Kites by aspiring Hot Shot Ansley West

That’s right, less than 24 hours remain until deadline. The period of procrastination must come to its due end. Ask yourself, are you Hot Shot material? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, here’s another submission spotlight. Aspiring Hot Shot Ansley West hails from Atlanta, Georgia and has dedicated her life to the photograph. She received her first camera at the age of 8 and moved into her darkroom at the tender age of 15. Looking to her active imagination for inspiration and her crafty skills for putting together sets, she aims to create surreal environments for her subjects. Good luck Ansley!

Entries must be in by 2PM tomorrow, that’s Monday February 12, 2007. Enter now!

Study No. 8 by Guy Hoffman

For some time aspiring Hot Shot Guy Hoffman has had what he calls an unhealthy obsession with pushing the boundaries of the still image. With the desire to capture something such as the “temporal impermanence of light” driving him, he decided to write his own software to get the results he was after. His words on the project:

In all my work, my goal is to reach the brink of subtle surrealism, playing with the distortion of time and space, and directly addressing human perception as it participates in art. … In the Time Bracketing series, I tried to make each image seem as if it could almost have happened in reality. If I’m successful, only closer investigation reveals first the physical impossibility of the image, then the dynamic presence of time as it creeps over the depicted space, and finally the realization that the image actually *does* capture reality in a very faithful (if surprising) way.

Good luck Guy! We’ve reached the homestretch. You have until Monday @ 2PM to enter the Winter 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Get it in, get it out there. Enter today!

I thought our lovely Jen Bekman had tipped the top of the chain letter hype and put all this meme-ness to rest. Then I saw that Hot Shot Shen Wei tagged me. While I was planning on ignoring it, I do usually try to talk about you rather than myself, so perhaps a proper introduction is in order. I’ll take this as an opportunity to let you in on how and why exactly I’m the one bringing you such fascinating daily posts. Here we go––5 things about your Hey, Hot Shot! Guide you probably didn’t know.

1. My roots : still a southern belle at heart

I was born and bred in the Delta, or Memphis if you will––the home of Elvis, rock-n-roll, and I’m banking 96% of readers’ favorite photographer. I attended the Hutchison School for Girls where I had ballet, etiquette, and impeccable grammar ingrained into me. I participated in cotillion, but got out right in time to avoid my debutante years. And while I can perform a rather intricate table setting, I consciously shed my drawl years ago.

2. Pre-digital days : a photographer is born

I used to take disposable cameras to school on almost a daily basis to snap pictures of my classmates (paying extra careful attention to the males I was lusting after). Then I’d have a lucky parent rush me to the nearest drug store for one-hour processing, allowing me to drool over the glossy snapshots all evening long. This was a terribly rewarding habit of mine for many, many years; in fact, I would venture to say one I still haven’t quite shaken.

3. The quintessential teenage girl + her camera

On any given night between the age of 15 and my high school graduation, I could be found in a small steamy shed in my backyard in Arizona, standing in front of my enlarger with a bag of ice and a fan behind my back. Here I printed hundreds of black and white images (many a’ macro) of eyes, nudes, dead birds, anything mildly gooey or disgusting, and, of course, my feet. [Not exactly a surprising fact, but just thought I’d verify it for you.]

4. Paying my dues and barely a penny to show

It began with a summer under Leslie Calmes in the research department at The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson where I spent hours trying to make sense of John Gutmann’s archives. I went on to intern for a photographer of many trades in New York––Gigi Stoll. A bit later, I found myself assistant to everyone’s favorite Chicagrapher, Brian Ulrich. I had a brief interlude with Chelsea, only to realize running errands was not my cup of tea––which led me to the fabulous Jen Bekman, where you find me now.

5. Going on 4 years––the complex has set in.

A student after my BFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I have spent an entire undergraduate career fixated on my stature. And it all started with a documentary on the human growth hormone which I dubbed The Last of a Dying Breed: ten action packed minutes of statistics, Randy Newman, and a brief shot of me secretly standing next to Steven Tyler.

Although I continue to have my curiosity humored as I watch this spread, I’ll follow suit and try to wrap it up. I’ll spare some lucky 5 the tags and instead prod some confidential meme-ness from our Ultras––whose show is up through March 3 and who will also be reviewing your submissions, so stay tuned.

But for the sake of reading pleasure, here are three from the family just in case you missed them: Jen Bekman, Joerg Colberg, and Shen Wei

Pony Bride by aspiring Hot Shot Debra Tomaszewski

Debra Tomaszewski’s interest in photography grew out of a degree in art education and the weekly task of running a middle school photography club. Inspired by the “metaphors and life lessons” of youth, she began photographing children and has been doing so ever since.

In “Growing Up Girl�, I examine universal themes of childhood as viewed through the female lens. These photographs are poetic metaphors for everyday moments. This series captures the confusing emotions and developing sexual/social identities of girls as they come of age and glimpse into their inner lives.

A well traversed subject, she walks it well. Her series is complete with 33 images many of which are worth a look.

Use the weekend wisely. Enter.

