Hey, Hot Shot! Entries for 2007 Summer Hot Shots

Untitled 5 (wallpaper) and Untitled 2 (raft) by Summer '07 Hot Shot Dan Boardman. Pay no attention to those numbers, prints are moving fast. Check out 20x200 to see what's left.

You're not signed up for the 20x200 newsletter? First, sign up. Then, read this, from Jen's latest note about Summer '07 Hot Shot Dan Boardman's edition:

"... Untitled 2 (raft) and Untitled 5 (wallpaper): These quiet and lovely photos are by Dan Boardman, another member of the JB family by way of his participation in the Summer '07 edition of Hey, Hot Shot!, where he also exhibited work from this series, Home. His statement, much like the work itself, is simple and charming and (dare I say it?) sweet:

To grow up in a small town is to always be looking for something bigger, to be looking out to the next chapter, waiting, daydreaming. To move away from a small town is to long for its innocence and its comfort.

As it has been amply evidenced here, I am a fan of the square format for photography. My enthusiasm about the opportunities for elegant composition within an equally sided image are apparently infectious. (Not to mention alliterative, I see.) A friend is newly fixated on getting himself a Hasselblad and has rented one for the upcoming weekend, just to be sure. I don't even need to see the results! I am sure already.

What could be better than a square photo? Why, two square photos, naturally, especially two that go together as well as these do. All of the images from Home bring out the tender-hearted sentimentalist in me*, but I love how these two are the same and different all at once.

The compositional similarities practically hit you over the head, so much so that I was slightly sheepish when suggesting the pairing to my JBP cohorts. The counterpoints are perhaps a little more subtle — the opposition of the expansive outdoors against the intimate interior, the bright, cool blues and greens vs. the creamy intimacy of the domestic tableau. It's divine, if you ask me, and the sum of them is better than either on its own."

Summer '07 Hot Shot Shuli Hallak's photo appeared in The New York Times Magazine's "The Way We Live Now" column on June 15, 2008

Okay, she definitely does not belong in the trash, but that's where I found her work today. Or, more precisely, I came across one of Shuli Hallak's photos in an issue of The New York Times Magazine in a pile that I was building as an alternative to the trash. The pile is small, but it's been growing for some time, and it's made up of articles and entire magazine issues that I plan to read. "Plan" being the key word.

So, it's a good thing I decided to flip through a few as I attempted to throw out some of the pile. Because luck granted me this gorgeous photo I'd originally missed by Ms. Hallak, who happens to have been a Summer '07 Hot Shot. Her photo is stunning. A good fit for the "The Way We Live Now" column it illustrates.

I can't stop staring at the photo. I can't believe it lived so long in my trash.

Bradley Peters, Untitled2.

Bradley Peters. From Nebraska, then Austin, then New Haven. I really like his work. In his submission, everyone's reaching for something. Literally and otherwise. I love the lighting in this one: that glare! But the taut phone cord, pulled so far out of the frame, and that hip, pointing out that mess, are what really got me.

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

"Kay" from Rachael Dunville's Springtown

If you're in New York and haven't yet made your way to Peer Gallery to see Summer HHS! Winner Rachael Dunville's solo-show Springtown, you need to A-S-A-P. Up since mid-September [and closing 10/20] the show has gotten oodles of press and praise. In the current edition of The New Yorker, you can find Vince Aletti's write up on the show. Very cool. And maybe you noticed that the New York Post's Page Six Magazine dubbed the show "enchanting." Very true. And then there are the props from all across this wide blogosphere - Rachael is getting her dose of well earned love.

In Toronto? Check out Rachael's work in the Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward at Lennox Contemporary up through 10/21 - details here. Hot Shot Alums Andrea Chu and Shen Wei are also in the show which heads to New York in November.

And wait, there is more, much more.

Wednesday evening Rachael will join her fine work at Peer for a discussion on the show. What better way to spend your Wednesday night than with Rachael? RSVP now.

October 17th, 6:30pm Peer Gallery - 526 W 26th Street | suite 209 | 212-741-6599

And the cherry on top, her brand spankin' new catalogue is available for your order here and here. Or you can pick up a signed copy when you stop by Peer this week. Rachael is rockin' and oh how proud we are!

An image I found here when I googled "Russia" as Dan Boardman suggested I do to get an idea of what he is working on.

Let's play a game of "Where's Waldo?". Or how about an HHS version of "Where Are They Now?" So, where are they now? ('They' being the infamously talented and lucky winners of the most recent edition of HHS.) Well, the answer is: all over the place. In fact, I recently heard from a few of our latest additions to the Hot Shot family and they really are showing there work all over the place.

Jonathan Gitelson is currently exhibiting his work in Germancy alongside another jB friend in a show entitled Chicagraphy: Jonathan Gitelson, Matt Siber and Brian Ulrich, which is at Galerie f5.6 in Munich. The show runs from September 15 - November 3, 2007.

And on this side of the Atlantic, a lady Hot Shot, Miss Ari Salomon, will be participating in the 3rd Annual IAPP Juried Panoramic Photography Contest and Exhibition which is presented by the International Association of Panoramic Photographers. The show will run from October 16 - November 2, 2007 at the Valley Photo Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. Salomon will also be participating in "Landscape Revisited: Challenging the Traditional Approach to Landscape" held at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, California from November 2 - November 21, 2007.

And as for the always humorous Dan Boardman, he writes, "Right now I've been eating a lot of candy and working my new project Russia, but that won't be done until the end of the winter for sure (I hope). If you want a preview just Google image search Russia or Tetris, or just play Tetris." Aside from all the candy, Boardman will be participating in a group show entitled "Multiples" held at Gallery 831 in Columbus, Ohio, which runs from October 13 - October 28, 2007.

From the entire jB team, we wish our winners the best of luck with all their shows this upcoming fall and we hope that those of you who happen to wander into Munich, Mendocino, Massachusetts, or Ohio (at the appropriate times, of course) will make your way to these galleries and support these awesome photographers!

As for me, I can be found on my boyfriend's couch, attempting to cram in a last-minute reading of Walt Whitman's Memoranda During the War. Tune back in for more from me later!

New York Container Terminal, #4 by Summer '07 HS winner Shuli Hallak

Summer is coming to an end and it's just about time for us to announce the winners of the Summer 2007 edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Drumroll, please...

And, the winners are:

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

Congratulations, winners! Mark your calendars for Wednesday, September 12, which is the opening night of the Summer '07 Hey, Hot Shot! Showcase at the jb (from 6-8pm!) If you can't make it then, be sure to check out the show which will be up September 13 - 16, 2007.

