?
I'm very interested to see how photography evolves online and it bothers me when corporations and unscrupulous entrepreneurs use the chaos of the internet to take advantage of content creators. Of course, the use of content on the web can be confusing and is ever evolving, so I think we need to keep an open mind. But we also need to speak up and keep people informed when we see something we know to be wrong. I want to see photographers and artists take more control of their content and not be so shackled to the whims of publishers and the bottom line. I'm really interested in photographers and groups who can build their own kingdom so to speak.

The BLDGBLOG Book by Geoff Manaugh and Library of Dust by David Maisel, edited by Alan Rapp

After last week's flurry of announcements, there is very little that you don't know about Alan Rapp, the newly minted Associate Director of Hey, Hot Shot!

What you may not know is that Alan, a self-professed "book geek", can never turn down questions about publishing. At the top of his response to my questions was a disclaimer: "I have lots of opinions on this." Alan's experience in the world of what he jokingly refers to as "old school" publishing lends a unique perspective to anyone considering putting together their own book.

Tell me a little bit about your background with publishing and photography.
Like many people in book publishing, I am a lifelong book geek. For people like us, every aspect of a book—the weight and smell, the quality of the stock, small production details like head- and tailbands—are like a mysterious language that we keep striving to master. Books were all around me during childhood, at home and at the library, and I worked at several bookstores throughout high school.

In college, I had the privilege of working at the legendary art and architecture bookstore Hennessey + Ingalls in Santa Monica. I was an English major, but art books, in a way, became my second major. I knew I wanted to pursue this for a living somehow. I moved to San Francisco after graduation and started in the publicity department of Chronicle Books, a premier visual book publisher. After a few years as a publicist, I moved to the editorial department and managed the art, design, and photography books. So my interests converged in the perfect job, and I helped bring approximately a hundred books into being over the course of ten years.

What role did you play at Chronicle in putting together a book of photography, such as David Maisel's beautiful book Library of Dust?
Well, thank you for the kind words, that's a special project to me. I started attending photography portfolio reviews such as Review Santa Fe, Fotofest, and Photolucida, in order to keep apprised of the diversity of photographic work today, and also to help educate photographers about how they could adapt their work into a book and create effective book proposals.

At one of these reviews I met David, who had just published The Lake Project with the excellent Nazraeli Press. We bonded over numerous mutual interests, including an obsession with the artist Robert Smithson, and since he was also based in the Bay Area, we stayed in contact. I was gradually pushing Chronicle's photo book list in a direction that could accommodate strong fine art work, and by the time David was creating the work that would be Library of Dust, he felt there was an opportunity to publish it in a more ambitious way than his previous books had been [published]. I was honored to work with an artist I admired, who was also a friend, and I think the book benefited from a great level of collaboration. It was also one of the last books I worked on at Chronicle, so it felt a fitting end to that phase of my publishing career.

It's a given that with self-publishing, the creator has more control over their book, but what are some of the aspects of the traditional publishing process that self-publishers miss out on? How can self-publishers compensate for this?
I am not sure that it is a clear given that self-publishing affords authors more control over books, though in principle that seems right. As with many things, it depends on the author's level of education and awareness, because total control isn't worth much when your knowledge, imagination, and other means are limited. And the flip side of the "control" consideration is, now that you've created the book, you have to distribute it. Have fun—that is arguably the hardest part of the process, no matter if you publish with an established trade publisher or [if] your book is waiting for orders to get printed with a service such as Blurb.

But back to your question: for all the possible flaws in the trade publishing model, one thing I always liked about it is the collaborative process. It defies the auteur model; the author is almost never the sole creator. I suppose that this could sound like the ex-editor making a case for the value of his role in an industry that is really undergoing massive and fundamental changes, but I stand by the principle: all content benefits from editing. The author, whether a verbal or visual one, is almost always too involved with the material to see how it can be best adapted to another form. And the design and production processes are also critical to making the best book possible; one thing [that] I think is in danger of getting lost in self-publishing is the production potential. The physical aspects of books make important, and often subliminal, effects on the reader, but we are getting a much more homogenized offering through the current self-publishing models.

Where do you see self-publishing heading?
I can't see the exact shape of it, but I see self-publishing services taking on more traits of the traditional publishing house, and trade publishers incorporating more of the self-publishing model. They are going to keep meeting in the middle. With primarily verbal, or at least one-color, books, this is getting more and more refined—more books republished on demand through Lightning Source-type services, and even bookstores hosting printing and binding machines like the vaunted (and terribly named)Espresso Book Machine. It's visual books that are still the big question mark to me. They require more intensive design and production than non-visual books, and the material costs are high (and ever higher). They also tend to be for a smaller and more select audience—take that all together and you get a really delicately poised product profile. I think everyone who creates and consumes visual books wants to figure this out and keep quality publishing alive regardless of the model.

The Espresso Book Machine can print and bind a book in just a few minutes at the push of a button, while you wait.

You were the editor of the BLDGBLOG book, which, as its name suggests, is a blog-turned-book. What's so special about print?
It's fairly common publishing practice now to harvest book content from blogs, and this has been done in various degrees of success. When I started talking to Geoff Manaugh, the author of BLDGBLOG and the new BLDGBLOG Book, I wasn't thinking in terms of let's flip blog content for a quickie book. I was foremost a fan of the site. BLDGBLOG is exceptional among many blogs in that it is very writerly and the posts are rather long-form; Geoff is a very book-oriented person as well. He wanted to explore the possibilities of the book, from how he wrote it, to the design and production features. So, we were in agreement that the blog is the blog, but the for the book, we wouldn't hew to those conventions; there are enough creative possibilities in books. It worked out great, I think, though I know I am biased.

We've talked to two artists who have submitted to Blurb's Photography.Book.Now competition, so, we know a bit about what that's like, but what's it like to judge those thousands of entries?
Thankfully the level at which I was judging, I did not go through every single entry. There were several categories, and then a core group of judges tightened the selection further before we got to it. That said, there were still a lot of books, and we were evaluating ten different qualities of each. I try to "read" visual books with attention, which means it can be slow going, but the entrants all put a ton of work into these and so it's attention befitting of their effort.

What do you look for in a photo book?
The first level is almost always the photos themselves, of course. But that doesn't mean I must have a personal predilection for the kind of work to appreciate it, and everyone's work can be put in the best light through the particular framing of book conventions. That sounds heady and wordy, but I mean basics such as the edit, the sequence of images, how the reproductions lay on the page and work on the spread, how the other components, like text, interact with the art, and the physical qualities of the book. At workshops I call books "machines," which sounds kooky and sci-fi, but I really mean that they are still unparalleled technologies for presenting content, and every part of them makes them behave differently. All that to say, I try to look for everything in a photo book, and when all the components work together in a compelling way, you have a great book.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri 2002, from the series Sleeping by the Mississippi by Alec Soth

What is your favorite photo book?
That's the ultimate question, isn't it? I'll venture my first edition of Alec Soth's Sleeping by the Mississippi. I met Alec before he published it and, like many people, fell in love with his work. But I also think that the book is so strong because it conveys the concepts and methodology behind the photos exceptionally well. The geographic journey Alec made for that body of work is a conceptual echo of the journey the reader takes through the book.

What advice to do you have for photographers who are self-publishing their own books?
Know thyself and know the field. All decent work can make for a good book, but there may only be a few ways to make the "right" book of your photographs. If you are confident about your own work then you will have a much clearer understanding of how it can adapt to the book form. But also do your homework about photo book history and conventions; start paying attention to every aspect of your favorite photo books, and learn from them.

So concludes another interview. Next week we will wrap up with a reflection on our interviews and the state of self publishing today. Stay tuned and let us know how those books are coming along, everyone.