Last minute but not least, Anthony LaSala, Senior Editor for PDN and now Hey, Hot Shot! Panelist, has joined our ranks and right in time for the winter review! Anthony is a guiding light for photographers young and old, amateurs and the experienced alike. Already a friend and patron to the emerging photographer, he has helped to bring us PDN’s 30––their choice of the top 30 emerging photographer’s to keep your eye on. As the newest member of team Hey, Hot Shot!, he’ll help this beyond believable group select 2007’s initial round of Hot Shots. Yes, today spirits are high. Welcome Anthony!

Since 1997, Anthony LaSala has been part of the editorial staff at the award-winning, monthly magazine for professional photographers, Photo District News. Now a Senior Editor for PDN, he writes and oversees several columns for the publication, and has helped make the international magazine the “bible� of the photography industry. A nominee for Photography Editor of the Year at the 2003 and 2004 International Photography Awards, he has also been a regular contributor to a number of national magazines, guest curator for numerous gallery exhibitions in the New York City area, and a panelist for several annual contests. He is the author of the forthcoming The Brooklynites (powerHouse, 2007) and World’s Top Photographers: Nudes (Rotovision, 2005). He currently lives in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York.

I’ve said it before and will say it again, this all-star team keeps getting better and better. If you need a reminder of exactly who will be looking at your submissions, take a look at the panelist page [or see their sweet smiling faces on the blog].

Astronaut by Jim Turbert

Aspiring Hot Shot Jim Turbert is another case where it’s best to just let him say it. From Jim’s statement:

When there is a new child in a family, people tend to be happy and optimistic. They have high hopes because a baby is a blank slate, and theoretically anything is possible. If the child turns out to be clever, the hopes and expectations get even higher. I can recall my mother telling me that she thought I was going to be an astronaut when I grew up. Little did she know that only around 450 out of the 6.5 billion people on earth have been to outer space. One would need to be extraordinary to make the cut to be on that team. I am not extraordinary. The least ordinary thing about me is that I make self-portraits. The most recent batch is about expectations that my family and friends had for me as a youngster versus the reality of what I have become as a grown up.

On that note, keep it up Jim. As for everyone else, show us what you’ve got…enter today.

Carrot Cake House by Erin Gleeson

Aspiring Hot Shot Erin Gleeson grew up on an apple orchard where she aspired to follow family tradition and study the tricky art of the kitchen. But rather than heading off to culinary school, she found herself mastering photography in the big apple itself. And guess what she’s doing now, photographing food of course. Starting off with a more traditional method for depicting some of our most dangerous temptations, she’s recently decided to complicate matters for us…

On the glossy pages of magazines and ads we are trained to desire certain things that look a certain way. I decided to play with the advertising aesthetic by inserting pages from magazines as backdrops for my food––in a way placing them into desirable situations in order to tempt the viewer. In this way I question what it is that we are supposed to desire, supposed to want and supposed to have.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday @ 2pm––deadline!
That leaves you 4.5 days…enter soon or even now.

200+ New Housing development in Apodaca 2006 by Alejandro Cartagena

Initially picking up a camera to both help him understand his surroundings and offer him moments of solace during crazy times, aspiring Hot Shot Alejandro Cartagena is interested in self representation through the outside subject. As of late, he’s hunting for identity in familiar spaces. From his statement:

I returned to my home country (Dominican Republic) and did a conscious register of habitable spaces which I needed to redefine and make mine again. My actual work New Topographies from Northeastern Mexico is my way of understanding both the spaces where I finished growing up and the people with which I live. I capture the strange metamorphosis of landscapes waiting for the arrival of urban life and the lack of urban planning. Thousands of repetitive model homes that could be part of an uncanny TV show about who can make their homes the most original in the shortest time. Finally I look for how these new urban signs blend in with the natural landscape and see in this the signs of my adoptive culture.

The clock ticks, you’re on deadline. Enter today.

Count your lucky stars, for today we are feeling generous @ the jb. You’ve asked and we willingly oblige, the deadline for the Winter 2007 Edition of the Hey, Hot Shot! competition has officially been extended one additional week. You now have through next Monday at 2pm s-h-a-r-p to strut your stuff and get it in.

New deadline: Monday February 12 @ 2PM
Winners Announced: Monday February 19 @ 12PM
HHS! Winter Showcase Opening: Wednesday March 7, 2007 – 6-8PM

Be a winter winner and enter today!

Green Car by Joshua Smith

Joshua Smith hails from Springfield, Missouri and comes to Hey, Hot Shot! via the formidable, estimable and most awesome Mary Virginia Swanson.* Says Joshua:

The act of photographing brings the immediate world back to me, where I scrutinize from the distance I choose. Moving closer I find that the change in proximity offers fewer solutions than the scene at large. In creating these photographs the immediate world is returned to me, and I begin to reconcile the beauty and melancholy of our collective experience.

The end is near, for this season at least, and the panelists are gearing up for the Winter 07 review. It’s not too late… why not enter today?

*MVS’s Marketing Guidebook for Photographers is an excellent resource for the emerging photographer, and she’s just released an updated edition. Check it out.