From the series Three Star by James Deavin

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

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

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

A: Did you figure it out?

J: its a shame the 3star stuff has been TOTALLY overlooked because of the SL stuff… Figure what out?

A: What it’s all about? This second life… I’m joking, you don’t need to go there. I’m still somewhat in awe over it, that’s all.

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

A: I anxiously await.

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

William Henry Jackson and his glass plates and camera gear

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

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

A: A pioneer… THE pioneer.

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

A: sweet!

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

A: It is a bit crazy.

Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

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

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

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

A: Basically.

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

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

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

A: How’s the SL lens…?

J: what talk, Alice?

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

J: Wide angle.

A: Some people just won’t stop…

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

A: Maybe they’ll make options…

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

A: No, I don’t…I think it’s more the “mind trip” it takes them on…

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

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

J: Right.

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

J: lol

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

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

From William Eggleston’s Guide

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

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

A: Chicago

J: SL is my turf!

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

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

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

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

A: Alie Wheels

J: Oh yeah? Brill.

A: flickr.com/photos/akwells

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

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

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

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

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

A: Will do. Sleep well.

Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

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

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

And we’re off!

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

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

A: Well, I’ll have to look into it then…

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

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

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

A: And they’re all asking for you.

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

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

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

A: Well, just being here would be enough.

J: erm

A: In the air… Anyways. How about this “interview”?

J: ok

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

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

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

A: Did you enter before you headed this way?

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

A: How so?

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

A Summer 2005 Hot Shot winning image by Deavin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued…

Black Friday Frenzy at Macy’s in Herald Square from Hot Shot Casey Kelbaugh

Our very own Spring 2006 Hot Shot, Casey Kelbaugh, has a terrific, yet frightening photograph on the front page of today’s New York Times. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been trying my very, very best to stop being the good little consumer that I am and participate in Adbusters’ Buy Nothing Day. This has proven far more difficult than I had hoped, I have a million and one excuses up my sleeves––and 12 hours still remain. Luckily, I wasn’t one of the thousands waiting in line outside of a department store at 4 a.m. on a freezing November morning––that takes some serious goals. Full of admiration, we are proud of our brave Hot Shot, shooting at risk of stampede.

See the shot and read the article here. Or even better be a rebellious rebellion and get yourself a good ol’ hard copy.

Fall 2006 Hot Shot Mette Maersk

Take a look at the Fall 2006 Hot Shot’s work. We’ve got 30 excellent images in our HHS! Winners set, up now on Flickr!

Check it out here.

And get ready, you can see it all live at the Hot Shot Showcase December 13, 2006 from 6–8. Be there.

Untitled (Three) by Fall Hot Shot Patrick Smith

It keeps getting harder and harder, but somehow we have managed to narrow it down to a final ten! Drum roll please… The winners for the Fall 2006 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! are:

Juliana Beasley
Joe Fornabaio
Hans Gindlesberger
Joseph O. Holmes
Mette Maersk
Chad Muthard
Victoria Rich
Sasha Rudensky
Patrick Smith
Shen Wei

Write it in––the Showcase Soiree in honor of our new Hot Shots is Wednesday, December 13 from 6–8pm. The show will be up from December 14–17, 2006 and what a show it promises to be! And Fall Hot Shots are also going to be included in the first of its kind HHS! Yearbook—out this December!

Special thanks to our fantastic group of panelists, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a big thank you out to all of the participants!

It indeed was a difficult round for decision making—so much great stuff to see, some Honorable Mentions are in order.

Joslin Van Arsdale, Alain Astruc, Meg Birnbaum, Karin Bubas, Alana Celii, Larissa Cleveland, Cary Conover, Rachel Herman, Alexandra Huddleston, Siri Kaur, Drew Kelly, Orrie King, Daniel Kopton, Suzette Lee, Nick Meyer, Stephen Miller, Graeme Mitchell, Mark Rubenstein, Lissa Rivera, Angie Smith, Sam Sweezy, Grant Willing, Christopher Young

There’s some good work in those links…spend some time, take a look. And stay tuned for more excitement in the week to come!

Paddy’s Mother’s Wig by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Juliana Beasley

Juliana Beasley
Currently residing in Jersey City, NJ

website: http://www.julianabeasley.com/

Work Statement
The people in these photographs are largely disregarded: the poor, the elderly, the mentally ill, alcoholics, or drug addicts. They live in a close- knit community along the boardwalk of the Rockaways. I became accepted with my camera in hand.

I feel compelled to photograph the people I’ve met in the Rockaways with the same honor and clarity I would bestow upon my own parents. I document an illness we share in common; reflecting upon a chaotic childhood soaked in the misery of alcoholism and two parents dead of a fatal disease. Despite our worldly exteriors, our humanity connects us.

This project confronts various levels of marginalization. There is a geographic marginalization insofar as all of this takes place on a peninsula at the far-flung edge of the city where the fog rolls over the beaches. Secondly, there is the social marginalization, the fact that the subjects are poor, physically or mentally challenged, and otherwise living far outside the mainstream, virtually invisible. Finally, and most importantly perhaps, there is the interior marginalization, a loneliness that I attempted to capture in the portraits, a sense of personal isolation that is often exacerbated by or results in alcoholism or drug addiction.

Bio
Juliana Beasley was born in Philadelphia, PA, USA, on August 16, 1967. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York in 1990, she began working as a freelance photographer, covering the city’s nightlife for the Village Voice. In 2003, she published Lapdancer (powerHouse Books 2003), an intimate photographic and text account of the world of strip clubs. In 2004, she photographed the rehabilitation of landmine victims in Cambodia. Her newest book project, concerns substance abuse and mental illness in a boardwalk community in Queens, New York.