A special thanks goes out to our lovely group of panelists:

Ian Baguskas, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Christine Collins, Alison Grippo,
Raul Gutierrez, Darius Himes, Jenni Holder, Joseph O. Holmes, Lesley Martin, Anthony La Sala, Youngna Park,
and of course, Jen Bekman, her own self.

The panelists can all tell you that it was a tough decision to make. Here are some honorable mentions:

Allison Grant, Scott Chandler, Roger Snider, Carlo Van de Roer, Thomas Birtwistle, Camille Seaman, Chris Mottalini, Mark Goldberg, Liz Kuball, Mahesh Shantaram, Justin Visnesky, Chuck Avery, Heather Sullivan, James Rotz, Chris Bentley, Shana Wittenwyler, Jim Turbert, Johannes Twielemeier, Alejandro Cartagena, Erik Hagen, Joel Sanders, Dan Sumption, Glenn Glasser, RJ Mickelson, Sarah Szwajkos, David Bowman, Ben Alper, Kimberly Max, and Patrick Simpson.

Thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations once again to all the winning photographers. Stay tuned to the HHS! Blog where I'll be posting bundles of fun news and tidbits related to our growing family of Hot Shots!

Untitled (01) by Summer HS winner Willamain Somma

Willamain Somma
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: www.willamain.com

Work Statement
I took the first photograph in this series at the UCross Foundation for the Arts in Clearmont, Wyoming this past March. There I was in the middle of nowhere with not much aside from cattle, horses, deer and endless rolling hills. I was desperate to make some interesting pictures during my artist residency but was feeling terribly stuck in my creative process. Aside from a few other artists who were busy working on their paintings and scripts and dances there was just the endless rolling hills and highways. And then there was me. So for the first time since I picked up a camera in high school I started photographing myself.

In the past I have always photographed other people knowing that every portrait was ultimately a reflection of myself. These pictures no longer disguise that fact. They are about me in the landscape, me in the world, and me in my creative process. They are about being stuck, trying to escape, existential angst, the whole narcissistic nine yards. I hope others like them but they please me and I’ve found that ultimately, that’s enough.

Bio
I am from the North Shore of Massachusetts and I went to a small high school in Maine where I spent many hours skiing, hiking in below freezing temperatures and making pictures. In 1993 I went to Bard College to study writing and literature and my last year there took a photo class with Larry Fink. The way Larry talked about photographs was thrilling to me and when I moved to NYC after graduation I began to use photography to identify the boundaries of my life and also to expand them, exploring places I never otherwise would have gone. I began a documentary project on crack addicts in the Lower East Side that taught me not only how to be a photographer (to navigate difficult subjects and grapple with all the issues inherent in documentary work) but about life and death and everything in between.

I now am a graduate of the Bard-ICP MFA Photography Program and find myself teaching others f-stops and shutter speeds and how to frame their subject. I realize that if my students can get past the technicalities of the medium to the place where their camera becomes an extension of themselves that is just the beginning. A life in photography is about letting the world be your teacher, allowing it to fill your frame in all its messiness and sadness and joy. I guess that’s what I’m getting at. My biography is incomplete. I’m still learning. Photography continues to be my greatest teacher. It has given me a way, a path, a door to understand the world and my place in it.

Table Scene (Red), October 2005 by Summer HS winner Ari Salomon

Ari Salomon
Currently residing in San Francisco, CA

website: www.helloari.com

Work Statement
18 Rue Dugommier: Reginka Cukierman Struzevska
A documentary photography series by Ari Salomon

These are images of my Great Aunt and her apartment in Paris. Regine was born in Poland, Dec 25, 1910. She has lived in Paris since 1936 — and in this apartment for more than 30 years. She is now widowed and without children or other family nearby. The images that make up this document reveal the passage of time on many scales. The everyday as it comes and goes and also as it builds on itself over many years.

They hint at both what is missing in her life and what fills it through layered compulsions of classification and arrangement. The natural accumulations that come from living in one's home and living in one's body. A spatial history of tchotchkes and living essentials.

•••

It is important to note that these photos are not "set up", these are found scenes. Note also that some images document the same scenes over a number of months and years.

Bio
I was born in Israel in 1971 and raised in San Diego. In 1987, while in high school, I started using the Nikkormat my dad bought when I was born. I produced a series of black and white pictorial abstractions and some travel logs. Later, at the University of California Santa Cruz, I experimented with alternative processes, color and other, more conceptually focused forms of art. I continued my interest in travel logs with a concentration on people in the built environment and experimented with a series of abstract motion studies.

In recent years, I found that working digitally worked for me and began exploring panoramic photography.

In addition to exhibiting my art, I am a sign maker and a web designer working for a wide variety of clients including museums and art galleries. I live in San Francisco and point my camera at a certain 14 month-old very often these days.

Richard Toledo, Sundancer, Oglala by Summer HS winner Kalpesh Lathigra

Kalpesh Lathigra
Currently residing in London, U.K.

website: www.kalpeshlathigra.com

Work Statement
Alienated and forgotten communities are the subjects of much of my photographic practice. My photographs are a document to give a voice to those who have none. In my " Lost in the Wilderness" series, I photograph the historical landscapes and portraits of the Lakota Sioux Native Americans on Pine Ridge Reservation, a quiet reflection of a community trying to survive in another America. The influences of Mitch Epstein, Mark Rothko, Robert Frank and Alec Soth prevail.

Bio
Kalpesh Lathigra born in London, England , 1971, to Indian immigrants from east Africa. I studied at a PgDiploma in Photojournalism at London College of Printing. After leaving college I was awarded The Independent newspaper photography scholarship, I spent 5 years shooting for national newspapers in UK, in 2000, awarded World Press Photo prize and switched to magazines and started to pursue long term projects. In 2004/2005 was awarded W.Eugene Smith Fellowship and Churchill Fellowship for Brides of Krishna project. The project was exhibited as part of Another Asia, Noorderlict and Angkor Wat Photofestival, 2005/2006.
My interest in photography was a chance look at Cartier Bresson's book in India whilst studying a Law degree, which I subsequently quit to pursue photography.

Untitled (Nymphenburg) by Summer HS winner Gregory Krum

Gregory Krum
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY

website: www.gregorykrum.com

Work Statement
Here are some ideas about the work:

It is in response…that is, in combat. Photographs that explore territories or concepts of control, organization, and security, states of sensitive, deep affection, inference, isolation, complexity, importance, insecurity, vulnerability, bliss, abyss, jouissance…in direct relationship to comfort and rational things, dualism, and our tendency to understand.

