Nixon’s Tie Matched His Shirt by Larissa Cleveland

Yes, it is here––the deadline for the Spring 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Do you have your entry in? I hope so. Just as I hope you can make it to the showcase’s opening soiree on Wednesday June 6. The weather will be warm, the skin will be showing, and the wine will be flowing––it will be a night to remember. Will you be a guest of honor?

In the meantime, I offer you aspiring Hot Shot Larissa Cleveland. Larissa submitted work from her series on the curious community of collectors. Fascinated by our innate desire to possess in order to find meaning in life, Larissa offers us portraits of these foragers basking in the joy that is their most precious of possessions, their collection. From Larissa’s statement:

This body of work represents my investigation into a societal preoccupation with collecting and the narrative or symbolic power of objects. My experiences as a child surrounded by the mass collection of civil war artifacts that belonged to my father has prompted my continued interest in the pursuit of collecting and also to question the nature of hobby versus obsession. In creating these images, I investigate the personal and social conditions that inform an inherent need to possess, create order, gain status, knowledge and to preserve.

I am liking Larissa’s titles––little glimpses into her interactions with her subjects, tiny little tales such as “She is an Artist. There Wasn’t Room in the House” and “He Called Me Little Lady. He Ate Them All” and of course “Nixon’s Tie Matched His Shirt.” Keep it up Larissa.

And now, let the countdown begin. Midnight will strike sooner than you think. Enter now!

From Mara Bodis Wollner’s The All Girls School

It’s a big F-O-U-R kind of day! That’s right, the jb is officially 4-years old, that’s four fun-filled, action packed years of jen bekman goodness. Why, we’re practically all grown up over here on spring street. Even I, a 2006 addition to the jb pack, know that is has not been an easy road, one only the most strong willed, hard working wonders could traverse. There have been good times, bad times, and everything in between times, but oh what times there have been. And of course, we couldn’t have done it without all the good lovin’ and support from friends. Be sure to visit our fabulous Jen Bekman’s Personism for more celebration fun.

In honor of such a special day, week, our anniversary month, plan a little visit to our dear homebase in the burgeoning bowery district. In fact why not make it out to our Friday night opening of Benjamin Donaldson’s Summerland––as always it will be quite a night to remember.

And the icing on this most special of cake delights, the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! opens this Tuesday! Brace yourself.

Untitled by Winter 2007 HS Kirby Pilcher

My how time does fly. You’ve had a week to become acquainted with our sizzling new set of Hot Shots. If you haven’t checked out the HHS! work on flickr, I suggest you do so right now. Here at the jb we are pulling ourselves from the daze of excitement that usually follows the breaking news, and frantically beginning preparation for what I am positive will be yet another wild and crazy showcase. An unusual quirk of this bunch, they’ve managed to scatter themselves across the globe. Our Hot Shots hail from Oregon, Michigan, Sweden, Washington, California, London, Minnesota, and New York. And you can expect to see their sweet smiling faces when you come support their work opening night.

Be there: Wednesday March 7 from 6–8 PM.

As always, more fun to follow.

The Bute Street Goldfish, Kowloon, Hong Kong by Winter 2007 HS Ka-Man Tse

Oh yes, it is here! The time has come to announce the 10 photographers selected for the Winter 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! Here we go, the winners are:

Holly Andres
Colin Blakely
Jeffrey Krolick
Juho Kuva
Molly Landreth
Brad Moore
Kirby Pilcher
Ben Roberts
Mickey Smith
Ka-Man Tse

And now the fun begins! Pencil it in, the showcase soiree in honor of our new Hot Shots is Wednesday March 7 from 6–8pm. Make sure to see the work and support the winners. The show will be up from March 8–11, 2007 and what a show it promises to be!

Special thanks to our fantastic group of panelists––Anthony LaSala, Leslie Martin, Joerg Colberg, Amit Gupta, Eileen Gittens, Jenni Holder, Youngna Park, Christine Collins, and the Ultras, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a gigantic thank you goes out to all of the participants for sharing their work with us.

