Comings and Goings, a multifaceted project by Spring 2007 Hot Shot Casey Orr, takes many different forms. First, it is a project comprised of three distinct groups of images: birds, migrant women, and prison inmates and their families. Second, it is an exhibition that was on view on the walls, both inside and outside, of Her Majesty's Prison in Leeds in 2009. Third, it is a forthcoming book to be published this summer in collaboration with Leeds City Museums, where Orr is currently the artist-in-residence.

Untitled by Casey Orr

In whichever context you view Comings and Goings, Orr makes a point about beings trapped in alien environments and how communication helps bridge barriers and connect one to the community. Birds also serve an underlying linguistic theme; as Orr writes, "Birds are linked through semantics to the other series in the work. Women are birds, prisoners are known as jail birds, and people—like birds—migrate and nest."

The inmates Orr photographed at the Leeds' prison were allowed to sit with their families during a specially arranged visit for a studio portrait that allowed cuddling, intimacy and space away from their jail cells. Each prisoner subsequently received a print of the family photograph to be hung in their cells, and the images were displayed on the prison's public-facing walls. Martin Wainwright of The Guardian wrote of the project last year, stating:

The prisoners will not see the wall - taking them outside in handcuffs and under guard was reckoned demeaning and impractical - but they have a scaled-down version now brightening up the visiting room...These are already firming up family ties, and the exhibition, entitled Comings and Goings, makes a point about that, which everyone involved echoes. Armley's inmates and their families are part of the local community too.

The act of being documented with their families in and of itself reiterates that family is not limited by physical barriers, and the public exhibition offers the prisoners hope that they can be viewed as individuals who are part of a larger network.

To see more work by Casey, hop on over to her portfolio.

Such a strange phenomenon: I'll try my hardest to block out a too-much-information (TMI) conversation happening in shared public space, like a talking-too-loud person on a subway or elevator. But, then I'll find myself sneakily side-glancing, rapt with attention at those details that are meant to be somewhat private, like straining to see what book someone's reading, or what they're texting in the seat next to me.

Porn and Haagen Dazs? by Kelly Shimoda

Thank photographer Kelly Shimoda, who can finally save me from myself (at least in this regard). A Spring 2007 Hot Shot, Shimoda is showing one of our favorite bodies of her work that addresses exactly this quixotic contradiction of modern life at Carrie Haddad Photographs in Hudson, New York.

From the press release:

Kelly Shimoda's photographic series, I guess you don't want to talk to me anymore, is a documentation of mobile phone text messages by and to people she has encountered - both those familiar to her and strangers. The 8 x 10 inch images provide the viewer an intimate look at this form of communication that is fleeting by design and rarely seen by anyone other than the original author or intended recipient.

For many, texting has become a way to avoid the most uncomfortable parts of face-to-face interaction or even talking on the telephone. They often feel liberated to spontaneously communicate intimate and revealing thoughts, but by being forced to encapsulate those thoughts in a mere 160 characters, the best messages read like haiku poems - brief, but full of meaning.

In the end, these enigmatic photographs ask as many questions as they answer, and force the viewer/reader to reflect and draw upon his or her own experience to make sense of them, ultimately pointing to the fundamentally fragile nature of human communication.

Lunar Eclipse by Kelly Shimoda

Architect in office across hall clearly does not remember... by Kelly Shimoda

When Kelly participated in our Summer Reading show last August, we likened the experience of these images to the infamous site Texts From Last Night. While there are some shared similarities of late night booty-calls, random non-sequiturs, and the odd confession, these "text portraits" have the effect of elevating the mundane by creating an object from it. In the process, they also draw our attention to a particular kind of nuanced ephemerality, rich with intended and unintended emotional layers. A pick-me-up care message from mom, a grocery trip update, a quick meditation on the intangibles of the sex act—the effect of visiting each of these received communiqués is not just that you also received the information, dear viewer, but that you're now a part of this collective universal culled from the minutely particular, the ability to fuse the two is the inherent charm of Kelly's work.

Photographs by Kelly Shimoda
Carrie Haddad Photographs
On view: March 11 - April 18, 2010
318 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534

Lastly, If you didn't snatch up Kelly's red-hot edition on 20x200 (only one print left!), she also has an image up for sale as part of the excellent Collect[dot]Give project, where photographers donate an edition and all the proceeds to a worthy charity of their choosing.

Before lunch: Flaccanicco, Italy by Kelly Shimoda

Kelly's edition for sale through the site will benefit Start Small. Think Big., Inc, which works to empower low-income working families in the South Bronx, New York to increase their economic opportunities and build sustainable financial independence.

Image from Clint Baclawski's Hype/White series

Brooklyn design center 3rd Ward is hosting an exhibition of The Best Emerging Photographers on October 16th from 7-10 p.m.. One of the esteemed twenty-six photographers selected happens to be Spring 2007 Hot Shot, Clint Baclawski. Clint's photographs, typically of trade fairs and commercial exhibitions, are mounted in large lightboxes. Their solid presence and mechanical glow activate the space around them in a way most conventionally framed prints cannot, and wryly comment on the subject matter of the photographs themselves.

2009 Fall Group Show // The Best Emerging Photographers
3rd Ward | 195 Morgan Ave | Brooklyn, New York

View more of Clint's work on his website.

Slideluck Potshow XIII, the slideshow + potluck event brought to you by Spring 2006 Hot Shot Casey Kelbaugh, will host it's 8th gathering tomorrow evening—Thursday, August 6th at Canoe Studios (601 West 26th St., Suite 1465) in Chelsea.

This newest installment of Slideluck Potshow, which begins with the potluck component at 6:30 p.m., will feature 2009 First Edition Hot Shot Parsley Steinweiss, Spring 2007 Hot Shot and Summer Reading artist Kelly Shimoda, JBG favorite Brian Ulrich, and many others. Swing by with your best home-cooked specialty and see some great presentations featuring the following artists:

Myriam Abdelaziz, Kyohei Abe, Christopher Anderson/Magnum, Rob Ball, Yasmina Belkacem, Eric Cheng, Carlos Ciccelli , Gregory Crewdson/Luhring Augustine, Alinka Echeverria, Shepard Fairey, Tim Hetherington, Edith Maybin, Peter Mullaney, Christoph Niemann, Claudio Papapietro, Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum, Platon, Alex Prager/Yancey Richardson, Jing Quek/Josette Lata, Kim Reierson, Benjamin Rusnak, Jonah Samson, Emily Schiffer, Kelly Shimoda, Pete Souza, Parsley Steinweiss, Phillip Toledano, Brian Ulrich, D.A. Wagner, Erin Wigger, Robin F. Williams, Kristiina Wilson, Lisa Wiseman, Michael Wolf/Aperture, James Worrel, Robert Wright

We also want to congratulate Casey and the Slideluck Potshow team on receiving official non-profit status a few weeks ago, and for being named as one of the "most rule-breaking, model-changing ideas" in New York as featured on All Day Buffet.

The Center for Photography at Woodstock's Photography Now 2009, an annual exhibit curated this year by Charlotte Cotton, head of the photography department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will open June 13th featuring the work of eight selected photographers.

Photographers on exhibit include:
Alex Aristei, Spring 2007 Hot Shot Clint Baclawski, Shane Lavalette, 2008 2nd Edition Hot Shot Yijun Liao, Betsy Seder, Lacey Terrell, Stacey Tyrell, and Toshihiro Yashiro.