It is hopeful and painfully critical. The work wishes to slow down.

The work is at odds with irony.

The work is not a stand-in for language, it is not documentary, however everything existed and nothing is made up, it is not objective, it does not wish to be an essay.

The work wants you to like it. And I think it is a little bit romantic, and perhaps embarrassed.

The prints are about 30� square.

The work seems to wonder: is a gesture of affection at least as important as a scholarly theory.

Bio
I was born in Portland, Oregon and studied Biology, Sculpture and Design there. I have a Masters in Photography from NYU/ICP. I now live in New York.

I began to photograph around 1993 after going to an art school in Italy and studying with the photographer Mark Stienmetz who I like, but who didn’t really believe in me.

Here are some more things about me, in rough chronological order:

I have washed dishes at a truck stop, I have sold sweaters, I have gone to school, I have made coffee, I have checked people’s bags, I have moved away from everyone I know, I have gone to more school, I have arranged for 38,000 people from 82 countries to travel to Beijing, I have fallen in love, I have driven across the country, I have been to my father’s funeral, I have bought millions of dollars of contemporary design, I have been on a plane once every two or three months for the past six years, I have designed an amazing store for the government, I have curated an art show.

Untitled Area Photo (One) by Summer HS winner Beth Herzhaft

Beth Herzhaft
Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA

website: www.bethherzhaft.com

Work Statement
It seems to me that my subject matter has always been the same: the mundane. I should stress, though, that it is always presented in an UN-IRONIC way. While there most certainly is subtle humor in my work, it is not a visual "one liner"....

I am currently working on a series I call “area photography�, an evolving compendium of contemporary landscapes / still life images.

The subject matter I gravitate toward is unspectacular, and the images are a mischievous reaction to “epic� photography. The ambivalence I feel regarding the “monumental� or “significant� in art creates a tension between meaning and meaninglessness that is expressed in this work.

This series is an exploration of the ephemeral, the peripheral. Questions are not answered; the story is implied but never spelled out. My choice of subject and the way I present it highlights incompleteness as the condition of everyday life. In area photography there is no “decisive moment�: what is captured is a comma rather than an exclamation point.

I work in found situations, seeking out unspecific locales. Others may see fit to “de-ordinarize� their imagery, engineering it to produce an unfamiliar or fantastical effect. I reject this convention.

The aesthetic behind area photography is ancient. It is in the overlooked and the rejected, in the margins and empty spaces. The periphery is moved to the center.

Area photography simply says, “What about this?�

It is wisdom that sees the ordinary with amazement. (Lao Tzu)

Bio
Born: 1973.... Shooting is part of the fabric of my life; it is something that is with me at all times...... My mother was a failed musician and my father, my greatest hero, escaped a camp in World War II (Is it reprehensible to forget - or remember - that your captors are also human beings?). I started investigating photography in high school after running away from home.

Some favorites, photographic and otherwise: Friedlander, Tunbjork, Hatakeyama, DeCarava, Eggleston, Herzog, Antonioni, Carver, Shigeru Ban. I am also inspired by randomness, music, modern literature, the 10 cent coffee at Philippe's,the sound of trains in the distance, the light when there is moisture in the sky, the night landscape when it is overcast, squished pennies, Absinthe, industrial design and sad kermit. I was born and raised in Southern California, which has no shortage of the banal....

Recent cool stuff of note: Two of my images were chosen for the upcoming 2008 AP, which was juried by Kathy Ryan of the New York Times Magazine..... Twelve of my area photos are also in the current "Sin" themed issue of TOPIC mag online...... Lastly, there is a five page feature I photographed in the current Filter Mag (article is on the musician St. Vincent, who plays with Sufjan Stevens and The Polyphonic Spree)

More of my images can be seen at http://www.bethherzhaft.com

CSAV Chicago, New York by Summer HS winner Shuli Hallak

Shuli Hallak
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: www.shulihallak.com

Work Statement
I've been fascinated both visually and conceptually with Industrial sites since I was very young, especially cargo ships and ports, constantly amazed to think that these are the structures that operate the world on many levels. When I started the Cargo project, initially I gravitated towards the formal qualities of stacked containers. But I quickly turned my attention to the infrastructure of the cargo shipping world, photographing huge ships as they move in and out of ports and the movement of the containers. I realized that as consumers who depend on these goods that come from overseas, we have almost no understanding of how things get here.

Using a 4x5 camera and as well as a medium format camera (for those tricky, hard to access places), I spent almost 2 years photographing at the New York Container Terminal in Staten Island. In order to understand fully what it takes to move containers, I joined the M.V. Charles Island, a cargo ship, for almost 2 weeks on a trip from NY through the Panama Canal to Ecuador.

The resulting photographs reveal an almost invisible network of human and technological activity.

For me, it's always about the big picture and trying to understand how things work. Photography is my process of discovery and that expression of fascination with what I find.

Bio
Shuli Hallak, Born in Israel, 1977. Moved to NY in 1981. Started learning photography at the age of 15: how to use a manual camera, load film, process b&w film and darkroom printing. I loved learning the technical aspects of photography and am passionate about photography ever since.

Education
2005 School of Visual Arts, MFA, Photography
1999 Washington University, BA, Philosophy

Exhibitions
2006 Adventura, Moti Hasson Gallery, New York, NY
Cargo, Soho House and KiptonART, New York, NY
2005 Cargo, Gallery Kayafas, Boston, MA
Traffic, Exit Art, New York, NY
See What I Mean?, SVA Thesis Show, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Control is Power, W Times Square & KiptonART, New York, NY

Awards
2007 PDN’s 30
Santa Fe Prize Nominee

Publications
2007 PDN, “30 Emerging Photographers to Watch.� March 2007
2006 Emperor of Steel, Fortune Magazine, July 2006
2005 How the World Really Works, Fortune Magazine 75th Anniversary, September 2005
Fortune China, November 2005
American Shipper, April 2005

Museum Auctions:
2006 Noble Maritime Collection, Staten Island, NY
2005 DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA

Bartender by Summer HS winner Jonathan Gitelson

Jonathan Gitelson
Currently residing in Chicago, IL

website: http://www.thegit.net

Work Statement
I started taking pictures in 1996 while studying literature at Marlboro College in VT. I have since gone on to complete my M.F.A. at Columbia College in Chicago.

My work consists of a variety of projects which focus on the minutiae of everyday life. I work in a variety of media ranging from photographs to artist's books to videos to web based pieces.

Four people who have recently inspired me are Sophie Calle, Michel Gondry, Miranda July and Tom Friedman.