Our panelists were faced with what promised to be the impossible, narrowing it down to a final ten proved just as difficult as expected. With so many fantastic entries coming our way, some honorable mentions are necessary:

Sarah Claire Ahlers, Alejandro Cartagena, Hin Chua, Jill Frank, Nicole Hatanaka, Shane Lavalette, Seth Lower, Jason Reblando, Paula Rebsom, Beth Riemer, Caroline Shepard, Michael Simon, Mandy Sue Springer, Will Steacy, Monika Sziladi, Daniel Traub, Andrea Wallace, Keith Kin Yan, Christopher Young

What a round, congratulations to all! Stay tuned to the HHS! Blog for more news, fun facts, and other tidbits of info for your entertainment.

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!

Halo by aspiring Hot Shot Logan Kleier

I am often asked if we here at the jb are opposed to certain types of photography, most recently, abstract photography. It’s true that when browsing through the artists on the site or the submissions shown on the blog, you will run into very little “abstract” work. While we pride ourselves for the variety in work and artists we showcase, we don’t have genre quotas to fill. We won’t lie, we each have our own preferences, but the panel is extensive, as are our preferences. When it comes down to it we like work that is good––good work comes in many forms. And I have said, and will say again, the selection I show here is my attempt to summarize the work you’re sending our way. So for those of you after something abstract, I hunted down a recent submission by Logan Kleier which caught my eye.

I use color and light as tools to create abstractions of ordinary objects. The resulting images evoke an appreciation of elemental beauty and joy. I also use these images to explore the personal emotional value we attach to colors and light that surround us on a daily basis.

Beautiful indeed, I am drawn to Logan’s image for its similarity to my personal fixations at the moment. I recently enrolled in a braincrashing course if there ever was one, the Search for Life in the Universe. My late night surfing sessions have been filled with stardust and extraterrestrial beings squished between long pauses of contemplation and perplexity. For the weekend I pass along some inspiration in the form of UFOs, the cosmos, and the good ol’ Comet Sample Return Mission.

In between your new found obsessions and the standard weekend fun, we have reached the homestretch, get those entries in! As for Alice, I’m headed south for a few days, but leave you in good hands.

Enter today!

The fabulous Jen Bekman taken by John Von Pamer for American Photo

American Photo has dubbed our very own Jen Bekman as an Innovator of the Year! A well earned title, if I may say so myself, and right in time for some major mile stones. The gallery is about to hit its 4-year anniversary and, if you glance at the past exhibitions, about to climb right on over the hill. Impressive––naturally––it’s the jb! And Jen stands in excellent company, other innovators (and Hey, Hot Shot! Panelists, of course) include Joerg Colberg of Conscientious, Caterina Fake of Flickr, and Lesley Martin of Aperture.

What will our innovator pull from her sleeve this year? Only time will tell, but the track record promises it will be nothing but fabulous!

Read more here.

A picture of HS Matthew Nighswander next to his Chandelier, Chicago

Summer Hey, Hot Shot! winner Matthew Nighswander came to us from Chicago. While he recently relocated to Brooklyn, he definitely soaked up some of that communal energy I have mentioned before. Let’s jut say it’s a good time to be a photographer in the Midwest. This Fall his work was published in the Nov/Dec issue of Adbusters along with fellow Chicagoans and friends Paul D’Amato and Brian Ulrich. And he was featured in a group exhibit in the online F-Stop Magazine. If you find yourself in the Chicagoland area, make a point to pass by 33 E. Congress and see his piece above at a colossal scale.

Where were you born, where were you bred?
I grew up in a small town (Gilmanton) in central New Hampshire, near Lake Winnipesaukee.

Age? 36

How do you pay the bills?
I’m currently the Archivist for VII Photo. I worked previously for 6 years as an international photo editor at The Associated Press.

What’s your formal background (if any) in photography?
I have an M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago.