Her work has appeared in many major publications, including American Photo and The New Yorker in the US, and Max in Germany. Her work is represented Contact Press Images and the pH on-line gallery, both in New York. Ms. Beasley has participated in group shows and in 2006, had her first one-woman show in Stockholm at the Kontrast Galleri. Most recently she showed her work at the Camera Club of NYC Competition, juried by Antonin Kratochvil. She will lecture about her book and have a signing at the Camera Club in November 2006.

When not working she is dancing with her dog, Moishe in Jersey City.

Cakestare by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Joe Fornabaio

Joe Fornabaio
Currently residing in Staten Island, NY

website: http://www.joefornabaio.com

Work Statement
My current focus is on my family but not just my parents, brothers and sister but also aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids. I grew up literally and emotionally very close to them so they’re more than just an extended family. I enjoy the holidays and personal occasions that allow me to just be with them, and the pictures from these occasions are really an extension of the happiness of their gathering. On any occasion I’m there in celebration with them but they’ve become comfortable with my camera by my side so I get to shoot the things that I find interesting about them without drawing a glance. And what do I find interesting about them? Everything. I know, I know…cliche, but it’s true. The kids are an endless source of entertainment and the adults make for and endless display of manners. There’s no deep meaning to my work, I just enjoy the time I spend with them and I’m drawn to their little habits and quirks that make them beautiful. And as a result, I’ve started to explore this with other projects.

Bio
Born and raised in Brooklyn,NY. Was introduced to photography by my high school arts teacher which led me to a BFA in Photography at The School of Visual Arts. Assisted editorial and commercial/advertising photographers for a bunch of years and now I’m pursuing my own career in editorial and commercial/advertising photography.

Untitled (theatre) by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Hans Gindlesberger

Hans Gindlesberger
Currently residing in Buffalo, NY

website: http://www.gindlesberger.com/

Work Statement
As a result of neglect or inability to modernize, the American small town has fallen victim to economic decline and is forced to consider its relevance in contemporary society. As a remedy, there is a rush to embrace a nostalgic image of an idealized past. However, by adopting this mythical image, the small town becomes a simulated space. This work explores the strained relationship of an anachronistic simulation with the present reality and the residual effect on individual identity.

Probing the psychology of a transient character inserted within a variety of constructed environments calls to attention how the individual is affected by his environment. This staging references the form of theater along with silent film and pushes otherwise realistic images toward the threshold of a dreamlike space. These photographic scenes suspend a transitory moment in which the protagonist is presented with an opportunity to make a decision. In his aimlessness, the character is a product of the changing relationship of the small town to mass society. The repeated emphasis on the will of the character and the absence of decisive action renders these situations absurd and interrogates contemporary concerns about identity, authenticity, and the loss of belonging.

Bio
The experience of growing up in the small town Midwest is the root of my work. I stayed in Ohio through the completion of my BFA at Bowling Green State University before moving to Buffalo, NY to pursue an MFA. Photography appealed to me first as a common interest with my father and then as a way to engage in a different way of looking at my environment. Currently, I hold positions as an adjunct instructor at several schools in Western New York. Aside from making work, I have enjoyed travelling extensively for the past several years, both throughout the US and abroad.

Hot and Cold Salad bar by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Joseph Holmes

Joseph Holmes
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY

website: http://joesnyc.streetnine.com/

Work Statement
Taking pictures is extremely gratifying. There are mornings when I’m wandering through Soho or Tribeca or Chinatown, when the sunlight is fine and diffuse and the air takes on an unfamiliar tint, when the hydrants and street debris seem a little too purposely arranged, maybe a little coy or ironic, and it’s at those times that I’m seized by the feeling that the whole city is a film set. I imagine a crew of little film-set elves passing through during the night, sprinkling film-set dust everywhere and preparing the street for the arrival of camera operators, focus pullers, and little elf teamsters in their little denim jackets and white Adidas. On those days, we all live in a film set and I’m the set photographer.

Bio
I was born in 1954 and raised in a tiny factory town in rural Pennsylvania where my father taught me how to take pictures and use the darkroom; I spent many years shooting nothing but black and white film. I lived in various towns and cities in the Midwest and East before settling in Brooklyn in 1984 where I now live with my wife and two children. I teach photography at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Untitled (paintjob) by Fall 2006 Hot Shot Mette Maersk

Mette Maersk
Currently residing in Copenhagen, Denmark

website: http://www.mettemaersk.dk/

Work Statement
The present text delineates my practice in words, differentiating from the visually explored territories, where I usually try to sense before reflecting. I often use small work titles, though. Short Maxims, simultaneously condensing and generating the core of matter(s) to be explored. They introduce gaming dialectics, and are the touchstones I work with.

Conditions of exile and identity have become my grounding as photographic story-teller. On most projects, the steppingstone is my physical displacement into a carefully chosen field, combining a geographical drift with an emotional one. Thus creating a polyphonic whirl, including exact phenomena and randomness. The work can best be described as embedment of matter density.

The visual matter develops and frames. In those visions, various architectural spaces are investigated as metaphysical conglomerates or invasive motives, initializing oblique stances on place and gender.

The fieldwork is thus double tracked. One exiled path in alien territory, and the other, its opposite: whereabouts in the familiar provincial, the grounding of identity, where personal matter can be handled exotically.

One can newer fully grasp the implications of what we observe, but we can gradually approach a totality, subsequently. In the mean time, signatures have to be recorded and contours framed, as handles to grasp.

Bio
female > born 1970 > 182 cm tall > nearsighted > long dark hair > grew up in the countryside north of Copenhagen in a big house with 3 fireplaces > got my first camera at christmas 1985 > studied at the Danish Design School > post grad studies at the Danish film school > exhibitions in Denmark, Italie and Finland <