The photographs that I am submitting are from my artist's book entitled, "Dream Job." I scanned the local want ads and then digitally inserted my dream jobs (one per page). The accompanying photographs are meant to represent the person who would answer the imagined ad.

Prints from this series have been acquired by The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Lasalle Bank collection.

Bio
I was born (1975) and raised in Mount Kisco, NY. I attended college at Marlboro College in Vermont where I majored in Literature and Photography (1997). Following college, I moved to Guatemala where I taught photography and later moved on to live in Boston and Philadelphia before moving to Chicago in 2001.

I received my M.F.A. from Columbia College in 2004 and have since worked as an adjunct professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College and The University of Illinois Chicago.

Since graduating in 2004, I have regularly exhibited throughout the US, Canada and Europe. I have also had work acquired by numerous institutions (most recently The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago) and have published my work regularly (most recently in the Spring issue of Camera Austria).

I am also currently working on a public art commission for the Chicago Transit Authority which will result in a 10' x 45' permanent glass and mosaic mural in the Armitage Brown Line subway station.

Iran Series - Memories by Summer HS winner Afshin Dehkordi

Afshin Dehkordi
Currently residing in Woking, U.K.

Work Statement
Afshin Dehkordi studied Mathematics at University College London, followed by post graduate studies at Harvard. Following a brief spell assisting he won a merit in the Association of Photographers award. His clients, commissions and publications include, the BBC, UN, the Observer, Penguin Books, Intersection Magazine and the QSM Museum.

While producing a new body of work on Iran Afshin is at the time of writing also involved with:
“Re-loading Images Berlin/Tehran" - an exchange of young artists working with media art, design and installation between Berlin and Tehran. It will include a preliminary weblog, a workshop, seminars, a final presentation and documentation. The exchange project will take place over a period of three weeks in both cities.

“Youth in the Countryside� - a European photography project in which 25 young photographers from eight European nations will work together. Topics attend social and cultural differences and similarities as well as the chances, changes and identity of young Europeans. The project creates a European network of photographers that contribute with their work to diversity, civil society and understanding among nations. The work will be presented to a pan-European audience through a touring exhibition and book.

Bio
Afshin came to the UK at the age of three, following the Iranian Revolution of 1978. The UK has been his adopted home ever since. He started taking images in his teens, borrowing his parents Canon AE1P. Shortly thereafter he built a darkroom at home and taught himself photography and printing.

home project 2 by Summer HS winner Dan Boardman

Dan Boardman
Currently residing in Rochester, NY

website: http://www.danboardmanphoto.com/

Work Statement
My interest in photography stems from luck. When I first started shooting, a friend recommended me to slower.net. Which was incredibly inspiring and important in getting me to shoot everyday, and chronicle all the nooks and crannies of my day-to-day life. Around the same time another friend came back from New York City with Stephen Shore's Uncommon Places, which he found at random on the side of the road, and gave to me. Stephen Shore opened up a world contrary to that of Eliot Shepard, and even though I didn't fully understand Shore's work then, it did, to say the least, mark the beginning of my love for formal photography.

I think these two artists created in me a love for place. I love to think about the history of a place, or my personal history with a place. I look for small pieces that comprise a whole, and really love sequencing and editing and how it can change the tone of a project.

I'm currently a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, so despite my best efforts, my training has been very formal.

Lately I've been inspired by Martin Parr's boring postcard collection, and all things Russian. I've been inspired by ponies off and on.

Bio
I was born in Ontario, California and moved to a small town in Central New York when I was in third grade. My pop's job moved him from UCLA to Syracuse University. I spent most of my youth like Tom Sawyer, (swimming, eating pancakes, faking my own death).

In High school as a door prize at my after prom party I won a digital point and shoot. The camera had no screen and a mere 2-Mega Pixels. It held fifteen shots. I'm glad my Mom made me go to prom, I'm also glad I was nerdy enough to spend the rest of prom night with adult chaperones and teachers in the converted casino cafeteria.
What was great about that camera was that I had no expectations at all.

After high school I went to The University at Buffalo and studied English and Art History, all the while shooting pictures more than anything else. After my freshman Summer a friend convinced me that going to school for photo made more sense than trying to figure everything out on my own. So I took his advice and transferred to RIT in the Summer of 2005.

I am 22 years old now and in the fall I will be starting my senior year.

The Brad by Summer HS winner Rachael Dunville

Rachael Dunville
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: www.rachaeldunville.com

Work Statement
There is a distinct and profound pleasure in making portraits. I approach the transaction of making a photograph of and with another person as an intuitive, magical exchange; a subtle seduction between willing participants.

With striking impunity, the people I photograph can look straight into the camera, and therefore, straight into me. What is unveiled in this hushed interface is a distilled state of emotional undress; the honest curiosity to explore the conditions of looking into someone becomes something sacred and intense. We blush.

Using only available light, the resulting images reveal a complex, curious, and often disarming view of our encounter—fostered by the rapt attention between photographer and subject. Whether neighbor or stranger, my subjects are not arranged or posed. I have found that if I open space for them to be, their be-ing-ness is more inspiring than anything I could have possibly arranged.

Inspiration flirts with me about as often as I breathe, but at the deepest point from which I grow stems the influence of Peter Hujar, Mike Disfarmer and Joni Mitchell—all of whom keep me striving to convey a rich and complex human essence expressed through the grace of the photographic medium.

Bio
I was born and raised in the sacred and little known Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri. A town called Springfield. A street called Cedarbrook.

Generally speaking, I got into photography in childhood as an unabashed and obsessive memory collector. My mother supported a roll-a-day maximum through grade school and I scored a job at a 1-hour shop to fund my trigger finger until I moved away for college. There, at last, I learned what that fickle needle was in my viewfinder. Through photo books, my only access to a non-technical photo education, I tried to deepen my grasp of what I saw and how I wished to weave into the course. I started a freelance photography business and took many classes from many colleges, finally receiving my BFA from Southwest Missouri State University. I promptly moved to New York City where I earned my MFA in Photography at School of Visual Arts.

Since graduation, I have traveled widely and have generated even more momentum for the passionate pursuit of my image making and communication thereof. I currently live in NYC where I continue to expand upon my projects, goals and fine-art career.

Untitled 03 by Summer ‘07 contender Willamain Somma

The lovely Marina had promised one last contender post for this round, but since she is a busy and active woman, has not had a chance to post her final feature. So if I may, I will post on her behalf.