What artist drove you to make the work you do? Who inspires you now?
Garry Winogrand originally inspired me to want to be a photographer. Right now I’m pretty into Alec Soth’s “Niagara.” I like work like Soth’s that incorpoates many different approaches to photography. Alessandra Sanguinetti’s “On the Sixth Day“, Paul D’Amato’s “Barrio,” and Brian Ulrich’s “Copia” are three of my favorite photo books from this year.

What camera do you use? Is it always with you?
When I’m going out shooting my main camera is a Mamiya 7. Because of its size and fragility I don’t keep it with me most of the time, but I will almost always have my Leica M6 or my small Contax point-and-shoot with me.

Do you shoot with a plan or on a whim?
When I set out to shoot, I usually have a plan for an area or subjects that I want to photograph. I try to impose some sort of discipline on myself but only to a point. I want to remain open to any distracting influence that might pop up because this will often lead to the best pictures. Also, it’s this kind of open-ended wandering that makes photography so enjoyable. I’m not curing cancer so if it’s not at least enjoyable I’d rather spend my time doing something more productive.

What images are superglued into your mind for all eternity?
Helen Levitt’s picture of the kids walking down the street with the bubbles floating over the road next to them.

Untitled, New York (soap bubbles and girls) by Helen Levitt

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I’m pretty satisfied with the equipment I have for my own personal work but I would like to eventually get a digital setup (maybe the new Leica) to do assignment stuff.

What are your loftiest goals?
I would of course love to have a book but my craziest fantasy is somehow turning my website into something that could support me. Organizing a website is a great way to get to know your own photography and if I could live off that, I would be fine with never being published or exhibited again.

Do you have any other talents, hobbies, or favorite pastimes?
I played for many years in a rock band called Monobrow. Look for our reunion tour in 2012.

Any big plans for 2007?
My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks.

If you had to choose only one film to watch for the rest of time what would it be?
Michael Mann’s “Heat”

Name three songs that would be on your soundtrack?
The Breeders covering “Happiness is A Warm Gun”
Judas Priest’s “Heading out to the Highway”
Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.”

Favorite director/composer/author/artist/musician/etc?
Jose Saramago’s “Blindness“–a thrilling combination of brutal, violent realism and the fantastic.

City you would most like to escape to?
Prague or a small town in New Hampshire.

What do you look for in a mate?
I got me one. Ain’t looking.

If you had to choose any object/service to be branded with your name, what would it be?
Matt’s Guitar Wax.

How do you spoil yourself?
Plugging in my electric guitar.

It was a busy Fall for Summer Hot Shot Sara Macel. A participant in the d.u.m.b.o arts festival through The Rider Project, her work was seen in two group shows in October, all while continuing to make new work––and it doesn’t seem like she’ll be getting a break anytime soon. Sara’s work is to be included in Kiss & Tell curated by Kate Menconeri at The Center for Photography at Woodstock opening later this month. Keep it up Sara!

Where were you born, where were you bred?
Born and bred in Spring, Texas – a stone’s throw outside of Houston.

Current place of residence? Brooklyn

Age? 25

How do you pay the bills?
I’m a photo production assistant and I do my own photography on the side.

What’s your formal background (if any) in photography?
I studied photography at NYU where I learned almost everything I know and had some really amazing teachers. But the best way to learn technique is just by trial and error. After school, I worked as Bruce Davidson’s assistant for 2 years and he taught me all kinds of nifty tricks.

What artist drove you to make the work you do? Who inspires you now?
Being from the south and a color photographer, William Eggleston is a definite hero. I love Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, and Alec Soth. Christian Patterson is great and other young photogs I know inspire me to keep at it. But most of my inspiration comes from music and books and my personal life.

What camera do you use? Is it always with you?
I mostly shoot with a Mamiya 7II, but I prefer using the RZ for portraits. I’m looking to make the jump to 4×5 in the near future.

How would you sum up your photographic process from start to finish?
I’m an old-timer in the sense that I sort of like bulky equipment and film and printing your own c-prints in the darkroom with weird little cut-out dodging tools.