Congratulations to all! Their will be an opening reception at CPW on Saturday June 13 from 5 - 7pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibit, which will remain on view through July 26th.

Center for Photography at Woodstock
59 Tinker Street Woodstock, New York 12498
June 13th, 2009, 5-7 p.m.

The Open Society Institute's Documentary Photography Project has opened their 2009 competition for distribution grants ranging from $5,000 - $30,000. Eligible photographers must have already completed a body of work surrounding issues of social justice, and would use the grant in partnership with a non-profit organization, NGO, or a community-based organization as a means for enacting social change through photography.

Former Hot Shot, Nina Berman was awarded an OSI Distribution Grant in 2005, surrounding her body of work, Purple Hearts, exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery during the Fall, 2008. She used her grant to travel around the country with injured former soldier, Robert Acosta, making multimedia presentations to high school and collage-aged audiences where there is active military recruitment.

Please visit the website for additional information about eligibility, to apply, and to learn about previous grantees. Applications will be accepted until June 19, 2009.

Nina Berman, a 2007 Hot Shot who has had two solo shows at Jen Bekman Gallery (Homeland and Purple Hearts), presents her work at Unite and Untie, an exhibit opening Friday, February 27th at the Houston Center for Photography. The images in this series reflect Berman's exploration into "issues of militarism, security and identity in contemporary America" and her own sense of confusion and conflict over what patriotism and security mean in the modern age. Works by Chris Sims, Toby Morris, Mark Bagge and Benjamin Lowy will also be on view.

From the press release,

Unite and Untie is a group exhibition addressing the civil unrest in the Middle East and its ripple effects throughout the world. Beyond the grotesque wallpaper of war imagery we are shown daily by the media are images conflict by photographers who aim to create a new version of contemporary war photography devoid of combat.

Houston Center for Photography
Friday, February 27th, 2009
6-8 p.m.

The work will remain on view through March 29, 2009.

See works from Homeland, exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery in the fall of 2008.
Buy Berman's editions 9-11-02 and G.I. Goat on 20x200.
Nina Berman's website.

Images from Karolina Karlic's series Close to Home

Forgive me if I'm a little late reporting this one, but I just happened upon a link to Spring '07 Hot Shot and 20x200 artist, Karolina Karlic (her edition print, Katarina, has only one print left!). Karolina was interviewed for the photography blog, Feature Shoot. The blog is run by photo editor (and photographer) Alison Zavos who possesses a keen eye and a smart interviewing style. You can easily lose an hour or two scrolling through them. I double dare you to read just one.
Karolina's site is well worth a visit, while you're at it.

Boy and Girl at U.S. Marines Recruiting Event, Orchard Beach, The Bronx, New York, 2007 by Nina Berman

Spring 2007 Hot Shot Nina Berman just wrapped up a show, Homeland, at the JB Gallery. She's not one to pause for long so it's hard to keep up with her. Yesterday's interview with David Schonauer of America Photo fills us in on some of Nina's recent work, including the image above. It begins:

Each Memorial Day, New York City celebrates Fleet Week. Navy vessels dock on the Hudson River, fighter jets roar overhead, and sailors disembark for shore leave. 'Usually I just shoot them wandering through Times Square,' says photojournalist Nina Berman. In 2007, however, Berman went to Orchard Beach, a park in the Bronx, for what was billed as Marine Day.

'Helicopters flew over and landed, and the soldiers came out with a tarp filled with weapons,' recalls Berman. 'Families gathered, and the Marines painted the kids' faces in camouflage. Little girls and boys were posing with rifles. There was a kind of gangster vibe -- kids saying, 'Hey, this is what they used in Scarface!'

The pictures Berman made that day -- advanced military weaponry in the happy hands of children painted as warriors -- capture a sense of absurdity and danger that often passes unnoticed in the social fabric of post-9/11 America.

Read the rest of the interview here. Nina also recently published the book Homeland that encompasses this work, a project spanning 7 years and the entire country.

Scathing and confrontational, Spring 2007 Hot Shot Nina Berman's exhibit, Homeland, opens at Jen Bekman Gallery this Friday, October 24th, and consists of images culled as she photographed across the United States during the last seven years of the Bush Administration.

The image above, 9-11-02, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2002, is one of my favorites from the show. It was released as a 20x200 edition in March earlier this year, so I've had plenty of time to look at it and have yet to grow tired of it, in fact, I return to it as a breath of fresh air when news and coverage of the Iraq War, the elections, Israel and Palestine, natural disasters (this list could go on for awhile) become overwhelming. When all of this clatter is incessant, images like this photograph keep me from becoming apathetic. That little hand and that little flag flapping under the nose of that ominous camera are so hopeful and optimistic against that gray sky.

9-11-02, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2002, also provides a counterpoint for Nina's other photographs, like the above, Little Patriots, Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, 2003. This boy on his bike is almost as frightening, (possibly more) than the camera hovering in the sky because he gives you NO room to breathe.

Tyler Green on Modern Art Notes is collecting images of flags from curators, editors, and bloggers over the next week or so. Nina's 9-11-02, Shanksville, Pennsylvania has been featured via Cigarettes and Purity. See the rest of the round-up on MAN this week and see the rest of Nina's show at the JB Gallery, opening tomorrow, Friday, October 24 from 6-8 p.m @ 6 Spring Street, NYC.

Katarina, from Hot Shot Karolina Karlic's Dear Diary series

Spring '07 Hot Shot, Ne Plus Ultra, and 20x200 contributor Karolina Karlic is in a show. Work from Karlic's Dear Diary series is up now through November 8 at the Independent Feature Project in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The IFP notes:

The lush large scale prints of ... Karolina Karlic radiate a sensuality revealing everyday lives longing for meaning and connection.

...

Intrigued by the motivations of those that post Internet classifieds through "Missed Connections" on Craig's List, Karolina Karlic sought out the posters to create her images. Perhaps by helping to complete their need for connection she was able to draw them into collaboration to make photographs of vulnerability and longing in our contemporary world of impersonal Internet communication.

On the art-inspired-by Craigslist ads note, check out the songs of Gabriel Kahane's "Craigslistlieder." The music has been touted as, "His song cycle, Craigslistlieder, art-song settings of eight anonymous posts he found on the ubiquitous personals/classifieds website Craigslist, has won over fans and critics with its affiliation of raucous pop culture and deft high-art craft. " And it is true. Perhaps it's time for a music and photo show for Karlic and Kahane together.

P.S. Only one print is left from Karlic's 20x200 edition (pictured above)!

P.P.S. Full disclosure: I shot some photos for Kahane's recent album.

Thinking about applying to be a Hot Shot? Maybe you just think that you are a hot shot? Here is some news about two interesting opportunities for competitive photographers:

PDNedu Student Photo Contest 2009
Deadline: September 22, 2008 (I'm a little confused, because parts of their site say that the deadline is September 22 and other parts say to enter by December 7, 2008. I'm looking into confirming the correct date and will report back.)

Students can submit a single image or a series, up to six images per entry in the following categories:
FASHION/PORTRAITURE, DOCUMENTARY/PHOTOJOURNALISM, STILL LIFE, TRAVEL/LANDSCAPE, and FINE ART/PERSONAL WORK.

Prizes include a feature in the Spring 2009 issue of PDNedu and on pdnedu.com, some winners will be featured in a Web Gallery. Five Grand Prize winners, one per category, will receive a Nikon digital camera and a Crumpler bag. Student winners will also be displayed in an exhibit at next year's Society for Photographic Education Conference to be held March 26-29, 2009, in Dallas, TX. All winners and honorable mentions will get a one-year subscription to PDN.