Yesterday, my cab driver dropped me off four blocks away from the Port Authority Bus Terminal with all of my fat pieces of luggage in the rain, and this photograph, which comes from Willamain Somma, calls to mind my feeling of absolute incredulousness of him driving away.

Somma's series is about isolation, and her submission of photos was taken while at the UCross Foundation for the Arts in Clearmont, Wyoming this past March.

There I was in the middle of nowhere with not much aside from cattle, horses, deer and endless rolling hills. I was desperate to make some interesting pictures during my artist residency but was feeling terribly stuck in my creative process. Aside from a few other artists who were busy working on their paintings and scripts and dances there was just the endless rolling hills and highways. And then there was me. So for the first time since I picked up a camera in high school, I started photographing myself.

In the past I have always photographed other people knowing that every portrait was ultimately a reflection of myself. These pictures no longer disguise that fact. They are about me in the landscape, me in the world, and me in my creative process. They are about being stuck, trying to escape, existential angst, the whole narcissistic nine yards. I hope others like them but they please me and I’ve found that ultimately, that’s enough.

The winners for the Summer Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! will be announced on the website tomorrow at noon. Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter. Good luck!

Empty Bedroom by Summer '07 contender Sarah Szwajkos

Today's contender, Maine-based Sarah Szwajkos, takes perfect painterly photos. The above photo of a crisp, clean bedroom reminds me of Edward Hopper and his New England-type paintings. It also makes me think of the concept of the bedroom and it's critical spatial elements.

Personally, I've always been something of a pack rat. I must have learned this from my mother, who has never thrown out a pair of shoes (seriously, there are hundreds of shoe boxes stored throughout the house). Nor could she ever even get rid of a cardboard jewelry box--she saved them all and has found something to store in each one of them.

My current bedroom, and entire apartment for that matter, outwardly exhibits this unfortunate quality of mine. I have old magazines everywhere, postcards from all over the world stashed in my apartment's most intimate nooks and crannies, and coins--lots of them. Recently, however, I have been of the mindset that a cluttered apartment lends itself easily to a cluttered mind. I don't know much about that feng shui shit, but I'm pretty sure that if I give over to the magic of minimalism, it might help simplify my life to some degree.

I bring this up now while faced with Szwajkos's aptly titled Empty Bedroom, which is sparsely decorated to the say the least, as well as a somewhat perfect model of decorative asceticism. Szwajkos is hyper aware of my aforementioned neurosis. She understands that people allot tremendous value to their personal belongings and use these belongings to define themselves. She explains that with her camera she "sp[ies] on other people's spaces" and "learn[s] about them by what they choose to surround themselves with."

What we bring into our lives, and how we arrange our space — whether with thought or without care — reveal some of our basic creative urges. People construct shrines with their possessions, and day after day they pray at the altar of their own constructed order. By taking my camera in hand, by looking down onto its ground glass, I find revealed to me the secret order surrounding us — order that we impose to fit our individual lives. In this act, we create order out of chaos.

It's time for a change though. Looking at Szwajkos's beautiful photo, I see peace and quiet. I can feel the calmness. It's like Zen and the Art of Archery embodied. I wonder whose bedroom this is and what kind of person they are. I also wonder what its like to sleep at night in a room where the neutral carpeting matches the spotless walls as well as the color coordination in the floral comforter. Am I this kind of person or do I need all the posters on my walls and my books stacked all the way up to my ceiling? How can I re-decorate my personal space so that it's still some kind of a shrine, but a shrine that will enable a healthier, clearer perspective on life? Maybe I should just get a plant. A big one.

While I continue my discussion with my inner interior decorator, here is a little bit more about today's thought provoking contender, Sarah Szwajkos:

I grew up in a seemingly privileged & perfect family in the suburbs of Philadelphia (someday I'll publish my book about that). I went to Catholic school, public school, private school, then a historically all-boys boarding school in Cambridge, England, then to an all-women's college (Smith). I spent a little time in France, and a whole year in Florence, Italy. I am truly, deeply grateful for these opportunities, especially as they got me away from home and out on my own.

I hosted an exchange student from Paris after my freshman year of high school in 1990. She was four years older, and must have been bored out of her socks with me. However, we did visit NYC where she introduced me to the Body Shop, and Robert Doisneau's photograph, "Le Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville". Not only did I want someone to kiss me like that, but I thought, hey, I guess photography CAN be art!

Go, Sarah!

Wow. As I write this, you currently have 10 hours and 11 minutes left to enter the Summer edition of Hey, Hot Shot!

Milk Lover by Summer '07 contender Jim Turbert

Jim Turbert, who has an entire self-published fan club dedicated to him, takes a lot of pictures of himself and then posts them on the internet. Seriously, this is what he does. He even says so himself:

I am a serial self-portraitist. My recent work is about the perceived expectations that my family and friends had for me as a lad and how they contrast with the reality of what I have become. My father used to tell me about how awesome his dad and his grandfather were because they were fancy doctors and lawyers who went to Yale. He told me that he expected me to go to Yale to continue the glorious tradition of his forefathers. There was never much discussion of the fact that he was a junior college drop-out, and that expecting me to go to such an elite institution bordered on the ridiculous. I don’t think he meant anything bad by it, but my point is that neither my father nor anyone else ever said to me, “Geez Jim, it would be really cool if you were a darkroom/technical support guy at a New England college for affluent women. Also, it would really be something if you took lots of pictures of yourself and posted them on the Internet.� This is however an accurate representation of what I do. I assure you, it is not glamorous.

Navigating Jim's fan club is entertaining as well, since Turbert is more than just a photographer--he is like a personality-driven entity or something. My favorite part on the site is where he compares himself to Britney Spears and mathematically proves that he is more interesting than her.

Honestly, I think Jim is awesome and so did past HHS panelists/bloggers, who honorably mentioned him once before. Jen also curated him into the PRC Annual Juried Exhibition for which she was the guest juror this past Spring.

Since Jim is too funny for rephrasing, I leave you with these words, fresh off of Turbert's fingertips:

I’m a 31 year old guy who takes lots of pictures of himself and posts them on the Internet. I work at Wellesley College as a darkroom manager/tech support guy/equipment manager/whatever else they want me to do. I’ve been doing that for 5 years. Before finding steady employment, I went to Massachusetts College of Art where I concentrated in photography. Growing up in (very) rural Connecticut, I wasn’t exposed to many fine art photographers, but my grandmother’s large collection of family albums first piqued my interest in photography. I was given a crappy Kodak 110 something or another for my birthday one year, and I took a ton of pictures with it. I was clearly not a prodigy, but because I was apparently interested, an uncle “let me borrow� his 35mm SLR camera when I was in third grade. Though I never use it anymore, I still have that camera. Now I have several cameras, some great and some small, and I use them as I see fit.