Second in our blog-mini-series about self-publishing is an interview with esteemed photographer, best-selling 20x200 edition-maker and acclaimed self-publisher,Beth Dow. A few months ago, there was an extremely well done interview with Beth in Macworld UK, that covered lots of bases, but we sent her some burning questions of our own:

Tell me about your book.
I received a generous fellowship from the McKnight Foundation several years ago to make most of these pictures. I lived in London for many years, and grew to love the sense of quiet confusion, and occasional danger, of these unusual landscapes. I never think of gardens as pretty places. At least not the gardens I choose to visit. This book invites the viewer to lose themselves in landscapes that are confounding yet beautiful.

Why did you want to put together a book?
Every single photograph I have ever made has been with the hope that it would be part of a book. Yes, I know that's a little pathetic. Holding a book can be a much more intimate experience than viewing a photograph in a gallery. I love the physical nature of books, and they just smell so good! I was that freak in elementary school who sniffed the new textbooks.

I put together my Blurb book in very little time as an exercise in sequencing and curiosity about the software. I think I have a good eye for design, as well as some experience with typography, and was stuck on my ass with a freshly broken ankle. The Photography.Book.Now deadline was looming and so I gave it a stab. I was thrilled with the result. Like most photographers, I'm used to the letter that begins, "Competition was fierce this year, and we regret . . ."

It's no secret that print-on-demand has pretty weak profit margins for content producers and most print-on-demand books only ever sell a few copies or are created as promotional giveaways. Did winning the competition result in significant profits from the sale of your book?
I don't get a huge amount from a sale, but I have sold more books than I anticipated.

Who is your audience?
These garden pictures have different crossover appeal from my other work. I hope gardeners, Anglophiles, and other dark souls will understand the work, and that people who are not regular fans of landscape photographs will change their minds about what a carefully considered and articulated environment can be. Americans tend to think gardens are where we keep the pretty flowers. I'm not interested in such places, and flowers are rarely in my work.

How is putting together a book of photography different from putting together an exhibition?
It depends on the book, I suppose. A print-on-demand book can be re-sequenced and re-designed as often as you like. A published book is set in stone, and that finality must be deliciously comforting. My photographs have hung in many different kinds of venues, and I love how the special demands of each space affects the relationships between images.

Did you look at other options? Why did you choose Blurb?
What were my other options? I still want a publisher for this work, and all of my other projects as well! I chose Blurb because of the fantastic competition and its stellar judging panel. [I] then made the book as an exercise and love the resulting book. I'm still very open to completely changing the format and design, and want, most of all, for it to be printed by a fine press on gorgeous paper. How could I not want that? The original prints are handmade in platinum, on lovely paper. The physicality of a photograph is integral to my work, and I always say photographs are three-dimensional objects rather than 2-D images.

It seems like everyone I know has publishers falling all over themselves, and two more friends announced their new books just this week. I haven't learned that secret handshake. If you know it, please tell me. There is nothing I want more than for a publisher to express interest in my photographs, but I have yet to crack that code. My Fieldwork project was recently one of the top six finalists for the Critical Mass book award, so I was in with a chance for a little while, at least.

What was the process like? What took the longest?
This book design really was a fluke. It's more quiet and conservative than me, but I went with the requirements of the images. I spent most of a day putting together a completely different project (Fieldwork) but didn't like the way those square images sat on the rectangular page. No matter how I re-sized the images and moved them around, I just wasn't happy, and I would love those to be printed in a huge square slab.

Out of frustration, I switched to the garden pictures simply because they are slightly rectangular, and went with that. This was around 2 days before the entry deadline, so I had no time to second-guess myself. My design instincts are usually good, and I only run into trouble when I have a lot of time to over-think things.

What is your biggest problem with self-publishing? How long did it take to make?
My biggest problem is that people seem to assume it was my goal all along. Instead, it was an invaluable tool to mess around with sequencing and to make me feel I was actually getting somewhere. Absolute instant gratification. It took me 2 1/2 days, start to finish. Did I mention the Percocet from my orthopedic surgeon? Might have helped.

Do you plan to self-publish in the future?
Sure. It's a great way to throw together a sequence and see what happens, and I like that an artist can also just order a single book and not offer copies for sale. I also might shoot some pictures exclusively for a Blurb book project. I see those book ideas as tangential, however. There is nothing I want more than a publisher who really loves and understands the possibilities of well-made book to take a risk with me.

What's your favorite photo book?
That answer changes all the time, so I won't even begin to throw titles at you.

What things are important to consider when creating your own photo book?
Know what you like, but be willing to do what's right for the images. If your favorite picture doesn't play well with others, let it sit this one out. Decide from the start if the book is all about the pictures or all about clever design, and don't think one of those choices is necessarily better than the other. I tend to prefer books that facilitate my experience with the photographs and eschew noise.

Clever-clogs typography usually pisses me off, and I just dislike it when a book looks like it was designed by a hired [hand] that didn't understand the images. This isn't to say I don't like bold design, though, and a good example would be my friend Chris Shaw's stunning book, Life as a Night Porter, from Twin Palms.

from Life as a Night Porter by Chris Shaw

Attention-getting design that is a natural companion to the images is an amazing thing to see. Look at the stunning things John Gossage makes. Mercy me! And please don't forget that the cover is important. In some odd way, it can be the most important because it has the most power to lure a person to pick it up. Or, of course, to ignore it altogether.

What advice do you have to photographers self-publishing their own books?
First of all, understand why you want a book. There are so many good reasons, and not all involve aesthetic issues. For example, a book might function as a kind of catalog for a project. In this case, like the best web sites, the design will get the hell out of the way of the images.

Another kind of book might require a bigger experience, and use color, typography, scale or texture to transform the context of the images. Keep looking at books to learn what you like and dislike. Self-publishing through a print-on-demand house only costs you the price of a single copy. If you hate it, no big deal. Keep going until you get it right or accept it's a pile of crap and move on. If you're not confident in your design skills, find someone who can help you. Maybe you can barter some prints or copies of the book as payment. Just make something that you can love.

So concludes another post. Don't miss Beth's beautiful and award-winning book, In the Garden. Check back next week for an interview with Alan Rapp.

A few weeks ago, we got an email from our 2006 Ultra and 20x200 edition-maker, Alison Grippo, letting us know that she had just self-published her first book: CHASING: The Friday Night Fights NYC using Blurb.com. Intrigued, we sent Alison a few questions about her self-publishing process:

Tell me about your book.
It's a documentary about the fighters from The Friday Night Fights NYC. It's funny, I was looking through it and it actually does not have any photos of people hitting each other. I heard about the fights from a friend a few years ago and I thought, "Wow, men fighting in the basement of a church...who doesn't want to photograph that?"

I was completely in the dark about the sport, about this particular group, all of it; I just thought, "Holy spectacle." After the first fight, I realized that I had happened upon something that was easy to judge but not so easy to understand. At that point, I just wanted to keep photographing the fights, and the man who runs the show, Justin, was kind enough to let me come a few times. By the third fight, I knew that I wanted to do something bigger than just a few photos. I had proclaimed, "I'm going to do a book about this!" without really knowing what it means to create a book, a body of work, etc.

That seems to be how I operate though, I go way in above my head and then push to figure it out and make it happen because I said I would do it. Also, in working with everyone, from the trainers to the boxers, it became more of a requirement than a goal. Here were people that were working hard for something with the same odds as the lottery—how could they go unknown?

Why did you want to put together a book?
For boxing at least, it's a narrative. I lean more towards documentary work probably because I'm a nosy little brat...