Fraction Magazine Issue 4 Group Show
"Please read the following guidelines carefully. Deviating from these will make the work ineligible."

They continue:

The theme for the show is Typologies. The typology has become a major part of the history of photography as well as a major force in contemporary photography. We wanted to see what the current state of the typology is and how current artists are using it.
The show will include up to 20 artists and each artist will have 3 pieces of work up, a link to their website (if you have one), and contact information.

Here are the rules for submission:

1. Make sure your work actually falls under the category of Typology.

2. Send us three images that are 700 pixels on the longest side.

3. Make sure they are in a jpg format. No PSDs no TIFFs no GIFs.

4. Send them in an email to us at fractionmag@gmail.com Make sure the subject of your email is Group Show. Please include your name, website address (if you have one) and an email address where you can be reached.

5. The deadline for submission is October 10th. We will decide on the final artists by October 15th. Publication of Issue 4 will be in early November.

The ever helpful Rachel Hulin discusses "typologies" in the context of this contest. Go look and then go enter!

Yesterday's 20x200 blog was awash in Hey, Hot Shot! goodness.

First, Kara posted about two Hot Shots, Kelly Shimoda (Spring '07) and James Rajotte (Summer '06), who frequently shoot for the New York Times these days.

Then, Jen announced a special Monday edition of 20x200, by current Hot Shot Kate Orne. Orne's edition is also a benefit for a recently established school for the children of sexworkers in Pakistan which was founded under the umbrella of Sheed Society (an organization Orne founded to address the social issues particular, not to mention particularly brutal, to Pakistani sexworkers.

by Hot Shot Robert Knight

It is shaping up to be a busy summer for Hot Shots from all seasons. Summer '05 Hot Shot Robert Knight was just part of a two-man show titled Things I've Seen, put together by student curator Simeon Durham, of the Hyde Leadership Academy. Knight's photographs explore the personal space of the bedroom. The exhibit was up at ARTSPACE, a non-profit organization presenting local and national visual art, provides access, excellence and education for the benefit of the public and the arts community in New Haven.

You can see some of Robert's interiors work on his well-designed website and you can purchase an edition at 20x200.

Spring '07 Hot Shot Daniel Traub reports that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has acquired four images from his City's Edge series. The very series that won him a spot in Hey, Hot Shot!

Traub was also recently included in the PDN 30 2008 - one of 30 "new and emerging photographers to watch," by Photo District News.

And he's not the only Hot Shot featured on that illustrious list. Fall '07 Hot Shot Birthe Piontek and Fall '06 Hot Shot Shen Wei are honored there too.

Marine Wedding, by Sping '07 Hot Shot Nina Berman, installation view.

Spring '07 Hot Shot, and all-around hot shot, Nina Berman will speak on an Aperture panel at this weekend's New York Photo Festival. As I've already implored, you MUST go to the festival, and when you're there, be sure to catch Nina talking with Vicki Goldberg and Claire Beckett at Aperture Presents: Picturing Iraq. There should be more public discussion of images of this war; I expect a great conversation with this trio.

We start this series of catching-up interviews with Spring '07 Hot Shot Mark Marchesi, who has a solo show now at Nelson Hancock Gallery.

How did you come to enter Hey, Hot Shot!?

MM: I had stopped by a couple of openings at Jen Bekman Gallery when I still lived in NYC, which was around the time she opened. Then I moved to Maine and became a father and was pretty far removed from the scene for a while. I was making work and when that work was ready to show I started compiling a list of contacts to send stuff to. I remembered about Jen Bekman Gallery, and went to the site to see if it mentioned anything about submissions. There was Hey, Hot Shot! and it said that the competition was the only way she was reviewing new photography. It happened to be just before the deadline for the Spring competition, so I entered.

What have you been up to since we last saw your work in Hey, Hot Shot?

MM: Last summer and fall I was shooting a lot of abandoned military forts in Maine and New Hampshire. I was really excited about that for a while, but I stalled out on it for several reasons when winter hit. I was also working on a pretty involved promotional mailing and a book proposal. Before the new year I was offered the opportunity to show at Nelson Hancock Gallery, and for two months all my free time was taken up by printing and framing. I build all my own frames from scratch, so as soon as Nelson and I firmed up a date I went to work cutting, gluing, and sanding. I also make all my own digital c-prints, so there was a lot of work to do on the files. Now that I am done with that, and I don't need snowshoes and a parka to go shooting anymore, I am getting back out with my camera. My main focus right now is on a new project about working waterfronts and commercial fishing communities in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.

What kind of impact did Hey, Hot Shot! have on your career?

MM: This question is a little difficult because I don't always feel like I actually have a career in photography. I am definitely trying to start one, and Hey, Hot Shot! was a step that I am glad I took that direction. Whenever you present your work there is a thought process you must go through which is valuable no matter what the outcome. Entering these types of calls forces you to get outside of your own head, which is necessary at times for a lot of us. Hey, Hot Shot! didn't launch me into art stardom, but it was a great experience. I got to know Jen who I have a lot of respect for, along with the other winners, some of whom I am still in touch with and continue to get feedback from. I am also happy that it gave (and is still giving) me a lot of exposure on the internet. Lastly, the positive reinforcement of actually winning something is always good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nina Berman
Karolina Karlic
Brad Moore
Birthe Piontek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A selection of photos from the Spring '07 Hot Shots. More info here

Please join us tonight, Wednesday June 13, 2007 from 6pm-8pm, at an opening reception in honor of the Spring '07 edition Hot Shots:

jen bekman
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

Can't make it tonight? (Boo!) The exhibition will be on view Thursday through Sunday, June 14-17. Gallery hours are Noon-6pm.

Administrative side note: Ms. Wells finished college (Congrats to her!) and is now in Europe getting her art on before she moves to NYC permanently.

Regular posting to resume soon-ish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Bump in the Road by Spring HS Clint Baclawski

Clint Baclawski
Currently residing in Boston, MA

website: http://www.clintb.com

Work Statement
My most current work depicts a spectacular American culture saturated with large-scale color imagery, consumerism, and forward momentum. The attractions featured in this series are both novel and commonplace, including parades, reenactments, fairs, and trade shows in ordinary communities around our country every day. Each event is transitory, challenging me to capture a single image before that scene is forever altered. Photographing multiple frames at each location allows me to draw out fragmented cinematic feeling narratives between the subjects and their environments by seamlessly compositing them together.

Defying conventional framing techniques, my photographs appear in large (40x50x12inches), wooden, double-sided (one image on each side), freestanding light boxes. They strive to capture the attention of the fast-paced onlooker in our image-glutted world. Taken out of context and into a gallery setting, I encourage the viewers to experience the work from multiple perspectives. One has to bend, crouch, and circulate the work in order to see its entirety. This movement leads to the discovery that although the two images on either side are the same; one photograph is reversed, thus, horizontally resembling the effects of a mirror. The height restraints of the box are set to the level that spectators on the opposing sides have to face one another as they view the work. This shift from passive reception to active participation mimics the subjects in the photographs.

