Sunrise, Emerald Bay by Summer ‘07 contender Adrian King.

Having just returned to the city from a back-and-forth weekend excursion to les Hamptons, I am particularly appreciative of nature right now. Born and raised in urban centers, I am not accustomed to enjoying my morning coffee on a back porch surrounded by greenery, or spotting deer (3 of them!) munching on roadside grass on my drive home. Thus, today I have a soft spot in my heart for contender Adrian King’s beautiful image of a Californian sunrise.

Firstly, I must admit that until recently I never had a predilection for landscape photography. That is until I started examining these Hot Shot submissions, which have been continuously impressive and have expanded my photographic tastes. Plus, I also saw this great show not too long ago at the Gulf + Western Gallery while in NYU’s Tisch building. The show featured agrarian landscapes by Samantha Contis, who is currently enrolled in the M.F.A. photography program at Yale University. So, this new affection for landscapes has been engendered in me recently.

I know that it’s easy to compare King’s photo to the work of Ansel Adams, but this image reminds me of this Adams one. The curving shape of the water brings up a feeling in me that I can’t put my finger on… Or maybe it’s that the shape is calming and pleasing to the eye. There’s another image that gives me the same feeling, of a freeway that runs parallel to a river that curves similarly, taken by a man I know all too well named Andrew Simkiss.

Anyway, I’m not the only one who put two and two together with Adrian and Ansel. Of Adams’ work, our contender says, “I have tried to take inspiration from the master of all Yosemite photographers — Ansel Adams. Maybe if I live here for another 100 years or so, I’ll get one image that Ansel might have approved of!”

Here’s a little more about Mr. Adrian King:

I am originally from England but now a US citizen. I have lived in several places in the western United States and I’ve traveled extensively throughout the US, Mexico and the Caribbean — all the while taking photographs. I have been taking photographs most of my life (my Dad gave me a box Brownie when I was about 10). I have followed all the iterations of technology while never having the budget to splurge on a $5000 camera! I enjoy taking landscape and wildlife photographs, particularly those with a whimsical or unusual twist. I now live in the Lake Tahoe region and I have begun exploring the vast natural areas around me.

Best of luck, Adrian!

P.S. Has anyone ever heard that Muse song, “Time is Running Out”? Because if you haven’t gotten the picture yet, your time is running out. One week left, future hot shots. ENTER NOW!

Arturo and Maxwell Vale - Pocantico Hills, NY 2006 by contenders James Tribble and Tracey Mancenido

Has this ever been done before on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog? Has there ever before been a photo duo vying for one of the 10 winning spots of a hot shot competition? A married photo duo, I might add??

That’s right, today’s contenders (!), James Tribble and Tracey Mancenido are a newly married photo duo who have been “shooting in tandem for 2 years.” The above portrait is from a series called “TUE, WED, SAT”, which has a special meaning for the pair:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are the days that we, as newlyweds have dedicated time to spend with one another photographing the world around us. Awkward at times, we all have brief encounters with strangers on a daily basis. Living and working in such a busy city we all become consumed and operate on a continuous routine. It’s that constant divide of time away from home, working, and being in transit that separates us all from one another.

I’ve never really given much thought to the authorial issues at hand with a media-based duo. I’ve thought about auteur theory in relation to cinema and its strong directorial personalities, but never applied this school of thought to the work of a directorial duo, like the Coen Brothers, for example. I wonder how the concept of authorship applies to photographic work. Is it a matter of shared intellectual property? Ok…now I’m rambling to myself…

Speaking of duos, the boys in the photo above are quite the dynamic duo, right? Arturo on the left looks like he learned his pose from a Banana Republic ad, while little Maxwell projects comedic genius, unless he’s just really uncomfortable in front of the camera. It’s a beautifully posed photo, as are the other images of children in parks that Tribble and Mancenido submitted. They also have another great series called “Pillow Talk” that can be seen on their website (and was also featured on jb friend Amy Elkins’ blog wanderlustagraphy), which explore the physicality of intimacy and shared space in relationships. Looks like this pair is pretty keen on shooting people in pairs, and they’re good at it.