I feel that all the photos [in the book] are required to get the story across, they work together, they share the overall point. There are some photos I have which I think capture a particular portion of what I wanted to say, but only when coupled with the rest is the story really told...

The point of the book (once I figured out the point) is not to show the dirt or the primal aspect of fighting that people immediately assume, it was to show the nobility of it, the beauty of the fighters and the scene, the character it takes to really be a fighter and stand up in a ring with another man who you respect and admire with the idea that you are there to best him. Part of why it's a book is because I can't explain it in words but I think I can explain it in photos. I hope I did—certainly the people involved deserve that.

How is putting together a book of photography different from putting together an exhibition?
Volume for sure. I couldn't do a show of 70 images just about boxing. Maybe I could but I don't think it would be as effective. In the end, I want people to own the whole collection even if there are some photos which don't resonate for them because it is meant to be seen as a whole.

As an exhibition, I think I'd have to do a lot a more of telling the tale behind some of the images because they could be out of context. Then again, I've had the luck of seeing some of the images at 20"x30" and the impact is completely different.

Did you look at other options? Why did you end up choosing Blurb?
I had a few options, some small places were genuinely interested in releasing the book and some independent publishers too but photo books are a rough business. I don't think you do it to make a living, unless of course you're a collective like Magnum, or you're Annie Leibovitz or Vanity Fair.

I didn't want to do a book that was a limited edition and super expensive. That did not fit with the topic, the purpose or the spirit of what I was doing. Most of those interested in working with the book wanted to do very selective, limited releases. I didn't spend the last 2+ years shooting this because I wanted 500 people to own it, I wanted people to know who these boxers were, I wanted people to see what I saw. I had already invested so much of myself in the project that the idea of not making this as available as possible was counter-intuitive. Then there is the fact that I'm not exactly Annie Leibovitz and there won't be a hoard of people rushing to grab my retrospective on boxing.

I chose Blurb for a couple of reasons. If I did it through Blurb, then I had to really own it and finish it. I had to edit it and take that last step in the process of creating this story. I like that I can I say it's 100% what I wanted; of course, if it sucks, I prefer people leave me to my own delusions. I'm sure if I had worked with a publisher, issues like how much it costs to print, how many photos I could have, the theme, etc. would have been up for more debate. I didn't want to debate that. I will see how this does as I think it's still pretty costly. I will probably release a less expensive version (smaller, maybe softcover) later on if the interest is there. Again, this is about people learning about boxers like Damon Rowe, or Jamel Spencer, and the more who can, the better.

The other reason is that Blurb runs Photography.Book.Now which gave me a deadline. I need deadlines. I was really motivated by the jury who was looking at the work, and that Beth Dow won last year (and I just love her work, all of it). I'm looking now at all the submissions and another freaky portion of publishing a book online is that you see everyone's everything...

What was the process like? What took the longest?
I made about five versions, so the process was exhausting. The multiple versions came from having to own up to what I wanted to say. One version was about the glory, which was wrong. Another was about the environment, which was totally wrong. Each was a topic that alluded to what I wanted to say but never actually said it because I was afraid. When I finally sucked it up and said to myself, "This is what you're going to focus on," it became easier.

Editing is an amazing learning experience, I've edited words but not photos as much. I've done a few articles and other short pieces with my photography so I'm not totally new to the editing process but taking on something that personal and that large was daunting. At one point, I actually stopped working on the book and started shooting again to avoid having to go through the photos and give myself more to procrastinate with. Going through your own work is brutal, often I just sat there saying, "Wow, wow I'm really horrible, these are awful, what was I thinking?" There was a great deal of self-flagellation, there still is. I gave up a few times. It's like anything else very personal, you're your own worst critic so you have to fight with yourself to just keep going. Wow, that sounds like a self-help platitude.

The longest part was accepting what I was going to be talking about or showing. I have a personal relationship with a lot of people in the book, some very close, and I was very unsure of how they might feel towards me if I did a book that was not the glory tale. This isn't a book about winning, it's about losing. It's about what it means to endure for a dream you will probably not achieve and how phenomenal of a person you become through the process of trying. I didn't want to judge but I had a point of view.

From a purely technical standpoint, having to actually lay it out, pick photos, beg people who I trust to look at it and tell me, "That's a really bad idea," so I could do better was painful. There are a few folks out there who I owe a lot to but want to choke to death for making me delete photos, change the order or rewrite the intro over and over and over again.

What is your biggest problem with self-publishing? How long did it take to make?
The printing. The printing is not exact, so you can print at home and it looks great, then you get the proof and you want to cry. Then you get another proof and even though you've done nothing to the photos, for some reason, they are all green. Black and white printing is no one's specialty, I think. The first proof I received, the cover was bubbly and the blacks on the photo didn't match the black on the book.

I've done a few test prints with Blurb to try and calibrate and I've gotten pretty good at telling what will print well and what won't, but (sorry Blurb 'cause I love you) it's still a bit of a crap shoot. My photos are very high contrast, I like my blacks to be black and my whites super white, sometimes the tones just don't come out through the printing process there. But I haven't seen anyone do it better than Blurb (and I've tested a lot of self-publishers). The premium paper helps exponentially but I'd love it if there was more consistency between what I print and what they print. Such is life.

Who is your audience?
My mom. Oh, who is it intended for, not who do I think is actually going to read it and tell me I'm special? My bad. You know, I didn't think about it. I just thought, someone needs to see this, someone needs to know how hard these men work.

Do you plan to self-publish in the future?
Not a clue. If I can come up with an idea that merits a book, maybe. Right now the idea of doing another book on the heels of just finishing one seems masochistic :)

What's your favorite photo book?
Ack. No idea. I've been searching for an out of print Gilles Peress book which might be my favorite, if I find it. I just went to look at what photo books I own and I can't pick a favorite.

What things are important to consider when creating your own photo book?
Have a point of view, stick to it, and edit edit edit. If you have a great photo that doesn't work with story you're trying to tell, then it isn't right for the book.

What's next for you? What are you working on now?
Right now, sleep is on my radar. I need to just clear my head for a while I think and see what happens next. I haven't taken a photo in a while but I'm going to start carrying the camera around again. I received a great piece of advice once from a super fancy photographer during a portfolio review; he said, "Just when you think you're done, throw it all out and start again, bust it all wide open." That's where I'm at, I need to throw it all out, start again, and see what happens.

Good luck and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Alison!
So there you have it! Make sure to check out the preview of Alison's book, CHASING, and then buy a copy or five. Tune in same time next week for an interview with JBG artist, 20x200 edition-maker, self-publisher, and winner of last year's PBN Grand Prize: Beth Dow!

PetaPixel, the photography blog geared towards the tech-savvy, has an interview up with our very own two-time Hot Shot and Jen Bekman artist, Joseph Holmes. In it, he talks about his popular blog, joe's nyc, his workflow, which camera he takes out on the streets, and how he got acquainted with JBP.

Here's a snippet of Joe's interview (including some very kind words about HHS!), but click over to PetaPixel for the full interview!

PP: How does one become represented by a gallery?

JH: I can't tell you how it works for most people. In my case, I had a new project in the fall of 2005 that really excited me (the amnh series ), so I entered Jen Bekman's Hey, Hot Shot competition, partly because one of the prizes is representation by Jen. I had entered before without any luck, but this time around the amnh series won one of the slots in the Hey, Hot Shot show.

Though I wasn't ultimately picked for representation, I was really encouraged by Jen's reaction to my work, and we got along really well. So about a year later, I submitted images from my new Workspace project. Not only did I win another slot, but at the end of the year Jen selected me as one of four photographers to be represented, and I've been working with Jen and her fantastic crew ever since. You can see some of my prints on Jen's 20x200 project.