Do you shoot with a plan or on a whim?
I try to have a general plan or project idea, even if it is just a song that I’ll listen to over and over while I’m wandering around looking for something to shoot. There’s a Big Star song that really inspired the project I’m working on now.

What images are superglued into your mind for all eternity?
I find old family photos of my parents and grandparents when they were my age a little haunting. And then, there’s Joel Sternfeld’s photo of the beached sperm whales; Davidson’s Brooklyn Gang; Robert Frank’s elevator girl from The Americans; Alec Soth’s photo of Johnny Cash’s boyhood home just floored me when I first saw it. There’s just so many.

“Elevator - Miami Beach” from Robert Frank’s The Americans

What piece of equipment do you fetishize the most and/or what is your guiltiest tech pleasure?
I’m a total camera nerd. I am currently lusting for a cherry wood 4×5 Wista- and not because it is the best 4×5 but just because is so damn pretty. And 8×10 is just the cat’s pajamas.

What are your loftiest goals?
Just to shoot and wander around and have some nice folks like the photos and want to buy them so I can keep on wandering around.

Do you have any other talents, hobbies, or favorite pastimes?
I like to knit. I can make beer bread from scratch. I won a trophy for pantomime in the 7th grade, but I don’t think that really qualifies as a talent. That’s really more of my ace card up the sleeve whenever I get into discussions about embarrassments from adolescence.

Any big plans for 2007?
I have a show opening at the Center of Photography in Woodstock in late January. I’m thinking of doing a road trip through Texas with my best friend in March. And my sister is getting married in July. Beyond that, just to find some time to make a couple nice photos.

If you had to choose only one film to watch for the rest of time what would it be?
Big Lebowski.

Name three songs that would be on your soundtrack?
“Say Something Nice to Sarah� - Ernest Tubb
“These Days� - Nico
“Deep in Your Waters� - Sonny Oaks
“Days� - The Kinks
“Everyoneâ€? - >Van Morrison…Okay, I’ll stop now.

Favorite director/composer/author/artist/musician/etc?
Director- Billy Wilder
Author- Salinger and Steinbeck
Artist- Edward Hopper
Musician- Sam Cooke

What are your favorite websites/blogs?
NYTimes.com, Tiny Vices, Conscientious, Modish, HopStop is a Godsend.

City you would most like to escape to?
Every day when I leave for work I wish someone would drive up and say “Hop in, we’re going to Memphis.�

What do you look for in a mate?
A goof, a rascal, a good time, a Scrabble opponent, a shared love for aquatic animals (or at least the ability to find my love for them bearable), a bookworm, and a handsome devil.

If you had to choose any object/service to be branded with your name, what would it?
If I could put a copyright on my homemade Chex Mix I would.

How do you spoil yourself?
Bubble baths with my rubber ducky.

Favorite beverage of choice?
Unsweetened iced tea or whiskey when I wanna get messy.

New Year’s resolution?
No more whiskey (not really).

From The Cloverfields series by Spring 06 HS Andrea Chu

Hot on the heels of the Hey, Hot Shot! Annual Exhibition and the release of the yearbook, before we get too buried in 2007, let’s check in with some of our recent HHS! winners. It never ceases to amaze me, the endless array of possibilities and activities as an artist and a photographer––yes, life can in fact be grand. With 40 photographers in our 2006 Alumni pool, we have witnessed some pretty amazing achievements over the course of the year. Myself on the brink of graduation, it eases the pressure to see so many emerging photographers doing so many impressive things. Oh how easy they make it look…

For instance, since last hearing from Spring Hot Shot Andrea Chu she has lived out a photographer’s dream and traveled to Japan to shoot for Getty Images. And 2007 holds many more international adventures for Andrea. We’ll be sure to keep you posted, in the meantime read an interview with her here.

So get ready. In the days leading up to the Annual’s opening and the initial days of the competition’s Winter Edition, I’ll be posting more juicy interviews and tidbits of information on past winners. Hear life stories, explore some links, and find out what it takes to win the heart of a jen bekman Hot Shot––all here on the one and only Hey, Hot Shot! Blog.