Here’s a little more about James and Tracey:

Our curiosity of people drives us to create portraits as a collective glimpse of where we live. During moments of passing and obligation do we find inspiration in our subjects. These images are an extension of the only time we manage to share together, both working different schedules. They are portraits of strangers, co-workers, passerby and friends. As an ephemeral survey of our daily encounters, we hope to stir the same curiosity for one another and influence similar friendships.

Tribble is a former SVA student originally from South Carolina. His wife, Tracey, grew up in New York City and studied in Florence, Italy. The are currently living in upstate New York where they are working on a project that explores the states, commerce, and goods.

10 days left, friends. 10 days.
(Submit now.)

Let’s Go to the Strange Places by Summer ‘07 contender Paul Paper.

Today’s contender, photographer Paul Paper, hails from a place quite far from here: Vilnius, Lithuania. And, yet, looking through his photos, it is evident that he is quite at home with his English, which is tinted with a mix of wit and poetry that comes across in the titles of his work, like “He was Naughty and He Liked Biology” or “With Bated Breath (In the Field that Breathes)”.

His photo, “Let’s Go to the Strange Places” has a surrealist cinematic quality to it. There’s something of the Czech animator Jan Å vankmajer’s aesthetic in Paper’s photo, and there’s also a drug-induced dreamlike quality to it.

Coincidentally, Paper calls photography an art of perception. “It’s not about giving something for the eyes to see,” he says, “but rather sharing something for the mind to perceive.” His photos never give you a straight answer, but rather challenge you to determine the story being presented to you. They are meant “to be looked at with the eyes and mind,” explains Paper, “or one might miss out part of the story they tell.”

Paul Paper was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1985. He began to shoot photos around the age of 15 when his aunt gave him a camera. Eventually he bought his own camera and began to take photos more increasingly. Of the magic of photography, Paper says, “The somewhat extraordinary capability of photography to create story within a simple frame is what really captured me in this media. Sometimes I am really moved to see a good, subtle picture which tells only ‘half of the [truth], trusting the viewer to create the other half.”

As for his creative influences, Paper cites “life and all it’s implications”, as well as “odd places in foreign countries” as his primary sources of inspiration.

Make sure to check out Paper’s awesome photo site, It Is My Party.

Good luck, Paul!

A week and a half left for submissions, so keep them coming!

Dear friends and cherished readers,

Today I made the long and difficult journey from Manhattan to East Hampton by bus. Subsequently, after a Big Gulp-sized iced coffee I bought as I disembarked the Jitney, I spent the day helping out jb in a big, arty warehouse for this evening’s preview of Scope.

After this morning’s 6AM wake up call and the hearty burger I just devoured at some place called Rowdy Hall, I am exhausted.

So, I apologize for not presenting a new contender to you today–I had a good one lined up and everything. However, my bed (or lovely corner couch, that is) is beckoning and I must forgo this evening’s post for some shut-eye. I know you’re all demolished and distraught by this unfortunate news, but I’m sure you’ll get over it at some point in the near future.

I’ll see you all tomorrow, I hope.

All my love,
Marina

P.S. At Scope, we’re showing plenty of former hot shots, like Karolina Karlic, Brad Moore, Ian Baguskas, James Deavin, Joe Holmes, Christine Collins, and Alison Grippo. So, maybe you should try and be a hot shot, too!

The Eldest Daughter by Summer ‘07 contender Kathleen Robbins.

“Do you have someone in your life?
Mam? Oh. Yes, Frances.
Don’t forget to fall in love. You will fall in love, won’t you?”

These few words encompass my introduction to the work of today’s contender Kathleen Robbins. I hadn’t even seen her images yet and I was all of a sudden swept into a new world. From there, it continued:

Each time I visited there was a greater sense of urgency in her voice. The machine that pulls water from the air kicks on and inside it’s now, outside it’s then. Inside it’s 1928. Outside it’s now. Time and place are experienced differently here. It’s a disorienting place to be, and when I come back I lose my sensibilities after a few hours. I forget how long I’ve been gone and which life I’m living. Mine or my mother’s. My mother’s mother. Some ancestor I only know from photographs.