I'm sure there's a lesson in persistence there. You can't let rejection stop you from continuing to create and show your work. No matter how long you've been working, there's always another rejection around the corner; it's just part of the landscape.

I became represented by Crista Dix's wallspace gallery in Seattle in a similar way. In the fall of 2006 I submitted images from my amnh series to wallspace's annual "In a New Direction" show, and I was selected. Crista contacted me after the show came down and offered to represent me. My solo show at wallspace last October, "Under | Exposed," included prints from three of my projects: Workspace, CBGB, and amnh.

Since we announced our 2009 First Edition Hot Shots a week and a half ago, we've been busy getting to know the photographers behind the images that will grace the gallery walls at a yet-to-be-determined date. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be bringing you interviews to introduce you to this season's Hot Shots.

Today we start with Mike Sinclair, a Midwestern photographer we've had our eye on for a long while. He takes large ephemeral portraits of crowds at sun-soaked fairgrounds, beaches, and baseball games capturing a sense of nostalgic Americana that many of us get lost in, but hardly look at with any distance. Crowds gather around the rodeo and the smoke of fireworks stirs up a halcyon haze over a grassy field -- all eyes are fixed in a stare at the spectacle before them, while Sinclair is focused on the people doing the staring. Sinclair composes his photographs as a quiet observer who has snuck his way into the hullabaloo of American celebrations and rituals: a street parade, day at the beach, a backyard barbecue. We invite you to peak at more of Mike's work, read the interview below, and stay tuned for more Hot Shot news.

Without further ado, a Q&A with Mike Sinclair:

From:
Kansas City, Missouri

Formal and/or informal education and training:
In High School I worked with my father selling men's clothing. Learning to sell clothes was a great experience for a shy teenager. On his business card was written "See Sinclair for style". I've always wanted to put that on mine.

I got my undergraduate degree at Southern Illinois University. I was lucky enough to study with Chuck Swedlund, a teacher and photographer whose passion for photography is a big reason why I'm a photographer today.

I also spent one Year in the MFA program at University of Illinois.

How you pay the bills:
Primarily Architectural photography but I also do editorial work and teach occasionally.

Best advice received (as a photographer and/or human):
From my wife: "You don't know what you don't know."

From Ezra Stoller, the foremost photographer of modern architecture, when asked at a workshop I attended what was his most important piece of equipment, his answer: "a good pair of shoes."

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Louis Armstrong, Fairfield Porter and Walker Evans

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

Family, Times Square by Louis Faurer, 1948

Photographers/artists you are looking at right now:
Rackstraw Downes
Art Sinsabaugh
David Goldblatt

Reading now:
Under the Gowanus and Razor-Wire Journal: The making of two paintings by Rackstraw Downes. This is Downes' almost-daily journal describing the process and problems of working on location from inaccurate weather forecasts, cars parked in front of your subject, to finding a public restroom and kids throwing rocks at you.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan. This is a sensitive and at-times comic novella about the last 12 hours at a failing Red Lobster. It changed how I experience eating in a chain restaurant.

Top 3 photo blogs/websites:
1. T.A., Timothy Archibald's blog—It's interesting following someone whose work, both commercial and personal, is so different than mine.
2. The Year in Pictures
3. 5b4—I don't know how he finds the time to look at and post about so many books.

Top 3 non-photo blogs/websites:
1.Reference Library
2. Design Observer
3. Bitten Blog

I had the pleasure of first meeting Darius a couple years ago at the Winter 2007 panel review, held in Jen's cozy and art-filled apartment. In spite of the casual atmosphere, it was an intimidating room to be in: some of the smartest and most insightful individuals working in the fine art photography world were hunkered down, ready to look at hundreds of Hot Shot entries and determine the fortunes of the top ten (now it's five, but then it was ten Hot Shots). Darius was one of the first to crack a joke and seemed to be having a good time during what can be a really grueling process.

His enthusiasm for contemporary photography was evident. I'm guessing that kind of energy also spills into his other projects, which most recently include Radius Books. Radius, a non-profit, publishes gorgeous books (I am a delighted owner of Michael Lundgren's Transfigurations) and as part of their mission, donates at least 300 copies of every title to libraries and schools, because as they put it, "the arts--all arts--are vital to our nation and our culture's future." To learn more about Radius and to be notified about new editions, sign up for their mailing list. It's good to be in the know as limited editions sell quickly, like the signed and slipcased Lee Friedlander: New Mexico, which is almost gone.

Here to stay, thankfully, is Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Darius Himes, founding editor of photo-eye Booklist, current independent curator, writer, consultant, and co-founder of Radius Books.

SD: How did you come to be a panelist for Hey, Hot Shot!?

DH: Jen and I met at Review Santa Fe a few years ago. There was a really great group of reviewers and photographers that year, and we've all stayed in touch. It was right around then that Jen launched 20x200. I like to think that she and I have similar eccentric tastes in photography and share a similar enthusiasm for the field. She asked me shortly thereafter to be a panelist. (At least that's my version of how it all happened! Jen's may be different...)

SD: What's most interesting/engaging for you in seeing so much work from emerging photographers?

DH: That's a really good question. You know, as an adult, I've come to see that one of my core personality traits and strengths is being what I call an "encourager." That may sound weird, but I honestly feel that, by definition, there are multitudes of voices out there in the art and photography world, and new voices are joining the "discussion" of contemporary art discourse, as it were, on a yearly basis. Watching and "listening" to that conversation and that dialogue is very important to me. Contests, like HHS and Critical Mass, as well as events like photo LA, Review Santa Fe, the Arles festival--all of that is interesting and engaging to me because first, I like to see new work, but secondly, I really want to encourage both the work and the artists that I respond to, as well as support the mechanism that allows new work and new voices to be heard. HHS is one of those great venues.

SD: What keeps you engaged in the world of emerging photographers and/or contemporary photography?

DH: I can't emphasize enough how the field of photography is constantly shifting beneath one's feet. As I mentioned, I personally attend and see new work at review events like Review Santa Fe, photolucida [Critical Mass] , Fotofest as well as the various art fairs, such as photo LA, Art Basel/Miami, AIPAD and the Armory Show in New York. But then there are blogs and magazines and friends that I stay in touch with in order to really see what's happening. The field of photography is a little bit like the field of music now, in the sense that it is extremely fractured and diverse beyond belief. There are so many various ways that we all find out about new music, but how many times have you been talking with friends and someone mentions a band that they are head-over-heels about and yet you've never even heard of them? (All the time, is the answer.) So, talking with people and being out and about is the best way.

Let me just say that the mission of Radius Books, of which I'm just one of four founders, is to really contribute to and encourage this sense of dialogue in the art world. We assist artists to contribute to this dialogue by publishing books on artists and of bodies of work that we feel have lasting importance. That's our goal, of course, and really only time will tell if we are successful. But the criteria we use when evaluating work is really from a sincere, heartfelt position of true engagement with the work. We have published some huge names as well as some rather unknown names, and I'm very proud of that fact.

SD: When you only see three images from a Hot Shot contender, what makes you want to see more of their work?

DH: If the work doesn't really look like something I've already seen, then that is going to make me want to see more. Obviously, so much of one's response to visual work is on a non-quantifiable level; it's really even on an indescribable level. I have to have a gut reaction to the work, and sometimes it is difficult to sort out, is this just an emotional or sentimental response I'm having, or is there a strong idea or concept behind the work? But that's the joy of digging deeper into the work.

SD: Any advice you'd like to give contenders for future entries?