Bio
Clint Baclawski was born in Lewisburg Pennsylvania (a twin in fact), in 1981. He currently resides and works in Boston, MA where he is pursuing his MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art, expected 2008. He received his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) in 2004. Additionally, Clint has traveled and photographed extensively in the United States, Cuba, and Northern Ireland. To know more about Clint, visit: www.clintb.com

Pfc. Adam Zaremba by Spring HS Nina Berman

Nina Berman
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: http://www.ninaberman.com

Work Statement
I'm a documentary photography interested in the American political and social landscape. I started as a writer wanting to tell stories but found myself increasingly frustrated with the act of writing and would edit myself into oblivion. I chose instead to make images because I felt the process was inexact and I enjoyed not knowing for sure if what I felt and hoped to convey actually came through in the photograph. Now I intentionally seek the ambiguity of a photograph's meaning and welcome the conversation generated by imagery that has multiple interpretations. I have no formal training other than a dark room course long ago at the New School. I am submitting images of those wounded in wartime. I made the photographs in an attempt to explore the myths of warfare and offer images that strip the warrior of heroic sentiment.

Bio
I was born in NYC. I was moved by my parents when I was in grade school to the suburbs of New Jersey for the excellent public schools which I thoroughly despised and left high school early. I went to college at the University of Chicago where I started taking pictures inspired by the work of filmmakers, photographers and writers. I returned to New York, got a journalism degree at Columbia University, and have worked as a freelance photographer for magazines ever since. I've won a few big photojournalisim awards, an Open Society Institute grant and a NYFA fellowship.

Chris Austin's nail accident by Spring HS Michael Julius

Michael Julius
Currently residing in Interlachen, FL

website: http://mjulius.com

Work Statement
The pictures I am submitting are from a work in progress, Rescuing Putnam. The completed work will reflect approximately ten years of my experience as a paramedic in the rural south of North Central Florida.

In this project I have looked at the charged environment of emergencies and the quiet spaces between looking for a presence that is difficult to define but permeates this rarefied environment. I am also interested in showing the evolution of a community through its rapid growth and how it has affected emergency services and its personnel. This work is an attempt to honor something significant and essential despite the rapid pace of change.

Bio
I grew up in a small town in Indiana and attended Indiana University for a while. I studied Anthropology before leaving to live on the West Coast. Since then I have been employed at various jobs around the country and briefly overseas until I came to Florida in the late 90's. I am now 35 years old.

Rosa Parks Blvd by Spring HS Karolina Karlic

Karolina Karlic
Currently residing in Minneapolis, MN

website: http://karolinakarlic.com

Work Statement
"Why did we come here?" I asked years later. It was probably the first time my father answered any of my questions truly from his heart. "You should never abandon your home," he said. I realized his regret, in "jumping the gun", losing friends, family, and career, while gaining a life for his daughter. Just as my father built pride in his life here in America, I cherish the remarkable circumstances that the people of Detroit endure.

The resulting work is my continued quest to understand how pervasively Detroit and its people have transformed me into who I am today, and have continued to push me away from where my parents came from.

I continue to attempt to define myself and have a fascination with the unappreciated or those with great desires.

My inspiration comes through my research on master painters of Poland whom never received acknowledgement in their lifetime and from within the writings of ethnographic studies.

Bio
On the streets of Detroit in 1990, I was a white girl exactly where I should be. My family emigrated from Poland in the late 80's. As a young girl my father would say, "We came here for you." At the time Poland was under communist rule and my father, as an engineer, and a highly educated man, still had to wait in line for bread for more than a day to provide for his family. As smart as he was, he understood that he could do great things in the auto industry, especially in the land of opportunity.

I always carried a camera, fascinated with recording my life, while analyzing and holding onto what could be lost moments. My memories form Poland stayed in Poland and my experiences here were not a part of my history but a start to my new understanding of this beginning.

I received my BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Benno Schmidt, Portland Harbor by Spring HS Mark Marchesi

Mark Marchesi
Currently residing in South Portland, ME

website: http://www.markmarchesi.com

Work Statement
I have recently wrapped up shooting on a three year project titled "The Town and the City" It is inspired by Jack Kerouac's classic literary work which is set in a dying Massachusetts mill town. The novel stuck a chord and filled me with nostalgia for a time when New England mill towns thrived and the word "home" was not just a term used by developers to sell more houese. I am now beginning work on a project titled "The Maritimes" which explores the seafaring cultures of the North Atlantic and the stoic individuals who depend on commercial fishing for their livelihood. In addition, my series "Friends and Strangers" is an ongoing exercise in classical large format portrait photography.

Bio
Mark Marchesi was born in 1977 and raised in Rye, New York. He moved to Portland, Maine in 1995 to attend Maine College of Art and graduated in '99 with a BFA in photography. Mark's photos have been exhibited in group shows all around the country- most notably Unframed First Look at Sean Kelley Gallery and W Behind the Lens Competition Finalists show at Spike Gallery in 2004. In 2006 Mark received a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to support his project "The Town and the City". Currently Mark lives and works in South Portland, Maine.

Fishing, Leeds, Yorkshire by Spring HS Casey Orr

Casey Orr
Currently residing in Leeds, UK

website: http://www.caseyorr.com/

Work Statement
My work is about journeys, lines, grids, America and my personal narrative, unconscious flows, and how man interacts with nature for the benefit of commerce. I'm often responding to the fact that I no longer live in America. I'm constantly exploring this separation from my own culture, landscape and family. These photographs are from a series called By Water. On July 7th of last year I rode my bicycle from my home in Leeds, England, 127 miles along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, to Liverpool where I boarded The Independent Venture, a container ship. Ten days and 3500 miles later we docked in Chester, Pennsylvania, my birthplace. By Water is a series of photographs about that journey, about how water connects us, how it linked us historically through wool, cotton, tobacco, and slavery and how it links us now through the often invisible movements of goods. The photographs are also about time; killing time and wasting time. The three I've sent you are of fishermen along this journey, all waiting for a bite.

Bio
I was born in 1968 and am originally from Pennsylvania. I grew up around West Chester and Wilmington, Delaware. I have a BA from Goddard College in Vermont where I studied art and made up games to get through the long winters. I've lived in England for 13 years. I'm a photographer, artist, mother, and teacher. I've been taking pictures since I was 15 but I've been watching the world around me change out of all recognition since I can remember.

Alexandria, Carlito, and Shayne, Jackson Street, 2006 by Spring HS Justin James Reed

Justin James Reed
Currently residing in Philadelphia, PA

website: http://justinjamesreed.com

Work Statement
I moved to South Philadelphia about two years ago from rural Idaho. It was quite a shock to be in an urban inner city again, and I was surprised by how put off I was by the environment. It was only until I started exploring this specific part of Philadelphia at dusk that I was able to approach it as a photographic subject. Exploring streets and finding isolated moments of serenity became my way of coming to terms with this city. I became interested in the relationship between evacuated spaces, and contained lives in the cityscape. Focusing on the young people that live here is another way of revealing quiet beauty under a rough exterior. Through juxtaposition of portraits with the lived environment a more personal vision of this hostile terrain presents itself. By focusing on South Philadelphia's individual aspects I am documenting the place that I see, and am now proud to call home.

Bio
Born. 1980 Boring, Oregon

My family moved all over America for much of my childhood, and I ended up in Minneapolis at the age of 17. It was there that a great friend gave me my first camera, a 1972 Nikkormat. After a few years of personal practice, I decided to pursue photography from a more academic angle at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. After graduation I worked as both a commercial photographer, and as a printer for Alec Soth. These experiences helped to solidify my interest in pursuing my own work. So I headed for greener pastures (read living on a lake in the middle of the woods) in Idaho. After a year of solitude and a lot of shooting, I moved to Philadelphia. I am currently in the process of finishing up my Masters at Temple University's Tyler School of Art.

