Okay, so you like what you see here, and you’ve done some further investigating at the 20×200 and Jen Bekman sites. Hopefully you’ve visited the gallery and other galleries too. Now it is time to start shopping.

Join Jen Bekman, Michelle Dunn Marsh, and Amy Stein, and moderator Michael Foley for In Focus: Collecting Photography, a panel discussion, tonight, Thursday, June 12, at 7:00 p.m. at The Affordable Art Fair (135 W 18th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues).

The Affordable Art Fair is, “the place for new and established collectors to discover and buy paintings, drawings, sculptures, video, photography and limited edition prints from distinguished galleries, all priced from $100 - $10,000. This year the Fair will host more than 70 galleries from the US, Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America.”

Kent Rogowski, from Love = Love

Hot Shots and would-be Hot Shots and regular people alike: go see Kent Rogowski’s show, Love = Love, at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to present Love = Love, an exhibition by Kent Rogowski, comprised of six large-scale photographic prints based on altered puzzles, as well as a selection of the original objects. Love = Love will be on view until Saturday, June 14, 2008.

Rogowski’s collages are created with pieces of puzzles which are cut from the same die but depict different, unrelated images. Using these photographic fragments as his palette, Rogowski creates entirely new compositions by his careful mapping of their collisions. The intermixing of these glossy idealizations of flowers, bucolic scenery, and man-made wonders results in disorienting and wholly unique fractured fantastical landscapes. In photographing his completed objects, Rogowski transforms them yet again. Shifting the scale of the photographic image modulates the grid-like uniformity produced by the borders of the puzzle pieces, diminishing or increasing the order they exert over the chaos of the constructed image.

James Danziger, of Danziger Projects, thoughtfully wrote,

“Mixing flowers, blues skies, puffy clouds, and idyllic scenery, Rogowski creates his own alternate fractured universe, one that undergoes yet another transformation when he photographs the finished object. Humorous and cheery, they are not without their own sly commentary on the commodification of happiness and idealism.

Whether they’re photography or re-photography or collage (or a combination of all three) is beside the point. Kent Rogowski’s work demonstrates yet again that although it may be increasingly hard to come up with new ideas, where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Winter ‘07 Hot Shot Mickey Smith

Why visit one gallery, when you can visit 75+ all at once? The AIPAD Photography Show runs today through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory. “More than 75 of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries will present a wide range of museum quality work by contemporary, modern and 19th century masters at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City,” says AIPAD.

“AIPAD is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying and selling photographs as art. Acting as the collective voice of the art photography dealers that make up its membership, AIPAD maintains ethical standards, promotes communication within the photographic community, encourages public appreciation of photography as art, concerns itself with the rights of photographers and collectors, and works to enhance the confidence of the public in responsible photography. AIPAD members provide a wide range of services to the public, such as exhibitions, appraisals, expert opinions and consultations.”

And while an armory full of exhibitors can feel like overload, it’s also a great chance to quickly visit with some people you might not usually have the time (or the access) to see.

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

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

“The Town and the City” is up through April 26.

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

Painted Palms, California City, by Ian Baguskas, 2007 30×37.5″ C-print

Ian Baguskas was a Spring ‘06 Hot Shot, a 2007 Ultra, and his “Kamping Kabins” is available now at 20×200.

Sweet Water, Baguskas’ debut solo exhibition in New York City, is comprised of thirteen color photographs of failed oases of the American West. Please join us for the show’s opening tomorrow, Friday, March 21, from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Sweet Water will remain on view at Jen Bekman Gallery through Saturday, April 26, 2008.

Baguskas is skilled at juxtaposing the refuse of habitats of modern aspirations with the vast land and otherwise open skies that those constructs interrupt. His images are quiet and still, non-snarky meditations on man’s remaking of nature. In Sweet Water, he captures development (and attempts at development) of the land, and also the subsequent decay of much of that development.

He says, “…This lifestyle was only temporary, ending when the aquifers were depleted and the water ran out.” He explores a dyed lake in Antelope Valley, 80,000 acres of desert known as the would-be Los Angeles of California City, Rincon Artificial Island and Pipeline in Ventura, and a tiny green driving range at the Silver Saddle River “resort.”