DH: I would advise photographers, particularly ones right out of school, to be in this for the long-haul. Being a working photographer or artist is a lot of work and you can't complain about how tough it is. Be upbeat, be confident, be persistent, and above all make work that is important to you. That may sound way cheesy, but be self-reflective, ultimately. Take account of yourself each day and be thoughtful about what you are doing in your life, what type of work you're making. Ask yourself, how does this serve the broader society, how does this contribute to an ongoing dialogue? In 100 years, would this work still be interesting to oneself? I don't know.... Be an artist and be serious and be so hard-working that you want to cry. And be happy for the chance to produce something beautiful for this world. Those qualities shine through and speak volumes...

And thank you for letting me look at so much great work. I'm very happy to have been part of the team that chose the work in this round. It totally rocks.

SD: Thank you Darius!

If you're still curious about Darius and his work, a couple other bloggers have published some excellent interviews: his friend and former co-worker Melanie McWhorter gets personal and A Photo Editor Rob Haggart gets the dirt on publishing.

2008 Second Edition Hot Shot Cara Phillips (self-portrait from her project Ultraviolet Beauties)

Last but not least in our interview round-up of new Hot Shots is Cara Phillips. If you're a regular reader of photography blogs, her name and work might already ring a bell, or two... Jorg Colberg interviewed her for his blog Conscientious a year ago in February, Darren Ching interviewed her for PDNPulse last November, and she maintains her blog Ground Glass, and curates the site Women in Photography with Amy Elkins.

From:
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, MI.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I went back to finish my BA in my mid-twenties at Sarah Lawrence College. While I was there I found my way to photography and studied with Joel Sternfeld and Penelope Umbrico. Informally, I have been incredibly lucky as well, I met photo agent Marcel Saba at an ICP week long class as he was launching his agency, Redux Pictures. Our class was during the big summer black out in New York, which was a crazy time for me in my life, but out of chaos comes growth and I ended up interning and working there. I was privileged to learn so much there and meet some great photographers. I was actually there while Hey, Hot Shot! superstar, Nina Berman was making Purple Hearts. Nina is force of nature!

How you pay the bills:
Well, I graduated a little over a year ago, and for the past several years, like most artists, I have been working at part time jobs that don't pay a lot, but where I learned things of immense value. But recently, with the cost of making my work going up, I am doing some freelance photo editing, which is great. And I am doing some editorial work. I think figuring out how to support a career is actually one of the greatest challenges for artists.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
Focus on process, if you are not in love with making work, you will always be unhappy. Because acclaim comes and go, and you will always get criticism, if you live in your process, you can weather it all. An, to always wash your face before you go to sleep.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
I always find this to be an impossible question. When I nine I would have said: George Balanchine, Billy Wilder, Tennessee Williams & Degas. But for me now there are so many artists in various mediums I admire. If I could have three photographers work in my house right now I would say: 1. Sander 2. Frank 3. Evans. To remind me that what is revolutionary one day eventually becomes classical.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

I am afraid it is a cliche, but I would have to say Eggelston's Adam & Jasper. I could look at that image forever and ponder its secrets. And the first time I saw Rineke Dijkstra, Tecla, Amsterdam, Netherlands. May 16, 1994, I was so upset. The image horrified me, the blood dripping down her leg, the violence of it, it took me a while to understand the significance and beauty of it.

Reading now:
Sadly, I have very little time to read lately, I have been so busy. But I love to read the New Yorker on the subway. I also read the nytimes.com everyday. But to me, reading is one of the most relaxing and indulgent pastimes.

Favorite Book:
I don't think I could pick a favorite book. But I suppose The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton was the most devastating thing I have ever read, I don't think any other book ever made me cry. That book really captures the experience of women, and the ways in which society functioned as a prison for them for much of Western history.

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Lately, I have a hard time keeping up with the all the photo blogs, but my boyfriend has a lovely blog on furniture design called Brooklyn Modern, which I like to divert myself reading. Also, I like to collect information, so I often will spend hours researching things online, it is one of my favorite activities. For instance, I probably have a collection of 300 or so quotes from online forums of plastic surgery patients and lots of info from various related surgery sites, from my research for Singular Beauty. All of my work starts with intense information gathering followed by my visual and emotional response to the actual environment. I find intellect to be intrinsic to image making. If there is no thought process before, for me the images are never as strong. However, all thought and no emotion is equally lacking. Finding the right balance between the two is what makes the most compelling image.

New Year's Resolution:
I spent most of 2008, focusing on getting my work out into the world, I am looking forward to turning more inward this year and focus on making new work, and on my current UV project. I have a finished maquette of the surgery project and I would like to devote some time to developing it further. Also, hopefully find some spare moments to take care of myself. I am excited to see where the next chapter takes me.

Hot Shot John Mann's New Year is off to a great start. His photograph Untitled (Libya) is up for grabs on igavel and he'll have work up at the JB Gallery with his fellow Hot Shots at the end of the month, adding to the list of exhibitions he racked up in 2008. What's next for Mr. Mann? We'll just have to wait and see....

From:
I did my growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, after a bit of time living in Virginia. I now live in Florida, but thankfully some distance from Disney.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I got into photography through skateboarding, mostly as a way to make images of what we were up to. I took classes during high school in photography and offset printing. I later got a degree in photography and printmaking from Arizona State University and an MFA in photography at the University of New Mexico.

How you pay the bills:
I keep the lights on with a job teaching photography at Florida State University. The job offers a great deal of time/support for making art, and this has been great for my production.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
"Remember to breathe."

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Dieter Appelt
Giorgio Morandi
Andrei Tarkovsky

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

Reading now:
Reading the New Yorker keeps me pretty busy, but Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent sits next to the bed with a bookmark in it.

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
The Year in Pictures - an interesting commentary on photography in the art world.
Photograph Mag - a great resource
Flak Photo - a great way to see who is coming up in the photo world

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Strange Maps
Ed Templeton's skate/art blog

If you had a chance to read the Nymphoto interview with Yijun (Pixy) Liao, you know that dropped a career in graphic design to pursue something she's "truly interested in," she's just finished her MFA at the University of Memphis, and has recently relocated to Brooklyn. A few more things about Yijun (Pixy) Liao:

From:
I'm from Shanghai, China.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I went to grad school for photography, but before that I didn't have any art training.

How you pay the bills:
Well, I don't know yet. I just graduated & am looking for a job.

Best advice received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
Be true to yourself.

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Bjork, Edward Hopper, Cohen Brothers (if I can call them artists)

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
Hannah Starkey's Untitled March 2002, a woman with long silver hair sitting in a restaurant.

Reading now?
I avoid reading. It's gonna mess up my mind.

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
nicolas cage vampire teeth's photostream, design-milk, ffffound

Happy Holidays Hot Shot readers! And cheers to the New Year! We took a little winter break but are getting back into the swing of things &mdash and just in time to get you primed for the opening of the Hey, Hot Shot! (volume iv, edition ii) exhibition at the gallery on Friday, January 30th. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll make sure you get to know a little bit more about each and every one of this season's Hot Shots.

First off is an introduction to Donald Weber. Weber's won a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lange-Taylor Prize and a World Press Photo Award; he's published a book, Bastard Eden, Our Chernobyl, with photolucida; he's worked as an architect for Rem Koolhaas. AND, as a photographer, he works hard to make work that he "owns" - his projects, his ideas, his terms. I caught this great, lengthy interview with Donald on Monday over on dvafoto and Donald was kind enough to oblige a few questions of my own before he hopped on an eastbound plane.