I’m no longer sure if Ms. Robbins is a poet or a photographer. Coming upon her images and looking at the above photo, I let the words that served as my introduction linger between my ears. A story colored the frame before my eyes. The photograph offers a delicate view into a pristine home, with its hand-made bedspread drenched in antiquity, and a room so white that I can only think of weddings. To top it all off, the picture is titled, “The Eldest Daughter.”

So, I’ve already mentioned once that I have this problem where I automatically create stories for everything, right? Well, my mind is basically writing a book about today’s photo. All I can think about is the eldest daughter. Is it her wedding day? Is this the room she will be leaving for good? What does all the white say about the situation? Such a beautiful, homely bed has strong connotations of family and warmth, and all the white gives the room a godly quality to it. There is something so well put-together and Southern about this image that makes it completely foreign to me, yet it’s also kind of mesmerizing for that reason.

Robbins understands this eccentricity of the South and goes on to explain how her interest in this region came about:

I was first introduced to images of the American South through film adaptations (Long Hot Summer, Baby Doll, Ode to Billy Joe, Sweet Bird of Youth, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, dark and sad and so over the top you couldn’t take your eyes away. I loved how the southern landscape looked in Technicolor, but I hated what the stories revealed about us. My photographs weave together my own memories of “home� with those of my friends and family, collapsing a sense of personal history with a broader visual concept of the Mississippi Delta. My own image of home was formed by an experience, which straddled the line between myth and reality. While many areas of the southeast are beginning to resemble any city or town in the US, the delta refuses to assimilate. It remains profoundly eccentric.

Kathleen Robbins was born in Washington D.C. in 1976 and grew up in the Mississippi Delta. She has a BFA from Millsaps College and an MFA from the University of New Mexico’s graduate photography program. Her work has most recently been exhibited at the 2006 Ping Yao International Photography Festival in Ping Yao, China and in the 2006 International Juried Exhibition at the San Diego Art Institute’s Museum of the Living Artist. She is currently the Assistant Professor of Art and Photography at the University of South Carolina.

Check out Kathleen Robbins’ website for more photographers of her home in the American South.

The deadline is getting closer, you future hot shots, so get your work in today!

Adult Books, Kenosha, WI by Summer ‘07 contender Vanessa Sanchez.

“Though the advent of the Internet has revolutionized the pornography industry,” explains today’s contender, Vanessa Sanchez, “in certain areas of the United States, strewn along long stretches of highway there [remain] small colonies of porn shops and hole in the wall strip joints.”

Aside from the beautiful combination of the snow-covered ground set under an icy, white sky, this photo has an irresistible ironic charm to it that I love. Sanchez’s point-of-view in shooting these middle American porn shops from a distance is funny and almost endearing. It reminds me of a Coen Brothers-type point-of-view, very much akin to the humor of their 1996 hit, “Fargo”. I also love the trace of one set of icy footprints leading out of the warehouse-sized bookshop.

Sanchez explains that this series “takes viewers on an alternative road trip to the seedy places many of us simply bypass in our cross-country travels.” Of the humor inherent in the photographs, Sanchez says that the hilarity comes from simply acknowledging a “roadside phenomenon that is generally disdained or disregard.”

The following is a little more about this witty contender:

Vanessa was born in Evanston, Illinois and grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. She has been involved in photography since begging her mother to purchase a Mickey Mouse camera for her at age four. Growing up in the North Shore, she developed a strong appreciation for strip malls, Louis Vuitton, and Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Spending time in the city of Chicago, traveling around the world, and frequenting museums and galleries provided a framework for her photography. Vanessa focuses her work in the style of the New Topographics, using Americana and kitsch as a framework for her images. She is 26 and a graduate of Columbia College Chicago.

Best of luck, Vanessa!

Exactly two weeks left to get your entries in, so submit your work now! It’s easy, I promise.

The Hanging Space by Summer ‘07 contender Donina Asera.