Untitled (Roxy) by Spring HS Kelly Shimoda

Kelly Shimoda
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY

website: http://www.kellyshimoda.com

Work Statement
I capture images to feed my obsession with the intricacies of human behavior. I am fascinated by the way that humans interact with their environments: how they construct spaces for themselves and others, how they move through those spaces, and how those spaces become reflections of their inhabitants. Through both still and moving images, I examine encounters, moments, and arrangements of objects that reveal patterns in our collective actions, and insight into our collective psychology. I am interested in finding and sharing images that resonate with viewers emotionally, such that they might feel more connected to the world, or gain a deeper level of awareness about themselves and their surroundings. I want to challenge people to slow down, reflect, and hopefully gain some degree of introspection.

Bio
I grew up in Connecticut, and got my first camera - a Kodak disc - in elementary school. Though it wasn't until I was living in Barcelona in 2000 that I picked up a camera more seriously. I loved the life there and started taking a picture a day to be able to remember it all, which propelled me to think about photography more seriously. The consistency of thinking about and looking for images hiding in the everyday helped me to translate the way I see in my head onto film. I also discovered that the camera was a way to ask strangers questions, which satisfied a lot of my curiosities. It took me a few more years before I quit my corporate job and made the leap.

I completed the ICP's Certificate Program in Documentary Photography/Photojournalism in 2005 and co-founded the photo collective/agency, Veras Images (www.verasimages.com). I have since been published in the New York Times and Le Monde 2, among others. In 2006, I received an Honorable Mention in The Magenta Foundation's Emerging Photographers competition, was selected for the Soho Photo Gallery's National Competition Exhibition. This past February I received a Johnson & Johnson Photography Fellowship to shoot in Latin America.

Prior to ICP, I spent six years in international education and communications. Before that I graduated from Brown University with a BA in Latin American Studies and American Civilization. I currently live in Brooklyn and am 31.

Migrant Community, Shanghai 2006 by Spring HS Daniel Traub

Daniel Traub
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: http://www.danieltraub.net

Work Statement
City's Edge

I am drawn to the peripheries of China's cities - the strange and nebulous region where urban and rural China meet. This landscape is emblematic of China as a whole: unresolved, abrasive , contradictory. Here, the wealthiest Chinese live in 'Mc Mansions' - cookie-cutter villas beside migrant workers who can only afford to erect shanties on temporarily vacant land. We see manicured lawns and golf courses extravagantly watered next to parched farmland and polluted dumping grounds.

There is a stage-set quality to the built environment. The architecture seems two-dimensional, garish and impermanent. There are plastic palm trees, Greco-Roman columns, billboards showing American football players, advertisements for dazzling new apartment complexes, bunkers left from WWII and ancient tombs. The people with their gestures seem theatrical, as if eager to appear in step with these new backdrops. Others seem absorbed in their thoughts, lonely, stunned by this new world that has suddenly appeared.

In photographing this phenomena, I ask certain questions: what will develop from this mix of cultural traditions and symbols? Will something distinct and authentic emerge? I search for awkward moments and juxtapositions, scenes in which elements coalesce to offer a glimpse of something new and undefined. Photographing this environment becomes a way of gazing back into history as well as a method of decoding the future, with its possibilities and dangers.

Bio
Daniel Traub is an American photographer and filmmaker that has been based in China since 1999. As a photographer he has been engaged with long term projects including a body of work entitled Simplified Characters which explores the transformation of China's cities through street portraits and urban scenes and the large format series City's Edge which looks at the border region where urban and rural China meet. His images have been exhibited in Asia and the United States and have appeared in various publications including the New York Times Magazine, Telegraph Magazine and Wallpaper*.

Traub received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1994 and received an MFA in Photography from School of Visual Arts, New York in 1998 where he studied with Joel Sternfeld and Raghubir Singh.

Businessman, Jamaica Plain, MA, 2007 by Shane Lavalette

Today I offer up two aspiring Hot Shots, not just to make up for lost moments or because Spring HS's will be announced tomorrow, but because hopefuls Shane Lavalette and Greg Wasserstrom make a pretty perfect pair. Both are staple stop-offs in the web's wide world of photography, have great names, are young and talented, and they star in a show that opened earlier this month in our nation's capital.

You are probably familiar with Shane, I spotlighted his work last edition, and even then mentioned the fact that it would be an impossible task to ignore Mr. Lavalette––he's everywhere. He keeps a beyond read-worthy blog and he can often be found lurking in fellow friends' comments. Just like yesterday's Maria Passarotti, Shane is engaged with nature's role in the modern landscape. He says:

It’s not simply the untouched or, conversely, the artificial landscape that I look to address in my work but the subtle ways in which every-day modern life and nature come together. I recognize that I am largely disconnected from the natural environment, and struggling – in my recognition of man’s pervasive presence, a presence that is largely overlooked – to re-define my relationship with what is ultimately home.

Untitled (Star Maps) by Greg Wasserstrom

Greg too has quite the photosphere presence. If you're a fan of his work and want to be a friend, take a look at his Amazon Wish List––also good for a tempt towards a little splurge. This edition Greg submitted from his series La Brea, a body of work produced while on stay in LA. In his words:

I try to resist taking anything too seriously and attempt to make images that, while hopefully a tad bit provocative, avoid the trap of popular or predictable political narratives. Rather than make a distinct point, I want my pictures to stimulate free-association.

If you find yourself in D.C. this month, do check out Take Us Anywhere, But Take Us Now with Shane Lavalette, Greg Wasserstrom, and Bryan Schutmaat.

Take Us Anywhere, But Take Us Now
May 12 - 31 @ Warehouse Gallery, Washington, DC

Forest by Maria Passarotti

The clock ticks, winners will be announced on Tuesday, the anticipation is agonizing, and I am slacking in my spotlighting––but an excuse I do have. Yesterday I finished off four fun filled years in pursuit of my BFA, today I find my brain a bungled mess. Allow me to pass the mic to aspiring Hot Shot Maria Passarotti.

I have always been intrigued by the intersection of man and nature. Growing up in suburbia, I became aware of the imprint individuals leave on their land, nature's undeniable presence, as well as the abundance of iconic architectural elements that fill our landscape. As an artist, I've turned to the urban and suburban landscape as my subject and inspiration. Using photography as a medium I try not to document this landscape but to create magical interpretations of everyday, mundane spaces. I look for beauty in the combination of man-made and natural materials seeking images where these elements peacefully coexist or one aggressively dominates the other.

Stay tuned.

Security Envelope 1 (salt print on handmade linen paper) by Kate Copeland

Aspiring Hot Shot Kate Copeland's practice is an amalgam of artistry, science, metaphysics, and simple curiosity. Recent bodies of work include charting the marks made by insects' footprints and capturing the patterns made by the vapor of breath. For this edition of HHS! she submitted work from a series of salt-prints made of security envelopes. On the project she says:

I investigate the tactile beauty and semiotic frailty of both subject and medium. I am interested in the formal qualities of the envelopes, as well as the many anonymous hands that produced them. By deconstructing these common forms, I aim to draw attention to labor and beauty that is typically unseen and ignored.

Unfortunately, Kate does not have a website, but we will keep our eyes peeled.