I'm going to bed now. But, unless you've already entered this season's competition, you don't deserve to go to sleep.

from a wheel by Summer '07 contender Ben Thomas

Ben Thomas is trying to take over the world and he has revealed his insidious plans by entering the Summer Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Future Emperor of the Earth, Ben, has figured out to shrink entire cities and its people. The effect of his havoc can be seen on his carefully-documented website: www.cityshrinker.com

He seems to take great joy in chaos and relishes in power:

My aim is to give that feeling newness with each shot I take.

My method is to take what was once large and shrink it down to model size. To take the familiar and get you thinking even if for a second "wait a minute, is that...".

Our future overlord was born in 1981 in Adelaide, Australia. While there, President of the Universe, Ben, developed his creative itch playing jazz trumpet then moving onto filming the local bands he grew up admiring. He Who is Large and Powerful graduated from the International Design Effects and Animation School (Adelaide) before picking up a still camera and a new city, Melbourne.

Although we should be very afraid of Ben, there seems to be a shining fragment of his humanity which we might be able to persuade to stop shrinking us and instead, love us.

You see amazing things every day. It could be out the window of the train on your way to work, it could be in your back yard, even better it could be somewhere completely foreign, something you didn't know existed.

Untitled (swim 1) by Summer '07 contender Carlo Van de Roer

I used to have this theory that all people with brilliant names are destined to be winners in the game of life, if winning means international acclaim and success: Quentin Tarantino, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ennio Morricone--these are just a few examples. Today's contender, Carlo Van de Roer is on the verge of being one of those people, but if his name doesn't blow you away, then his photos sure will.

This photo reminds me of 10th grade geometry class with my super tall and similarly well-named teacher, Mr. Munsterteiger. Everything about this photo comes across as precise and calculated, from the strategically framed lines to the placement of the bathing bodies amidst the wide blue water. There is also a Legoland feel to the photo, as if it were a miniature model as opposed to a real event.

On Van de Roer's website, I found more photos that I liked from his series of pools, like this pretty one and this one, which reminded me of the architectural photography of Julius Schulman. He also has another series on his site entitled "Swim", in which the above photo belongs. Out of those, I adore this one and this one, which makes it look like those people are swimming through clouds.

Of his photographic fascination with swimming and pools, Van de Roer says:

I am interested in the landscape as a recreational and social space. Swimming pools and the sea dominate much of my work, as I attempt to examine and reconnect with the environments that surrounded me growing up on the North Island of New Zealand. This series focuses on outdoor swimming pools and public baths — sites where the normally parallel spheres of social interaction and solitary communion with nature intersect. Viewed from above, patterns and groupings of people emerge, revealing their interactions both with each other and with their surroundings.

Aside from his water-based work, he also has another series on his site called "Blinded by the Light", which looks as if it was set in the Natural History Museum and starts off with an awesome electric blue photo of running wolves.

That's it for today, folks! Be sure to say your prayers and enter the competition before you go to bed tonight!

Monkey Time by Summer '07 contender Taryn Kapronica

This photo reminds me of my younger sister.

Not that she is prone to severing monkey heads, but she does photograph her collection of stuffed animals from time to time, especially her dog. Her desktop wallpaper is of him reading a page in her biology textbook, a section with diagrams on how the eye operates.

Taryn Kapronica also has a playful sense of humor and sees the comedy in the everyday. Her description of the environment she grew up in, a suburb west of Cleveland, Ohio, however, sounds like a place apt for engaging a child with more than your basic everyday wonderment:

[The] landscape comprised of Lake Erie's decrepit waterfront, insular bedroom communities littered with McMansions, crime-ridden industrial towns, sprawling farmlands on the verge of extinction, and the intensely political and social environment at nearby Oberlin College.

My images tend to revolve around beginnings and ends. As the world speeds along, and the everyday passes by just a little quicker than the day before it, I seek to document those fleeting instances. I do not intend to stall time, but to capture keepsakes that communicate finding the still moment within the transition itself.

Enter anytime at your convenience before Tuesday, August 14, 2007 @ 11am Eastern Time.

Witches Pond by Summer '07 contender Andrew Rhea

For a film class, I once did a scene from Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law where I took on the part of Laurette (originally played by Ellen Barkin). In the scene, I was kicking the character of Zach (played by the radical Tom Waits) out of my house by aimlessly tossing about his belongings. To successfully capture my rampage on camera in a small, window-less acting studio, my teacher decided after a few takes that we would proceed filming the scene as a close-up, meaning I couldn't move wildly out of frame and somehow had to contain my angry impulses within relative stillness. At some point in the heat of passion, I slammed my open palm down on a black wooden box (which, in acting school, translates into a ubiquitous and multi-functional piece of furniture) and did something like pop a blood vessel in the center of my palm. Needless to say, it hurt--after all, I was acting hard, but more importantly, it was bad ass.

This memory, which encompasses a number of bad ass associations, runs parallel in my mind with the above photo by Virginia-based photographer Andrew Rhea, and not in the sense that the nudie girl has a bad ass, but in the sense that she looks so bad ass sprawled naked on that bare mattress. Maybe my film class memory arose because there is a seedy-motel-room-thing going on here, which reminds me of throwing my scene partner's records out of our imaginary Louisiana abode. Or maybe because there is an overwhelming Jarmusch-ian (?) quality to this photo that includes loss, sexuality, and an inexplicable coolness.

I'm somewhere on the page with Rhea about the moodiness of his photos. He says, "I want to take pictures that have the same feeling that Tom Waits' songs do." Let's only hope he isn't being literal and referring to songs like "I'm Your Late Night Evening Prostitute" or 1992's "All Stripped Down". If there's any Waits song that this picture reminds me of, it's "Poncho's Lament":

Well the stairs sound so lonely without you
And I ain't made my bed in a week
Coffee stains on the paper I'm writing
And I'm too choked up inside to speak

Of this Waits-like quality, Rhea explains:

I just love the way he captures a dark and strange America, where you can hop trains and hang out with seedy carnival folks in empty bars. Just on a personal level, I feel like a lot of the mythical aspects of America are gone; there’s no moving out west, there’s no fighting heroic wars, and there’s no big city metropolis, with all its culture and glamour for kids in small towns to dream about.

Having not yet read Rhea's bio, it was these words of heightened romantic idealism that made me realize he had to be young--at least one of the youngest entrants to this season's competition, and its great to see photos imbued with this youthful quality to them. His images are alive and passionate. They are emotive, too, but they are not overwhelmingly sad or nostalgic, at least not primarily so. It's exciting to feel the still-beating heart in someone's work.