From:
Well, Canadian, from Toronto, downtown, which may have influenced my outlook. Taking the subway at 12 years old to school everyday definitely gives an impression on a youngster, glad I was able to see what I did.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
My academic background is not so academic, I studied at an alternative high school that offered an intensive arts education, from the age of 16 until graduation in Grade 13, I studied art all day everyday. We had four hours of life drawing two days a week - that would be nudes, thus lots of people were jealous of us, plus an 8 hour day of art history and then we would major and minor in two artistic pursuits. I wanted to be an artist, not really sure what that was or how I would do it, but initially that was my goal. I then went on to study at art college, the Ontario College of Art & Design, where I majored in - I forget the complex phrasing of the subject, something like Art and the Environment. Basically, making massive intrusions into the public landscape. Great!

How you pay the bills:
Grants, and then when those are done, more! I have some assignments, but not too many, it's really tough, but I have faith and every time I'm about to drop off the planet, something comes along. I believe in looking at alternative methods to photographing what I want to do, no other way.

I have a very good friend who is a writer, and we are constantly looking at ways to getting work, either through corporate or government sponsors, NGOs, whatever. I am lucky as I am a member of the VII Network so with that comes a certain sense of prestige, and we are working towards doing something as a group project, something that we wouldn't be able to do on our own. Also, VII does a great job of selling the archive and stories, and made me realize that as photographers, that is our pension - the archive. So if VII can keep selling whatever I produce and mixed with grants, NGO's and other forms of sponsorship and assignments, I should do okay. But one day I just want to blow $4000 on a 52″ television and not have to save it for a photo project!

Best advice received (as a photographer and/or human):
As per my high school photography teacher who said, and I quote:

"You suck as a photographer!"
That taught me to never listen to authority!

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Well, number one is Raymond Depardon.
Two - Norman Mailer
Three - Artist Number Three would have to be: Ukrainian Photographer Boris Mikhailov. Not to be confused with writer Boris Mikhailkov, whose son is the filmmaker Nikita, a Russian director of great epics investigating the same subject matter as myself, although Russians find him rather sentimental and too cheerful. In any good Russian film, all the protagonists should die a horrible death. Watch Burnt by the Sun.

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:
Does architecture count? If so, Rem Koolhaas' study of high rise buildings opposite the Maas River in Rotterdam. Not the architecture per se (it's just a study) but the thought and ideas behind the work, was one of the first pieces of anything to truly move me and make me ponder what we can do with our creative resources.

Photographically, I cannot pick just one photo from Depardon, for me he has to be viewed as a collective. But the photo of a Christian falangist soldier during the civil war in Lebanon stands out as the zenith of what photojournalism could and should be, a perfect blend of immediacy, intimacy in a very un-intimate place, depth and document.

Reading now:
The Great Terror by Robert Conquest, The Black Book of Communism, Let's Put the Future Behind Us, by Jack Womack. And I'll be saving The Road by Cormac McCarthy for my travels in Kazakhstan. (Thanks, Sara!)

Top 3 photo blogs/websites:
5B4 - after reading that, everything else just falls flat. Strong contenders I like dvafoto, and PDN for industry news. A little boring, but what the hey!

Top 3 non-photo blogs/websites:
BLDGBLOG, Strange Maps and Russia Blog

What to say about Hot Shot Molly Landreth's work...see my original post here. An early submission spotlight this edition, her work, and I think all of the panelists would agree, is incredibly compelling. Shortly after appearing on HHS! she popped up on Panelist Joerg Colberg's Conscientious. And, starting tomorrow, you can see the work live at the gallery! A true west coaster, she was born in Northern California, educated in Southern, and now resides in Seattle. She complains of the rain and plans to hunt down some sun before the spring passes her by. She'll be happy to know that rather than rain, New York has some snow in store for her tomorrow.

Where were you trained, if anywhere?
Scripps College in SoCal...then School of Visual Arts in New York.

What do you do to pay the bills?
I'm an artist's assistant and I do freelance work...mainly for bands and local artists around Seattle.

What led you to photography over other mediums?
It just happened. I still love all that other stuff....but I'll leave it to other kids to do it right.

What is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
Can I see what other people put on this one first?

Do you have any other creative talents?
1. animal impressions—the running spider really gets a party started.
2. rhythmic gymnastics
3. crafty time things

What image is permanently etched into your brain and thank goodness for it?

Sick of Goodbyes by Robert Frank

Who are three of your favorite living artists?
Robert Frank, Gerhard Richter, Banksy

What does the spring and beyond have in its forecast for you?
Trying to finish this project. I've had a new, wonderful response from folks wanting to be a part of this and it's very exciting! And roaming through California with my girlfriend and her sister, trying to find some sun. So sick of all the rain.

Share 3 of your favorite links with us.
www.keavylandreth.com
www.landrethriffle.blogspot.com
www.douglandreth.com

plug. plug. plug.

Anything about you—exciting news, oddball facts, or otherwise—that we should know?
I can't ever really eat enough toast with peanut butter and apricot jam. I'm messier than I should be....messier than anyone should be. But I'm really trying to be better. I swear. I'll be attending Review Santa Fe in May which I'm super excited about. I'll be wheeeeeezing my way through my second half marathon in April. ow! ow! ow! I can wiggle my ears. I get really red when agitated, embarrassed or intoxicated even a wee bit. You'll see.

Winter Hot Shot Mickey Smith is a busy, busy lady. After joining us in New York for the showcase on Wednesday she's off to New Zealand, followed by a full plate of work + travel + more work in the spring—"these are exciting times in the land of Mickey Smith. "I'm so blown away by this work, and how serious Mickey is about presenting it. She really seems to have things together, is a McKnight Fellow and well, damn, I'm so pleased that she's chosen to participate in the competition," says Jen. And she has a great website to boot—enjoy.

When + where were you born?
1972 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA

Where were you trained, if anywhere?
University of Minnesota, Moorhead (just across the Red River from Fargo)

What do you do to pay the bills?
A little bit of everything, but mainly I'm a recovering arts administrator.

What led you to photography over other mediums?
The Kodak Disc camera, circa 1980

What is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I'm a tech weenie. My guiltiest pleasure is simply being able to see images instantly on a camera back. Before digital I was Polaroid. My undergraduate internship was with the Polaroid Collection in Cambridge, MA.

Do you have any other creative talents?
My man and I do a little design work on the side, I might have been a silversmith or jeweler in a former life, planning to get to it later.

What image is permanently etched into your brain and thank goodness for it?
The first image that comes to mind is by Duane Michals, a black and white image of a couple sitting on a bed, it begins "THIS PHOTOGRAPH IS MY PROOF".

This Photograph is My Proof by Duane Michals

Who are three of your favorite living artists?
Martin Parr, Ed Ruscha, On Kawara

What does the spring and beyond have in its forecast for you?
This Friday I'm off to New Zealand for a few weeks at the beach with the in-laws... Once back in Minneapolis, I'll hit the ground running. Editing new work from Seattle and Kansas City in preparation for the McKnight Fellowship exhibition. Driving to Art Chicago in April. Flying to New York and Los Angeles to meet with with galleries in May. Pulling together a book proposal for the Volume work in June. Working on my new Unaccompanied Minor project in between.

Share 3 of your favorite links with us.
The man's band: Quarter Acre Lifestyle
These crack me up, especially Jack Black
South Park Create-A-Character

What led you to enter Hey, Hot Shot!?
Swanny recommended I check out jen bekman last fall. My new intern-turned-studio manager pushed me to enter the Winter '07 Edition.

Anything about you—exciting news, oddball facts, or otherwise—that we should know?
Exciting News: I'm waiting for a very important (possibly exciting) letter and last night my fortune cookie said, "A cheerful letter or message is on its way to you."
Oddball Fact: I have a brother older than my mother.
Otherwise: Considering a move back to New York, so thanks to HHS for the 24-hour dose of the city!