This picture reminds me of an empty house in the South, one that used to be warm and full of life, but has since then degenerated into a decrepit space. There’s something of A Streetcar Named Desire’s Blanche in it–soft beauty tarnished by an unfortunate fate. I’m also reminded of the house in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, in which the wife and mother, Addie, is dying, and the family’s troubles begin to unravel.

Between the soft blue shade of the wall and the white lace in the frame, there is something really feminine about this image. However, the blue is also fading and the lace is torn, so the femininity is kind of tainted. About her photographs, Australian contender Donina Asera says, “My aim is to create emotionally evocative images. The majority of my photos are unpeopled, although there are often traces of a human presence, like a lingering trace or debris of an event.” This lingering, but absent human presence is exactly what I sense in her photograph, and that quality isn’t eerie or strange, but particularly sad.

As a photographer, Asera is fairly new to the craft:

I started taking an interest in photography about 3 years ago having started in digital with a Canon 300D, then a 30D. I am now finding myself shifting to large format photography and have an old press camera. I’m attracted to the formality of large format and the process, which to me is ceremonial. An act of devotion. A ritual of respect.

Of her formal training (or lack thereof), she says the following:

My grandfather was an artist in both oils and watercolours and I loved to watch him work in his studio. While I have no formal training in photography or art, he taught me many things about art. In 1990, I was accepted into a Fine Arts course at a university, but declined the offer. I wonder now how my life might have been different.

According to super-string theory, there are parallel universes. In at least one of these, I completed the Arts course. In others, my photography is crowded with people. There are infinite possibilities of pasts and futures. I want to capture these imagined possibilities in my photography.

It’s nice to think that as an artist, she was trained in multiple universes–her technique bestowed upon her in a different universe, and her passion for the art-form engendered in this one.

Donina Asera was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1971. Her grandfather, who taught her a lot about the world of art, passed away while she was in her first year at university, studying psychology. Although she considered earning a degree in Fine Arts after his death, she decided against it and left college for the working world. Her interest in photography came a few years ago after she bought a DSLR 3 to take along with her to Europe. Upon her return to Australia, she was encouraged by a friend to further pursue photography. The rest, she says, ” is trial and error. Well… Okay, mostly accidents and flailing about uselessly.”

Be sure to check out Asera’s photographs on her website.

And while you’re surfing the web, you may as well head over here and apply to the Summer edition of Hey, Hot Shot!

Greta, Austin by Summer ‘07 contender Jennifer Loeber.

Having just read New York Magazine’s article on the late fashion icon Isabella Blow, I am really hooked up on glamour, and the above photo by contender Jennifer Loeber strikes me as très glamorous. I grew up under the guidance of a very fashionable mother, the kind who has a different shade of lipstick for each day of the year and has never thrown out an old pair of shoes. Through my mother, who is actually a fashion designer, I became addicted to high quality fashion magazines and, more specifically, fashion photography. Loeber’s photograph reminds me of a chic, on-the-go photo shoot–the kind my little girl fantasies have always put me in.

Back to the subject at hand: the Brooklyn-based Loeber began taking pictures after, and I quote, “being forced to wear pink sequined gypsy pants as a stand-in model for a high school photography class” and realizing that the other side of the lens was more appealing. Loeber says that her work is inspired by a wide range of photographers and artists, but explains that her most recent inspirations include “the evocative palette of Evelyn Hofer’s portraiture” and “the subtle gestures of Rineke Dijkstra’s beach series.”

Loeber’s photos are images of transitory moments, what she calls “the subtle turning points between past and future.” She aims to capture the moment in time in which “a glimpse of an inner narrative or true spirit may be revealed.” She continues:

In an increasingly corporate and media dictated world determined to unnaturally separate the human experience into black or white, I prefer to concentrate on the muddied up gray areas of neither grandeur nor debacle that make up the larger portions of most peoples lives and experiences. Although my subjects are varied, the overall focus echoes our daily expectations, our overabundance of choice, and the hidden dangers of the unknown that threaten us profoundly yet internally.

Loeber has a BFA in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and exhibits her work regularly in Boston and New York. Most recently, she participated in a group show at New Century Artists and her first feature-length documentary Fish Kill Flea premiered at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Good luck, Jennifer!