Untitled (Maggie T.) by Ofer Wolberger

I have very little to say about the work of aspiring Hot Shot Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Larry Sultan, Wolberger's practice was honed by spilling through his mother's fashion magazines as a child and being an avid collager throughout his early years. Wolberger on his work:

Maggie T. can be considered a side note to a larger project called Imitation of Life. The title comes from a 1950's Technicolor film by Douglas Sirk and the 1933 Fannie Hurst novel. I have been putting together photographs that don't connect so obviously, letting the narrative strands relate loosely. For me photography is an imitation or an approximation of life as we live it. My photographs don't necessarily correspond to reality. I think of them as being hyper-real.

More of Maggie T. can be found on Wolberger's website, along with a good number of images worth your time. Keep it up!

The anticipation is eating––winners will be announced right here this Tuesday at 1PM. Until then, stay tuned for daily entry fun and more!

Oildriller by Ching Wah Lam

The Spring Edition of HHS! has reached its end. And while the anticipation eats you away, I will continue to humor your curious sides with daily entry spotlights until the winners are announced on May 22––a whole week to monitor your competition.

Last night close to 3AM I received a text message pleading that I not buy a drop of gas today. I had already received the expected chain email, filling me in on the impact a successful "Gas Out" in protest of the beyond high prices at the pump could have. A text message seemed so personal, perhaps obnoxiously so, and I will admit I forwarded it along in the wee hours––I don't drive so this should be quite easy for me.

Aspiring Hot Shot Ching Wah Lam's image felt appropriate. Originally from Hong Kong, he now finds himself in Los Angeles, an American citizen, but struggling with his desires to see himself as an American. In his words:

In this artificial flavor city, we're all trying to find excuses to indulge ourselves, we shape our surroundings to match our visions and desires. Some of us succeed, most of us don't. Disappointment and depression become our favorite words. Our environment is being distorted, our surroundings are being displaced. But nature is not disappointed or depressed. It is not the victim. I am the victim, like most Americans, but i am not American.

Good Luck!

Sally Wolffish by Elizabeth Atterbury

Aspiring Hot Shot Elizabeth Atterbury is after the magic, after the mortal, and after the mystery in each and every thing. In her words:

I think a lot about what is inside other minds. I am curious about that contained privacy. I like to believe that every object is sentient – not just people but animals too. And buildings and cars and trees and little trinkets. Everything has the capacity to deliberate and think, the capacity to feel lonely. These portraits, in a way, represent departure points for how I pursue my photographic practice.

Elizabeth's entry is in, is yours? Deadline is TONIGHT at 11:59PM. That's under 12 hours to mark this off your list. Get 'em in, enter now.

Untitled (Janet and Rachel) by Meredith Miller

Aspiring Hot Shot Meredith Miller, like many of us, is interested in the female form. Her photo taking days were sparked by an intro course at the University of Chicago with Laura Letinksy––here at the jb we would consider that a divine beginning if there ever was one. In 2003, she finished off a cherished MFA from Yale and now is introducing young artists to the medium herself. On her work she says, "I have always been interested in exploring women's issues especially challenging our perceptions of femininity."

Meredith unfortunately does not have a website, but we will keep our eyes peeled for one in the future...

Two more days until DEADLINE. Get those entries in.

Niagara Falls by Matthew Sandager

"For me, photography is like a race, things speed by and you collect a few images along the way," says aspiring Hot Shot Matthew Sandager. It seems to be that Niagara Falls is one of many pit-stops along this way. And although I haven't ventured there myself, I'm sure I will continue to enjoy the what seems to be endless number of unique, but often spectacular images of this near world wonder. More words from Matthew:

I pursue photographs that look at the world around me from a micro to a macro view. And I'm fascinated by that (decisive) moment in time when things turn around, unobserved before they are scared away (frogs, strangers) or simply vanish (a splash).

Matthew's photo makes me think of space, the future, and, of course, the Powers of 10. Keep it up Matthew.

You now have today, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday––this round will close at 11:59PM on Monday––to get your submissions in. That is approximately 4.9 x 10^3 minutes from this posting until deadline. Enter before it is too late.

Matt and John by Jeremy Mazzenga

Aspiring Hot Shot Jeremy Mazzenga, never found without his view camera in tow, is interested in memory, nostalgia, family, and adolescence.

When I'm not entering data into excel spreadsheets as my day job, I'm either photographing or daydreaming about it. Photography is a way for me to relate myself to people and the world. At 25 years old, I'm interested in the modern trend of how humans view images on screens, rather than prints, and how it will interact with photography.

Utilize the extra time, enter while you're here.

Nixon's Tie Matched His Shirt by Larissa Cleveland

Yes, it is here––the deadline for the Spring 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Do you have your entry in? I hope so. Just as I hope you can make it to the showcase's opening soiree on Wednesday June 6. The weather will be warm, the skin will be showing, and the wine will be flowing––it will be a night to remember. Will you be a guest of honor?

In the meantime, I offer you aspiring Hot Shot Larissa Cleveland. Larissa submitted work from her series on the curious community of collectors. Fascinated by our innate desire to possess in order to find meaning in life, Larissa offers us portraits of these foragers basking in the joy that is their most precious of possessions, their collection. From Larissa's statement:

This body of work represents my investigation into a societal preoccupation with collecting and the narrative or symbolic power of objects. My experiences as a child surrounded by the mass collection of civil war artifacts that belonged to my father has prompted my continued interest in the pursuit of collecting and also to question the nature of hobby versus obsession. In creating these images, I investigate the personal and social conditions that inform an inherent need to possess, create order, gain status, knowledge and to preserve.

I am liking Larissa's titles––little glimpses into her interactions with her subjects, tiny little tales such as "She is an Artist. There Wasn't Room in the House" and "He Called Me Little Lady. He Ate Them All" and of course "Nixon's Tie Matched His Shirt." Keep it up Larissa.

And now, let the countdown begin. Midnight will strike sooner than you think. Enter now!

From Marine Wedding by Nina Berman

You are most likely familiar with the work of photographer Nina Berman and, if not, you should be. This Hot Shot hopeful has a hefty list of well-earned accomplishments under her belt. The above image from Marine Wedding not only won the prestigious 2007 World Press Photo prize in portraiture, but also spread across the web like no other, sparking debates of all shapes and sizes. Raising questions of bravery, the American Hero, and personal vs. political motivation––needless to say, the image is one that sticks. Allow me to pass the mic to Nina...

I'm a documentary photography interested in the American political and social landscape. I started as a writer wanting to tell stories but found myself increasingly frustrated with the act of writing and would edit myself into oblivion. I chose instead to make images because I felt the process was inexact and I enjoyed not knowing for sure if what I felt and hoped to convey actually came through in the photograph. ... I am submitting images of those wounded in wartime. I made the photographs in an attempt to explore the myths of warfare and offer images that strip the warrior of heroic sentiment.

The work is pretty impeccable and necessary to see if you haven't as of yet. And of course, DEADLINE IS TOMORROW! The clock ticks + it ticks fast. Get 'em in, enter right now.

The Titanic by Clint Baclawski

A mere matter of days away from deadline, I suppose I'll go ahead and apologize for the scattering of missed opportunities when it comes to daily Hot Shot hopeful spotlighting. As I recently mentioned, I'm wrapping up a degree and it's posing to be not quite as leisurely as I would like.

What I do like, however, is the number of student submissions coming in. Oh how I love to see what I'm up against. Today, take Clint Baclawski, a student in the MFA program at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Perhaps you remember running into his work via panelist Joerg Colberg. His website is chock-full of compelling work and I would say it's worth some of your Sunday time. From his submitted statement:

My most current work depicts a spectacular American culture saturated with large-scale color imagery, consumerism, and forward momentum. The attractions featured in this series are both novel and commonplace, including parades, reenactments, fairs, and trade shows in ordinary communities around our country every day. Each event is transitory, challenging me to capture a single image before that scene is forever altered.