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

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

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

Age?
36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current place of residence?
Brooklyn

Age?
25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current place of residence?
Buffalo, NY

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

Your age?
25

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

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

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

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

What camera do you use?
Canon 20D

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any pets?
Two cats.

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

Current place of residence?
East Village, NYC

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

Your age?
37

What do you do to pay the bills?
Shoot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Favorite color?
Black.

Favorite food?
Italian.

Favorite possession?
My Mamiya RZ.

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

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

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

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

Your age?
27

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any pets?
My four pet fish died recently.

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

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

Your age?
52

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your age?
36

What do you do to pay the bills?
My best

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What book connects with your life the most?
Mac Powerbook

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

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

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

Favorite food?
cod roe

Favorite possession?
rare collection of toy caravans

Favorite animal?
puppy

Favorite way to kill time?
Fleamarkets

Untitled (Self-Portrait) by Shen Wei

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

Current place of residence?
New York City

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

Your age?
29

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you have any other creative talents?
Creative cooking

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

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

Favorite color?
Turquoise blue for now.

Favorite food?
Chinese

Favorite animal?
All baby animals and dogs

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

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

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

Your age?
36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Favorite color?
Red. Or green.

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

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

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

Untitled by Chad Muthard

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

Current place of residence?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Kensington)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Juliana and her dog, Moishe Godoshevitz Beasley

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

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

Your age?
I'm 39 years old.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four Hundred Blows
Harold and Maude
Vagabond

Favorite possession?
The air that I breathe.

From the series Three Star by James Deavin

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

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

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

A: Did you figure it out?

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

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

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

A: I anxiously await.

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

William Henry Jackson and his glass plates and camera gear

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

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

A: A pioneer... THE pioneer.

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

A: sweet!

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

A: It is a bit crazy.

Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

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

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

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

A: Basically.

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

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

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

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

J: what talk, Alice?

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

J: Wide angle.

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

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

A: Maybe they'll make options...

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

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

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

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

J: Right.

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

J: lol

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

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

From William Eggleston's Guide

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

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

A: Chicago

J: SL is my turf!

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

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

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

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

A: Alie Wheels

J: Oh yeah? Brill.

A: flickr.com/photos/akwells

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

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

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

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

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

A: Will do. Sleep well.

Installation view of Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

This Wednesday from 6-8 pm jen bekman will be hosting what promises to be a rather intriguing artist talk. Marisa Olson of Rhizome will moderate a discussion between James Deavin and Eva + Franco Mattes about their respective projects documenting Second Life:Photographs from the New World and 13 Most Beautiful Avatars. Still somewhat mystified by this virtual world, I am anxious to hear what the artists have to say. Find out more about the event here.

To wet your whistle, last week I interviewed James about Hey, Hot Shot!, the show, and Second Life. Today I give you the first half of our little chat. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 and on Wednesday come hear him speak live in the gallery.

And we're off!

Alice: I'm new to this IM thing, at least it's been a while. I just got AIM and I downloaded Adium.

James: ok. well this works. i just like Skype cos they have the best emoticons, they rock

A: Well, I'll have to look into it then...

J: this one doesn't have ANY and that's bad

A: It does the trick... So your show is bringing them in in droves.

J: i see a world in the future when we all communicate solely by emoticons...Oh really? Droves?

A: And they're all asking for you.

J: Alice. I know Jen is putting you up to this.

A: No, I too think it's a bit silly to be so far when there is so much good going on here

J: Well no one has actually told me what i would physically do if i were in NYC...

A: Well, just being here would be enough.

J: erm

A: In the air... Anyways. How about this "interview"?

J: ok

A:You're the first Hot Shot to have a show at jb...That's pretty exciting AND it's a great one at that...Can you sum up in maybe a few sentences how HHS! has changed your life? To really lay it on you...

So that was a big question... Let me start over. Not too long ago you were a Hot Shot, then an Ultra, and now have a solo show that is starting quite a buzz. That's a lot for such a small amount of time.

J: So... HHS! well i just moved to NYC and was looking to meet people you know...

A: Did you enter before you headed this way?

J: No, and to be honest I cannot remember how I found out about the competition either. I thought it was unusual for a gallery to be doing something like this and I wasn't sure how it would develop. I was entering competitions generally, like Art & Commerce Emerging Photographers for instance... anyhow, for me, it got good when i started talking to Jen.

A: How so?

J: Well I like Jen and she is v. helpful in dealing with getting everything happening. Basically I liked working with her... I didn't even know there was an "ultra" part to the competition or the possibility of representation I was just entering competitions to get known.

A Summer 2005 Hot Shot winning image by Deavin

A: HHS! is a thing all it's own--there really is nothing like it, it's true. Did you win any of the other competitions?

J: I got stuff shown at Art & Commerce and quite a lot of stuff back in the UK. That's the thing about HHS!, though, it turns out there is much more of a future to it - the other comps just give you one chance to show in a large group show (like i thought HHS! was too), but it turns out HHS! has a future. . . . It's funny though, the fact that it's not "traditional" is very off-putting to many artists. The art world is so conservative.

A: So true. But because of this a lot of great work gets out there that otherwise perhaps would not get the chance, at least so early on. Do you think HHS! jump started some things for you here in NYC? Or set you on a different track as a photographer?

J: Well sure HHS! got me going gallery-wise in NYC. It's a tough nut to crack and it has given me amazing exposure that I am extremely grateful for...I'm not really on a different track though, I am still doing pretty much my own work and I do not think I have become more "art" orientated than anything else. I still hope my practice is not defined by where it is seen entirely...and I love the idea of growing with a gallery.

A: Photographs from the New World is a pretty, I hate to use the word, provocative show, one that might not have been as easy to sell to just any gallery.

Visit jen bekman on Second Life. Coordinates: Hooper (128, 28, 46)

J: It's perfect for jbg if that is what you mean. I don't know how hard it would have been to "sell" it to other galleries as I never tried... provocative, maybe but its hard to get an appointment at them!

A: It's perfect for jb. We practically live on the web over here...

J: I mean for an emerging photographer you have to show at group shows and befriend people in the industry, you know, pay your dues. HHS! is a different version of this...

A: So true. Trying to focus, sorry. thoughts everywhere.

J: The difficulty, and I know this isn't the point of the interview, is getting everyone else to believe this!

To be continued...

Your name:
Casey Kelbaugh

Age(optional):
32 years inside this head.

Where are you from?
First Princeton, NJ, and then Seattle, WA.

Where do you live now?
East Village, Manhattan

What's your day job?
I am a part-time shepherd.

Which artists inspire you? (Doesn't need to be photographers necessarily)
Leonard Cohen, Sabra Field, Sebastao Salgado, John Currin, Bob Dylan, Greg Lundgren, Andy Goldsworthy, Joseph Campbell, Elinor Carucci, Edward Gorey, Kenneth Josephson, Keith Haring, W. Somerset Maugham, etc.

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
I was into drawing and later, painting. One day in 1997, while studying sumi-e ink painting in Tokyo, I began to feel the frustrations with the medium as well as my own limitations. I took a look at the snapshots I had taken in years previous and the paintings I was making at the time and realized that the photographs were stronger. Once I came to terms with that, my approach to painting was: "What's the point?" Sometimes I think your medium chooses you.

What kind of camera do you use?
The tool changes frequently and gets knocked around pretty good, but at the moment it's a Nikon D200.

What's your favorite film?
An Inconvenient Truth

What's your Favorite Museum?
Manhattan

Who is your hero?
My father

Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
Lou Reed

What are you reading now?
I read all the time and I still can never keep up. Most of my time is spent with periodicals (which is probably a curse,) New York Magazine and News Photographer being some of my favorites.

Favorite color?
Um.