Of where he currently stands in the field of photography, Rhea says:

Now we live our lives on computers and through text messages, and I want to take pictures that make me feel like there’s still mystery and adventure to be found in America. I don’t know if I’ve done that yet--captured my views on my country, but I hope to some day. Right now I’m just trying to document my world, and remember the parts of it that are exciting and strange to me, the parts that romanticize being young and confused and in love.

The quality I enjoy in Rhea's photos is the same quality I adore in Jarmusch's films and in Godard's early films--this sense of play and romanticized storytelling. And it's even nicer to find it in an unpretentious embodiment. I also want to add that my boyfriend totally said I should post this photo, but that's just because boys like nudie girls. And his name is Andrew, too.

I'm guessing that this Andrew, a 20-year-old college student from 25 miles outside of Richmond Virginia, also liked nudie girls since he submitted the above photo. In his biography, he states that he grew up in a small town called Chester. "[It] was once a weekend destination for wealthy Richmond-ers," explains Rhea, "[that] over time because like any other suburb. That's why I like living there, [because] it's the kind of place where you are forced to be imaginative and creative, instead of having fun handed to you on a silver platter." Knowing that his idea of fun would make us here at the jb curious, he extended an offer to visit him in Chester, where he would take us to the rope swing and to get milkshakes at the Chester Village Grill, and honestly, I don't have it in me to resist a Virginian milkshake.

I have to go to work now. Unfortunately, we don't serve milkshakes there. But, you can get one for me somewhere in your hometown. And then, you can spend your free time entering the competition.

P.S. I had to include this awesome and totally relevant picture somewhere.

Untitled #7, Funeral Homes Series by Summer '07 contender Scott Chandler

When I saw this photo, I had a strong inclination to go here to see if I could color match the carpet to a stock palette in inventory and then here to research the economics of possible options to best outfit the floors of a funeral home. Scott Chandler's above photo reminds of the house I grew up in suburban Toronto with the barren walls, yellowed curtains, hideous light fixture and decent floor lamp, along with the synthetic, bright carpet (my house had pink carpet.) I also love how you can see the vacuum cleaner tracks across the carpet. That reminds me of my mom.

Chandler says that his work is:

primarily documentary based, and examines the constructed environment and its unconscious effect on its inhabitants. I am interested in issues of private and public space, representation, and isolation.

Every man made environment is constructed explicitly to facilitate a specific purpose or event, and to encourage a specific emotional state, and much can be read about those who dwell within. Funeral home interiors incorporate elements familiar and comforting to people in a time of grief and vulnerability. Couches, arm chairs, coffee tables, paintings, and drapery all provide a reminder of the average living room. However, certain elements disturb this imitation, such as the lack of personal items, the unusual arrangement of furniture, or the over-abundance of tissue boxes. The spaces are designed to give a sense of privacy, but are often used by several different families each day.

As a sidenote, when the college revealed its completed look to the city as a giant crayon box on stilts, designed by English architect, Will Alsop, there were many varied responses to its design. If you have not seen the very distinctive building, you can go here to see more images. The school is located in Downtown, Toronto beside the Art Gallery of Ontario (which is currently turning transforming into a $250-million remake by Frank Gehry.)

Chandler has a website with the rest of the Funeral Home series as well as another body of work that looks at hotel lobbies.

It is a rainy day here in New York. It is a day to sit inside and not endure Mother Nature. Here is a link to Six Feet Under clips: 1 + 2 + 3 + the last.

After you've checked those out, you may also wish to enter the competition.

Buffalo by Summer ‘07 contender Patrick Simpson

Hi. My name is Michael and I will be assisting Marina for the remaining days of the Hey, Hot Shot! Summer Edition. The entries this season, like every season, have been excellent and we would like to feature the work of a couple of more photographers before the competition closes.

This is my first entry, so I would like to apologize beforehand in case I sound overly verbose without having said anything really coherent.

I would like to start off with Patrick Simpson. When I first saw his photos, I was drawn to the colors and richness of the images. The composition of his shots is another aspect that I like, and I was not surprised to find out that in addition to being a photographer, he also works as a cinematographer on documentaries, commercials, and music videos.

The above image of the buffalo reminds me of a photograph from 2006 Hey Shot! Ne Plus Ultra, Ian Baguskas' series, Search for the American Landscape. I was born in the Prairie province of Alberta, and having left shortly after I was born, was never able to live and experience that landscape, so images like Simpson and Ian's of this particular terrain captured within a subtle, dark veil, evoke a sublime feeling that is in tandem with my wishing and imagining what it would be like to be in the midst of such fleeting, natural beauty.  Simpson and his work make me think of the English Romantic poets, like Woodsworth, Blake and Keats and their personal sense of awe with nature.

In his work statement, Simpson expresses a similar lifelong curiosity, appreciation and wonderment:

The first photographs I ever took was portraits of stuffed animals at the age of 5 with a old 110 camera. While the subject of my work has evolved, I've never lost that initial childlike awe at the magical process of photography.

Through exploration, I've learned to slow down, observe carefully, and find the heart in the world around me. The camera is the tool that I can pour myself through, in order to build the stories of my life and the people and places I see.

Born and raised in Detroit, Simpson moved to Los Angeles and graduated from Art Center College of Design.

The Competition closes on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 @ 11am Eastern Time. You can enter by clicking here.

Sleep (Untitled 01) by Summer '07 contender Barbara Sullivan

I have a friend named Meryl who cries at any mentioning of ghosts. Seriously, you don't even have to complete the first sentence of a ghost story and she'll already be crying. I mention this because this photo reminds me of ghosts, even though its from a series entitled Sleep by today's contender, Barbara Sullivan. My association of ghosts with Sullivan's photo is particularly pertinent today, since I am also recalling something former HS Nina Berman said to me last night about the men in her Purple Hearts series being kind of like ghosts. I think ghosts are fascinating and unbelievably frightening. I have felt this way ever since my older brother forced me to watch an episode of Unsolved Mysteries about ghosts on the Queen Mary. One of the segments showed a bunch of ghostly Abe Lincoln lookalikes wandering around in one of the ship's many rooms. I also likehow everyone always happens to have their own version of a ghost story.

Anyway, I doubt this photo is of a ghost. I think it is actually of a sleepwalker. Maybe. But, the point is that it's ghost-ly. It also reminds me of the cinematography in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, particularly of early scenes in the movie with the youngest daughter who kills herself first. (OOPS! I guess I just spoiled the whole thing for some of you...P.S. if you haven't read the book by Jeffrey Eugenides, you should because it's incredible.)