Just days until deadline. Utilize the weekend, enter today.

Blue Velvet by Lydia Panas

Hot Shot hopeful Lydia Panas has a heavy background in academia. After getting her BA in Psychology from Boston College, she went on the the Art Institute of Boston and then to SVA for a BFA in photography. She went directly into the Whitney Independent Study Program and then on to get her MA in Photography from New York University / International Center for Photography. Two weeks away from getting my first degree and anticipating the release from the academic world of art, this list boggles my mind.

Lydia submitted work from her series The Divine Byzantine Crypt. I will admit this image makes me a bit uncomfortable for various reasons I need not go into. In her words:

My work is about the discovery of who we are; so that through recognition, we proceed less from unknowing, and more from a place of clarity. I want to find that tenuous place between glory and defeat, which is the human condition.

The clock ticks. Use the weekend wisely.

The Path of Practice by Brook Reynolds

In the work of aspiring HS Brook Reynolds spirituality and artistic endeavors meet. For her, photography is a means to explore the impermanence and interconnectedness of life. From her statement:

Photographing bamboo is like returning to the breath in meditation and becoming fully present in the moment. It is my acknowledgement of a certain presence in the landscape that adds structure, stability, and continuity to the endless possibilities of referring to nature for artistic expression. Like the breath, the experience of bamboo in these photographs can be peaceful and intentional, but it can also be dynamic and chaotic. The multiplicity of aesthetic, ecological, and spiritual properties of bamboo add variety and complexity to the imagery so that the meaning of bamboo shifts depending on the context.

Less than a week to go! Why not enter now?

Man of Vision by Chase Browder

Today’s Hot Shot hopeful, Chicago-based photographer Chase Browder, hails from a land just before that of the adobe Circle K and the kokopelli dreamcatcher. An 8th generation Texan, Browder is a bonafide camera-carrying cowboy.

A player in the Chicagraphy arena, Browder goes beyond the Midwestern landscape into the psychological dude ranch-land of the West––the West where Rogers drives a Mustang and Wayne dines at Chuy’s Cantina. By photographing representations of the frontier and the everyday Texas he knows so well, Browder re-envisions romantic notions of his native soil. On his series Another Story..

As the photographer I am visually retelling the stories of my homeland. In the liberating of vernacular and popular images I want to continue the mythological story of the West.

Browder graduates from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MFA program this month. If you find yourself in the windy city this weekend and still wonder how the West was won, stop on by his thesis show and keep your eyes peeled for the big black brim.

In the meantime, this is it. We are officially at the one week mark––and my oh my, time sure does fly. Enter today.

At Friendlies 1984 by Bede Murphy

Man of many mediums and aspiring Hot Shot Bede Murphy submitted imaged from his series UPSTATE in the 80's, an archive of photographs and diary entries from his teen years.

A humoristic look at the cloistered existence (and a lack grammatical ease) it provides a glimpse of a young person declaring ownership over the creative impulse.

In his free time, Murphy runs LAND, a gallery/studio in DUMBO for adult artists with disabilities to create and show work. Keep it up Murphy.

We are reaching the one week point. Why not just enter today?

Bayshore Blvd by William John Smith

California-based Hey, Hot Shot! contender William John Smith entered the wide world of visual arts at the suggestion of a tarot reader. On his work, "The images that I'm submitting are from a five year project to document San Francisco from my viewpoint which of course is somewhat different than a visitor's. I'm inspired by most everything I see."

And you? Enter while it's still the weekend.

Sterling Heights by Rachel Hawthorn

From aspiring Hot Shot Rachel Hawthorn's submission:

In the continued investigation of how human memory is faulty and flawed, I constructed small models of homes I've lived in, all from memory and exterior photographs. Missing walls, empty spaces and partial structures trace the gaps where memory has faltered. The tiny sculptures have taken up residence in my backyard, and are photographed as they shift and warp through the weather and time, much like the fractures in personal memory.

Enter Today!

Journey Into Manhood by Ryan Pfluger

Aspiring Hot Shot Ryan Pfluger loves his dad, is inspired by his dad, and, well, likes to take photos of his dad. Submitting work from his thesis project Not Without My Father, Pfluger says that photography facilitates dialogue between the two men as they create and re-create memories from Ryan's relatively fatherless childhood. In and out of rehab during the time for fishing, barbeques, and life-lessons, Ryan's father is a participant in the two of them constructing that coveted father-son bond, one that's based in both reality and fiction, one that is making up for lost time.

Maybe it's cliche to say that in a bio, but I really use photography as my way of creating relationships. Maybe it was because I was socially awkward, or rather, I still am socially awkward.

This awkward 100% New Yorker finished up his MFA at SVA yesterday. Congrats Ryan!

Enter today!

Hospital Study 1 by aspiring HS Michael Cevoli

Words from Providence-based Hot Shot hopeful Michael Cevoli:

Two years ago I began a photographic project based on the interiors of former state prisons and their nearby surroundings. I was initially interested in the massive structures, do in part to the similar functional elements found in industrial architecture, namely the timed and controlled repetitive motions that make said facilities operate, and also because of the striking beauty and attention to detail not commonly associated with a prison.

We've reached the two week point. Enter tonight!

Cocktail Hour by Kelly Hamilton

I could not ignore the resemblance in aspiring HS Kelly Hamilton's work and that of Fall 2006 Hot Shot Joe Fornabaio. Maybe it's that they both shoot black and white, unfortunately a rare trait in our hopefuls. And that they are both photographing their families, nothing very unique in itself. Or it's that they both seem to have a certain knack for getting that perfectly quirky moment that defines family life while neither glorifying it nor mocking it, but getting it just right.

Kelly is submitting from her series Sunday Dinners, a project she has been working on for the past two years. She says, "When I see a familiar expression or something completely new I press the shutter." She also gives her images titles such as Where are you headed baby brother?, Unclosable Distance, and Just Outside the Door. Keep it up Kelly!

We have a new week on our hands and only two remain to enter the Spring Edition of HHS! Why not right now?

133rd Ave at Cross Bay Blvd by aspiring HS Mark Marchesi

For this round of HHS!, contender Mark Marchesi submitted from his series The Town and the City. The work is cinematic in both its scale and suspense; I think of Gregory Crewdson minus all the bells and whistles. These images are dramatic and straight out of a thriller favorite without feeling contrived or theatrical, not to mention they're just good looking photographs. Mark says on the series:

It is inspired by Jack Kerouac's classic literary work which is set in a dying Massachusetts mill town. The novel stuck a chord and filled me with nostalgia for a time when New England mill towns thrived and the word "home" was not just a term used by developers to sell more houses.

Mark has been working on this series for the past three years and there is an immense amount of worthy work on his newly updated website. Keep it up Mark!

It's Friday and the weather is turning around, the perfect time to enter the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!

Wedding by Laura Griffin

Contender Laura Griffin submitted work from her Comfort of Strangers series. Interested in a bit more than the mundane, she's out to write poetry with her imagery, looking for the strange, the beautiful, and the mysterious in her subjects. Griffin comes to us from Atlanta, Georgia and is inspired by guess who. From Griffin's statement:

With this work, I believe that an image can stand in direct representation of an idea, emotion, or remembrance through association. The colors, light and subject matter create feelings of isolation, silence and timelessness and I hope that the viewer will relate these images to their own experiences and memories.