You still have time to submit your work to the Summer edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Do it!

Mattress, Northampton, MA 2007 by Summer ‘07 contender Ben Alper.

Today’s contender, photographer Ben Alper, is interested in the American landscape. He speaks of “evaluating man’s imprint on the modern urban fabric” through photographing exclusively urban areas. I am immediately reminded of former hot shot Ian Baguskas’s series, “Search for The American Landscape”, and his Blurb-published book of the same title that I can’t keep my hands off while hanging out at the gallery.

Unlike Baguskas’s landscape, which centers around the rural West Coast, Alper’s landscape consists of urban centers on the East Coast. On The Exposure Project, a blog for the photography collective he participates in, he exhibits a series of Polaroids taken in Manhattan and Brooklyn that tightly frame the urban landscape which he admires. On his site, he also has a smart series entitled, “Urban Nature”, in which concrete and vegetation co-exist to a certain degree of aesthetic pleasure. His landscapes often depict a quality of abandonment, as with the photo posted above. At first it’s just a photo of a poorly-kept backyard, until you notice the beat-up and deserted mattress hidden among the reeds.

Why the interest in the American landscape?

The contemporary American landscape is a complex and sprawling organism rife with both immense beauty and stark loneliness. Sometimes these emotional lines are clearly defined, but more often, these places attain a synthesis somewhere in the middle. I am drawn to neighborhoods that are inherently ambiguous in social distinction. Often forgotten and neglected, the weathered architecture and discarded personal relics fundamental of these neighborhoods, represent traces of humanity that have been displaced. What remains is a fragmented history of culture and community.

Alper goes on to explain the method to his madness:

I search for the subtle imperfections and uncharacteristic nuances that make these areas unique. By highlighting them, I hope to emphasize the aesthetic and social merit prevalent in these scenes. The potency of the social landscape lies in what it truly symbolizes; the effects that our decisions have on the vitality of the communities we live in.

Ben Alper was raised in Western Massachusetts and is currently based in Boston. He is a founding member of the aforementioned collective The Exposure Project, whose goal is to give exposure to emerging photographers working on long-term projects. His work has been exhibited on websites such as F-Stop Magazine and the Photographic Resource Center’s Northeast Exposure Online. This fall, Ben will be focusing on photography at the Massachusetts College of Art.

Best of luck, Ben!

It’s not too late for the rest of you aspiring hot shots to enter the running!

Pin Up Pageant by Summer ‘07 contender Beth Dubber.

Today’s photo by contender Beth Dubber could pass for a 1950s postcard of Californian pin-up girls. Except these girls look too bad ass to be from the 50s. Check out that full sleeve on the center model! Unlike a typical pin-up photo, however, Dubber’s portrait is too detailed and full of life to be staged. She explains that she likes to “shoot ‘loosely’ and be as candid as possible.” Her philosophy is to be a “visual documentarian” of the life she experiences around her, because, she says, “I think we all have something special to share about our experiences and life.”

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1971, Dubber got her start in photography at the tender age of 17, when she won a photo competition that she believes gave her the confidence to keep on shooting photos. During her time at Cleveland State University, where she earned her BA in Studio Art with a concentration in photography, she also spent time studying in Bali, Indonesia and in Weingarten, Germany. She cites her time in Bali as a challenging experience that has significantly affected her current work:

One of the best photography opportunities I have ever had was living in a small rice farming village in Bali for 3 weeks and being able to photograph their way of life and take portraits. At the time, I had only 13 rolls of film, I am grateful for the challenge, it made me extremely mindful of each frame I was taking. I carry this with me even now when I am shooting digitally, with the seemingly endless amount of frames one may take.

As for her main influences, Dubber cites photographers Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Harry Callahan, James Nachtwey, and Cindy Sherman.

Check out Dubber’s “Photo of the Week” series, available on her site, in which she sends out a fresh, weekly image to those on her mailing list.

You know what else you should check out? The application page for the Summer 2007 edition of Hey, Hot Shot!