Name at least three websites you visit everyday:
slideluckpotshow.com
lightstalkers.org
worldpicturenews.com

What are your favorite foods?
I cook almost all of my meals and I eat like a king. I guess that means my favorite meals are big bowls of cereal, well-designed sandwiches, pasta dishes, egg scrambles, curries, salads, quesadillas, and barbecue.

Do you have an interesting/obscure hobby? If so, tell us about it.
One hobby I have is a guestbook I have for my apartment. I am determined to make it the most dynamic and memorable of its kind, and to do so, I am hosting some pretty interesting people. If only I could get them to sign the book.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Astrologically I am a Taurus with a Leo rising, and by the Chinese calendar, I am a Tiger. So I guess that makes me part-Tiger, part-Lion, part-Bull and part-Man.

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
I cook in a pretty spontaneous and intuitive way. I date in a similar fashion.

Have you exhibited your work in any other shows? If so, which ones?
I have contributed work to every Slideluck Potshow (http://www.slideluckpotshow.com) since I founded it in Seattle in 2000" which is over 26 slideshows. I have been a part of other shows as well, but Slideluck has been my focus. What better way is there to look at photography than in a slideshow with a room full of people, anyway?

Your name:
Sarah Small

Age(optional):
27 years old

Where are you from?
Washington DC

Where do you live now?
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

What's your day job?
Freelance photographer. So I sit at my computer and edit shoots, build my portfolios, upkeep contact list, and write a never-ending slew of e-mails to magazines' accounting departments for invoices left unpaid for months. :)

Which artists inspire you?
My friend Shara Worden inspires me a lot. She is the singer for a band called "My Brightest Diamond." I think most of my photographic motivation and inspiration comes from friend's musical sparks and successes. Maybe because both of my parents are musicians.

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
When I french-kissed my hot heavy-metal pre-teen boyfriend in a film-loading darkroom after 7th grade at my sleep-away arts camp, Buck's Rock.

What kind of camera do you use?
Canon 5D

What's your favorite film?
Living in Oblivion, Edward Scissors, American Beauty and Pee Wee's Big Adventure

What's your Favorite Museum?
Junk Yards
Friends and Lovers' closets and under-the-bed shoe-boxes
NY Subway

Who is your hero?
Michael Jackson

Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
Nirvana and NIN of course. oooo... and Philip Glass and Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, and :)

What are you reading now?
A Path with Heart, by Jack Kornfield

Favorite color?
To wear: black, gray, beige, brown, and pink
To see in a rock I found at the beach or something: jade and sea-foam green and wine red, purple, and sunny orange.

Name at least three web sites you visit everyday:
www.google.com
www.sarahsmall.com

What are your favorite foods?
Steak, oysters, avocado, stinky stinky stinky cheese, not-too-sweet but very moist chocolate cake, fresh tomato, mozzarella, basil, carrot/beat/ginger/apple juice, complex cabernet/shiraz blends- not to sweet, but a little berry-ful and not to tannin-y

Do you have an interesting/obscure hobby? If so, tell us about it.
I sing in an 8-woman Brooklyn-based Bulgarian Choir, Yasna Voices. We perform lots and practice on Sundays and will be traveling to Bulgaria this summer to study in a small village with Kremena Stancheva and work on all sorts of traditional vocal ornamentations.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
oooo.... some exotic bird that flys real high and sees awesome views all the time or a dolphin maybe to check out the sea all the time. I love underwater, but scuba diving feels so so unnatural to me, but yet I always go back for more. Or, maybe a big black bear with a whole bunch of adorable cubs to protect and a bear husband to hang out with to protect me in the woods at night.

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
I sing with Yasna Voices as mentioned above. I also make my own music at home on Logic.
I take a Polaroid a Day every day for 8 years and plan to continue for life.

Have you exhibited your work in any other shows? If so, which ones?
Yep, lots. I love showing work. :))
Check here:
http://www.sarahsmall.com/index.php?a=3&b=3#4

Your name:
Andrea Chu

Age (optional):
31

Where are you from?
Palo Alto, CA

Where do you live now?
Brooklyn, NY

What's your day job?
Watching the ice cream trucks go by my apartment with my nephew.

Which artists inspire you?
Terri Wefienbach, William Eggelston, and Wong Kar Wei.

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was
something you wanted to pursue seriously:
When my friend Ken corrupted me with stolen film from the photo supply
store we worked at.

What kind of camera do you use?
Mamiya 645 Afd, Hasselblad, and Polaroids (Land Camera and SX-70)

What's your favorite film?
Classic: Umbrellas of Cherborg
Contemporary: Chungking Express

Who is your hero?
My dad

What are your favorite foods?
Rice and soup, Gummi Bears (Haribo-Gold), and my sister-in-law's pasta dishes

What are you reading right now?
Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx

Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
The Jam

Your name:
Raul A. Gutierrez

Age:
39

Where are you from?
I was born in Monterrey, Mexico. Suffered through a childhood in Lufkin, Texas.

Where do you live now?
Brooklyn

What's your day job?
Media & Design Consultant

Which artists inspire you?
Paul Klee, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Kurt Schwitters, Garry Winogrand etc...

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
Literally since I got back my first roll of film which happened when I was around 8.

What kind of camera do you use?
Nikon FM3 and a Maymiya 7 (amongst others).

What's your favorite film?
Classic: Toss up between The Third Man and Wages of Fear
Contemporary: Toss up between Broadway Danny Rose and The Heroic Trio

What's your Favorite Museum?
Museo Picasso

Who is your hero?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Who's your favorite musical artist/group?
That's sort of an impossible question.

What are you reading now?
Best American Short Stories 2005.

Favorite color?
I like the deep blue the sky turns just before it goes black.

Name at least three web sites you visit everyday:
bbc
boingboing
wfmu blog
kirchersociety

What are your favorite foods?
I can't resist the traditional foods of Northern Mexico: Cabrito, carne asada, barbacoa... grilled meat basically.

Do you have an interesting/obscure hobby? If so, tell us about it.
I collect taxidermy (although less since my marriage) and Mexican ex-votos.

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
I'm a big fan of the illustrated letter.

Your name:
Donna Alberico

Age:
32

Where are you from?
Merrick, Long Island

Where do you live now?
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

What's your day job?
Worrying where my next freelance photo job is coming from.

Which artists inspire you?:
Eugene Richards, Nick Waplington, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Sebastiao Salgado

Describe that moment when you knew for sure that photography was something you wanted to pursue seriously:
My first day of b/w photo class in 10th grade

What kind of camera do you use:
Mamiya 7, can't seem to stop shooting film and now a canon 20D (just started shooting digitally)

What are you reading now?
My travel guide to Southeast Asia (going in October for a month to shoot and explore)

Favorite color?
Blue

Name at least three web sites you visit everyday:
nytimes.com
weather.com
google.com

What are your favorite foods?
Chocolate, mango, bagels

Do you do any artsy stuff besides photography?
Knitting, and writing in my journal if that's considered artsy

Have you exhibited your work in any other shows? If so, which ones?
Yes, at Momenta Gallery and Rotunda Gallery (both in Brooklyn)

Your name:
Michael Itkoff

Age:
25

Where are you from?
Philadelphia

Where do you live now?
NYC (East Harlem)

What's your day job? (if you have one)
Founding Editor, Daylight Magazine

Which artists inspire you?:
Sternfeld, Soth, Southam, Struffsky, Riebesehl, Evans, Frank, Christenberry, Eggleston, Misrach.

What kind of camera do you use?
Mamiya 7

What's your Favorite Museum?
Please Touch Museum

What are you reading now?
New Yorker / Transparent Things (Nabakov)

Favorite color?
Charcoal violet

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Wolf