You have a little over two weeks to get those entries in. How about today?

Wishing Well by Mandy Sue Springer

Here on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog you have seen a handful of contenders. Spending a good amount of time with each entry, most contenders tend to stick with me. Being in the try, try, try again game myself, I always find it helpful to see how others choose to revamp and repackage their work for submission, whether they start fresh with a new body of work, leave just a trace of the previous, or submit the identical twin to their former. During the Winter Edition, I paired the work and words of artist Mandy Sue Springer with some thoughts about the statement, both written and unsaid [see that here]. This round Mandy Sue has a new website where you can see her series Digging for Salamanders along with other photographs, paintings, and mixed media. From her statement:

I used to want to change the world, but I learned that was not going to happen. Instead I had to change my world and find all the beautiful things in the ugly things and fall in love with this new found beauty. I can remember the amazement in finding salamanders under rocks in the creek. I would keep them in buckets for just a little while, but then let them go. Growing up my life was a treasure hunt, and they were just one of the little hidden treasures. I am once more searching for these lost treasures.

enter today!

Revenge by G.F. Diaz

Contender G.F. Diaz is pushing the Metaphor with a capital 'M' on the viewer. Hoping we will make a connection in "the physical with intangible symbolism," Diaz is interested in the very essence of perception and how we as consumers of photography love to pick apart the frozen image. Digitally constructed collages of wildlife taken from their natural environments and placed in "unlikely" backdrops, sometimes subtly, sometimes blindingly, the images span the gamut of the photoshop composite. While Diaz's words seem to demand a more serious reading of the work, the images are unquestionably humorous. The selection above, for me, is the perfect mashing of the ever-favorite toying with taxidermy genre and the equally as loved deer painting camp. Some words from the artist are in order...

I embrace nature, chaos and survival as my sources of inspiration, and infuse these themes with vivid human statements. I see our ambition, betrayal, triumph and pitfalls in each of these compositions, as we often find ourselves out of our elements and surviving the most unfavorable conditions.

Diaz unfortunately does not have a website, but you can enjoy Revenge all day long. Time likes to just slip on by and, as always, the deadline is planning on creeping right up, so keep the good work coming!

Deadline: Tuesday May 8 @ 11:59PM
Enter Today!

Jolene: Teenagers Belfast by Michelle Sank

Contender Michelle Sank's submission:

Michelle is interested in the way that individuals are shaped by social structures, how gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity 'enter into' us as subjects. The work looks particularly at individuals positioned within lower socio-economic structures where, for example the promise of adult sexuality appears to offer future security and happiness. Her deceptively simple portraits ask important and probing questions about the status and perception of young people in contemporary society.

The clock ticks, enter today!

I'm lost (part 1) by Laurent Champoussin

Contender Laurent Champoussin resides in Paris, France. Excusing himself for his english skills, he sums his statement up with, "Do you remember of that cue from "The Maltese Falcon : 'the stuff that dreams are made off'? So I'm trying in a humbly way to catch this stuff in a world like it is without artifice."

Ice Fishing Two by Finn O'Hara
Contender Finn O'Hara comes to us from Toronto. Submitting from his series made in the Canadian Arctic, Finn is interested in access to cultures that are generally unfamiliar to the outsiders. Attributing his success within the project to dedicated research, discussion and, he admits, blind luck, he hopes to capture the remote, obscure, and the little known. From his statement:

As polar issues such as global warming become more important, I hope to document the people of the Arctic and their emerging society. The elders of Cambridge Bay have seen the transformation of their society from one in which small family groups lived in nomadic camps, to a far more modern community life. In a single Arctic lifetime, more has changed for them in one generation than what has occurred over several thousand years for "western society". As they embrace traditional knowledge and values, and the new opportunities presented to them by advanced technologies, I hope to document this social transformation through a combination of portraiture and landscape photographs.

Finn also shared with us his appreciation of photography not only as a "beautiful art" with endlessly exciting and practical tools, such as the Hasselblad he romances, but as a multifaceted job with endless opportunities to be jumped upon.

So jump on this one... Enter today.

Traces #1 by Brady Robinson

Orlando-based artist and contender Brady Robinson submitted work from her series Traces, images of what she so literally describes as "fleeting landscapes." Jessica Dawson from the Washington Post has already categorized Brady's work as travelogue impressionism. Moving at a pace that doesn't mesh with that necessary for the careful and patient landscape photographer, Brady is such an artist with a different lifestyle. I am rather curious as what these shots would look like if Brady had been equipped with say a 4x5, a tripod, and more time, my curiosities answered: they would look just like that which we are already far too familiar with. A project still in the works, Brady continues to adventure out into the landscape documenting her experiences in speedy motion. From her statement:

The work is a mapping of time and space; movement is captured through a window point of view while wandering through the landscape. Reflections are captured to give a sense of inside and out. As a photographer, I examine the social and cultural landscape and exploit the tradition of the "snap shot". New relationships between disparate images are formed through scale and sequencing.

Rocco by Sigrid Jakob

Contender Sigrid Jakob is interested in masculinity, in fact she limits her subjects to men and only men. In straightforward portraits within both studio settings and the domestic space, she analyzes their bodies through the lens, how they are put forward by the sitter and then how the bodies are accepted by her audience. In her words:

My basic theory is that being a man in this day and age is fraught with difficulty. Women have been gaining power, at work, in relationships, economically. Men are increasingly expected to conform to stricter ideals with regard to their appearance, being emotionally expressive, being good team players. Male stereotypes are no longer the refuge they once were. With these shifting expectations, men are expected to redefine themselves.

Known for her series on the gay male subculture of bears, she scrutinizes the manner in which the male body is exalted depending on the context. For her, bears represent "a redefinition and reappropriation of male stereotypes that is both traditionalist and utopian."

Sigrid began taking photographs as a teenage runaway. The camera was a way to prove her existence and validate her view of the world when no one else cared. She is inspired by other female artists who are wandering in the terrain of masculine identity such as Collier Schorr and Laurel Nakadate.

Deadline is Tuesday May 8, 2007. Time is on your side but why not enter today?

Identity by Amelie Sourget

There are moments when the mind goes blip, sometimes for short periods and sometimes for more extended ones. What always perplexes and entertains me is the way the mind retains information from when it goes on these little breaks. Images jump in and out of the brain, leaving traces that are not always trackable. Words, sounds, and smells become more fragmented and jumbled than usual. Your blogkeeper is recovering from such a blip.

With contender Amelie Sourget my initial mental stutter began with her name. Originally hailing from France, Amelie has recently relocated to the fine city of New York. While providing me with very little meat beyond the three images she submitted, I know she shoots with a Hasselblad, lives for the color darkroom, and was once upon a time a political science major. Amelie, also, has a knack for tackling the broadest of subjects in the simplest of fashions, giving her images titles such as An absurd world and Identity. There is a good amount of work on her website so take a peek, see how it sticks.

As for your entries, the clock ticks. Enter today.

Thermometer by Walker Pickering

Contender Walker Pickering puts it simply: he shoots nouns.

And you? Enter today.

California Firestorm by Lenard Smith

I am heading back from what has been pure undergraduate madness. Still in Chicago, but missing New York terribly, you can expect daily tastes of Hot Shot goodness from yours truly. Today I give you contender Lenard Smith. Lenard offered us a quaint tale of his initiation into photography, one that I wouldn't want to refuse you.