Ian Baguskas was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1977 and moved to New York to attend The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he received his BFA in 2000. Recently named a PDN 30, Baguskas was a nominee for the 2008 KLM Paul Huf Award. His Search for the American Landscape series was shown earlier this year in a three-person show at The Ice Box in Philadelphia, PA.

Sweet Water at Jen Bekman Gallery, 6 Spring Street.
March 21 - April 26, 2008
Hours: Wednesday — Saturday, Noon – 6pm or by private appointment.

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 20×200 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 20×200 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

From the series Sub Rosa by Birthe Piontek

At last! This Fall’s Hot Shots have arrived. Someone just got back from Paris Photo mere hours ago and was appropriately exhausted - hence the delay of a few hours before posting the winners. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. Or should I say roll wiz ze panshez. We learned that in Paris.

Without further adieu ado:

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

Congratulations! Pencil in the opening for the Fall HHS Showcase on Wednesday, December 12th from 6-8. The showcase will be up until Sunday the 16th - you have four days to check it out!

Extra special thanks to our shining panel stars: Joerg Colberg, Stephen Frailey, Darius Himes, Youngna Park, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Ian Baguskas, Christine Collins, and Joseph Holmes.
It wasn’t easy to decide between all you talented hot shots, but here’s a list of some very honorable mentions: David Balhuizen, Jason DeMarte, William Hannigan, May Heek, Mickey Kerr, Adam Krause, Mollie Murphy, Nandor Ordog, Toni Pepe, Corine Smith, Damian VanCamp and Jon Wasserman

A big merci to everyone who participated, and congrats again to the winners.

Jumper by aspiring HS John Wells

It’s Halloween and November has arrived whether wanted or not. For the occasion, a slightly darker shot from HS hopeful John Wells. Black and white has become a novelty here on the Hey, Hot Shot! Blog, and just as I have said before, we’re givin’ you exactly what you’re givin’ us. I am still in a state of shock and awe over the teeny-tiny amount of b+w that comes our way each round. And sometimes you really do just want to ooze with excitement over some zone system action.

For some seductively superb black and white work [that is also a little creepy], come on down to the jb Friday evening for the opening of Beth Dow’s solo-show Fiedwork. AND to really get ahead of the game, you can get your hands on one of Beth’s prints over on 20×200. Take a peek.

Happy, happy. We’re feeling festive for some photos and you have but just one week, enter before you’re time is up!

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!

So, to re-cap: two major events collided on my calendar last week and created an eventful, pleasant evening out of a typical Wednesday night. That is to say, the Summer 2007 Showcase of Hey, Hot Shot! opened to a lively reception over at the gallery whilst simultaneously the Jewish world celebrated the incoming new year (shana tova!)

Having been all over the place last Wednesday (and all of last week, as well), the exhibition was as new to me as it was to all of the wonderful neighborhoodies who turned up for a glass of white wine and a look at the show. And what a pleasant surprise it was! Having sifted through the work consistently throughout the summer and have followed the process, it was incredible to see the prints in person, which were extraordinarily more beautiful seen face-to-face.

Plus, we had an awesome turn out of people who were dangerously spilling out into the street with their *ahem* glasses of water… And, it was nice to see the jB crew (whom I have been so far away from now that I am swamped with schoolwork). Also, the Summer ‘07 Hot Shots were well-represented at the event: Rachael Dunville, Gregory Krum, Willy Somma, Dan Boardman, and Kalpesh Lathigra (who came out all the way from Britain) were all spotted mingling with their eager audience.

Unfortunately the showcase is now over–I know, it’s sad! but we had to make room for HHS alum Kate Bingaman-Burt’s show, which opens tomorrow! If you didn’t get to see it, don’t fret! The Hot Shots are now popping up all over the place. If you haven’t done so yet, check out their websites and roam the NYC gallery scene for more of there work. For example, Ms. Rachael Dunville is the star of her first solo show over at the Peer Gallery, which runs through October 20th and features images from her Springtown series.

Otherwise, I hope to see you all before sundown at tomorrow’s opening over on Spring Street, and keep checking in with the blog where we will be posting continuous updates on our big, happy family of Hot Shot photographers.

Until then, adieu!