Sullivan calls the series "Sleep: The Unknown Darkness":

This project originated from my own insomnia and fascination with the nighttime hour. Researching scientific theories on sleep cycles as well as contemporary and historical ideas on dreaming, I used long exposures (sometimes up to 7 hours) to document the process. These “external� images are complemented by the “internal�--loose dreamlike narratives.

On her work as a photographer, Sullivan says:

I am most interested in creating a story by expressing the emotional and psychological experience that lies just below the surface. Although I originally began with painting, having been very much inspired by the German Expressionists, I found my medium and my voice in photography when I began photographing at night. For me, the night is a space of heightened awareness where we confront and engage with aspects of our most primal self. I later brought my work out into the light, but am still searching for this same rawness of mood and feeling.

Check out her website . Best of luck, Barbara!

Enter now, friends! Especially because for the final 5 days of submissions, we will be featuring two contenders a day, with Sir Michael Duong helping out here on the blog!

home is where... by Summer '07 contender Justin Visnesky

Like his co-contender Mimi Ko, Justin Visnesky likes to take photographs of what he calls "the simple, quiet times in life." And the simplicity of the hidden moment in the above image is exactly what attracts me to it. The image belongs to a series entitled "sometimes you just know" in which Visnesky explored spaces, "inhabited and otherwise."

I am intrigued/obsessed/drawn in by the way spaces are created, whether intentional or not. The "spaces" may be a window display, a sheet on a car window to protect it from snow, the way someone trims their bushes or puts something on their sidewalk. The list goes on and on. My aim is to reinterpret these spaces, creating something completely different, something that may have been originally overlooked or unintended. In the process I hope to create an image that is striking and, at times, humorous; taking the ordinary and making it something more, something for the keeping.

Justin Visnesky grew up in a village in Western Pennsylvania and went to college in "Jimmy Stewart's hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania!" He now lives close to the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. Of home and work he says, "The area where I live keeps getting bigger, but I am constantly inspired and influenced by the small place I still call home."

Best of luck, Justin!

The countdown begins once again: 6 days left to enter!

Miyuki (1 of 2) by Summer '07 contender Mimi Ko

On a quiet, overcast morning in L.A., I can't bring myself to get out of bed. I roll around aimlessly, kicking the objects I've left by my feet on the bed: a boxed candle, a play I bought at the flea market, this week's New York Times Magazine. My sheer, red curtains all of a sudden bring to mind the above photo by contender Mimi Ko, which I must have seen sometime last night before going to bed.

What I love about Ko's images is that they're all so quiet--kind of like the sound of music playing so low you don't know where its coming from. She submitted pictures from an ongoing series of portraits taken of women in bed. Her women never come across as tired or world-weary, which is what I sometimes think of about "the bed", but rather come off as sophisticated, playful, and dreamlike. They all look off into the distance, their eyes focused on nothing in particular, but their concentration is there--soft and focused. I really want these photos to be accompanied by an Air song, maybe Cherry Blossom Girl... Of the series, Ko says:

It is in bed that we have our most intimate moments, and where we allow ourselves to dwell on our most intimate thoughts. It is there that presence and absence are most keenly felt. My intention is to explore this in-between space we occupy, between waking and dreaming, of subtle moods and fleeting emotions.

Ko, like her photos, is soft and quiet--at least in terms of her biography. The following is all I know about the photographer:

She was born in Hong Kong.
She received a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College and a B.F.A. in Photography from the Art Center College of Design.
She currently lives in New York.

How mysterious!

Don't leave your work a mystery. Submit it to the Summer edition of Hey, Hot Shot!

Let Them Eat Cake by Summer '07 contender Laura Graham

I must preface this post saying that I ate the most unbelievable cake today, a remarkable tiramisu, that topped off my delicious lunch at Osteria La Buca in L.A. So, the words "let them eat cake" mean something seriously special to me right now.

In other news, how awesome is this picture? That little girl looks huuuuuungry! And devilish. Plus, she also kinda looks like she's dressed up as Robin for this solo birthday party of hers. I love the perspective of the photo which draws all the attention to that crazed child at the center. And it is such a cleverly set up shot. There is something about it that reminds me of fashion photography--its almost like a quirky Vogue Enfant fashion spread, non?

And who is the creative vixen behind the work? It's none other than current Brooklyn-ite Miss Laura Graham. Graham, who is originally from the Philadelphia area, received her BFA in 2003 in fine art and photography from the Moore College of Art and Design. She started out painting and drawing, but decided to take a photography class on a whim in her second year and "it turned into a bit of an obsession," she confesses. "One of the things that got me into photography was my obsession with collecting things," she explains. "When I would start getting overwhelmed with the amount of old things collected from dumpsters, antique stores and flea markets piled up around me it was time to compose a picture with it. Stuff seems somehow easier to let go of when it's had a chance to be documented." I know just how she feels. I am a flea market junkie--I can't seem to throw anything away. Luckily, I'm super organized, so I keep all my useless junk (and unwearable dresses, mainly) very tidy.

Of her work, Graham says:

I like to think of my images as stills from dreams. They definitely need a psychological aspect. I like working in a larger format not only for the quality of the negative but also the necessity to slow down and really set up a shot, as opposed to taking hundreds of shots and just editing. Inspiration comes from a huge amount of sources from fashion to photography to architecture to travel to music.

Moo. Baa. Enter nooow.

Leonard, Salvation Mountain, Niland, California, 2006 by Summer '07 contender Jay Gaffney

Intrigued by this portrait, taken by today's contender Jay Gaffney, I fed my curiosity with a little Google search. What I came across turned out to be far more interesting and well-documented than I expected. The pictured man is Leonard Knight, creator of the public piece of religious folk art known as Salvation Mountain, which is set outside the town of Niland, California. According to the official website, "Salvation Mountain is Leonard's tribute to God and his gift to world with its simple yet powerful message: 'God is Love'." I found detailed pictures of the work here. I knew that the story behind this photo was going to be good, but this is far better than what I imagined. I was just thinking that he was some washed out Kris Kristofferson-type communal farmer, as opposed to the awesomely tanned religious missionary/artist that he is.

While browsing Gaffney's website, I found the portrait placed in a series alongside other photos of California. I particularly enjoyed the photograph entitled "Dinosaur, Cabazon California." There is a good amount of work on his website, ranging from "portraits to street photographs to photos of roadside debris and was