We start this series of catching-up interviews with Spring ‘07 Hot Shot Mark Marchesi, who has a solo show now at Nelson Hancock Gallery.

How did you come to enter Hey, Hot Shot!?

MM: I had stopped by a couple of openings at Jen Bekman Gallery when I still lived in NYC, which was around the time she opened. Then I moved to Maine and became a father and was pretty far removed from the scene for a while. I was making work and when that work was ready to show I started compiling a list of contacts to send stuff to. I remembered about Jen Bekman Gallery, and went to the site to see if it mentioned anything about submissions. There was Hey, Hot Shot! and it said that the competition was the only way she was reviewing new photography. It happened to be just before the deadline for the Spring competition, so I entered.

What have you been up to since we last saw your work in Hey, Hot Shot?

MM: Last summer and fall I was shooting a lot of abandoned military forts in Maine and New Hampshire. I was really excited about that for a while, but I stalled out on it for several reasons when winter hit. I was also working on a pretty involved promotional mailing and a book proposal. Before the new year I was offered the opportunity to show at Nelson Hancock Gallery, and for two months all my free time was taken up by printing and framing. I build all my own frames from scratch, so as soon as Nelson and I firmed up a date I went to work cutting, gluing, and sanding. I also make all my own digital c-prints, so there was a lot of work to do on the files. Now that I am done with that, and I don’t need snowshoes and a parka to go shooting anymore, I am getting back out with my camera. My main focus right now is on a new project about working waterfronts and commercial fishing communities in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.

What kind of impact did Hey, Hot Shot! have on your career?

MM: This question is a little difficult because I don’t always feel like I actually have a career in photography. I am definitely trying to start one, and Hey, Hot Shot! was a step that I am glad I took that direction. Whenever you present your work there is a thought process you must go through which is valuable no matter what the outcome. Entering these types of calls forces you to get outside of your own head, which is necessary at times for a lot of us. Hey, Hot Shot! didn’t launch me into art stardom, but it was a great experience. I got to know Jen who I have a lot of respect for, along with the other winners, some of whom I am still in touch with and continue to get feedback from. I am also happy that it gave (and is still giving) me a lot of exposure on the internet. Lastly, the positive reinforcement of actually winning something is always good.

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.

9-11-02 by Spring Edition ‘07 Hot Shot Nina Berman, available now at 20×200

Writing from Fotofest in Houston, Texas, where she’s currently conducting lots of portfolio reviews and “hobnobbing with the photorati,” Jen Bekman declared, this morning, that it’s going to be an all photo week on 20×200.

First up is 9-11-02, by Spring Edition ‘07 Hot Shot Nina Berman. Berman’s work brings the war home in a quietly stunning and heartbreaking way. She’s not screaming about the war, but her images are strong and certainly vocal.

Of her Purple Hearts show, last summer at Jen Bekman, Holland Cotter wrote, in the New York Times, “One of the more shocking photographs to emerge from the current Iraq war was taken last year in a rural farm town in the American Midwest. It’s a studio portrait by the New York photographer Nina Berman of a young Illinois couple on their wedding day.” That image, Marine Wedding, went on to win a World Press Photo award.

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

hello hot shots and friends! i’m marina–one of the newest additions to the intern crew here at jen bekman. you may have recognized my excellent art-handling skills on the walls of the gallery in this past week’s Spring ‘07 Hey, Hot Shot! showcase, which i helped hang. so, if anything was crooked or not proportionally spaced, it was all thanks to my poor recollection of fractions.

unfortunately, it is now too late for you to judge me via the the presentation of the show, which came to an end this past sunday. so, hopefully you got a chance to come in and see it. if not, you can take a look at some of the work on our flickr page.

if you did come in, then you’ll be able to agree with me that the work displayed was very diverse and the atmosphere in the gallery was vibrant. i thought the most dramatic work shown was nina berman’s sole piece in the show: a harrowing portrait of a marine wedding.

you can read an interview with nina berman on salon, where she talks about the wedding portrait, the series it came from, and the couple it features.

on another wall (and in another world) was karolina karlic’s colorful photograph we did this, from a series called “the dee” set in detroit.

in another corner were four ethereal casey orr pieces from a series called “by water” and across from them were pavel romaniko’s images of simple, homely interiors he shot in russia. i can’t stress enough how varied the images were! make sure to check out all the winning artists’ sites. you can find a list of them here.

all in all, i found the show to be a great display of different visions in every corner encompassing an array of new talent.

now the walls of the jb are sad and empty, waiting for a fresh coat of paint and a new installation. stay tuned to the blog, all you future hot shots, because we’ll begin accepting submissions for the summer competition very, very soon!

A selection of photos from the Spring ‘07 Hot Shots. More info here

Please join us tonight, Wednesday June 13, 2007 from 6pm-8pm, at an opening reception in honor of the Spring ‘07 edition Hot Shots:

jen bekman
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

Can’t make it tonight? (Boo!) The exhibition will be on view Thursday through Sunday, June 14-17. Gallery hours are Noon-6pm.

Administrative side note: Ms. Wells finished college (Congrats to her!) and is now in Europe getting her art on before she moves to NYC permanently.

Regular posting to resume soon-ish.

Untitled (Hanoi no.2) by Spring HS Kelly Shimoda

The list is in! The time has come to announce the 10 artists selected for the Spring 2007 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! And the winners are…

Clint Baclawski
Nina Berman
Michael Julius
Karolina Karlic
Mark Marchesi
Casey Orr
Justin James Reed
Pavel Romaniko
Kelly Shimoda
Daniel Traub

Pencil it in, the showcase soiree in honor of our Hot Shots is Wednesday June 13 from 6–8PM. Get on down to the jb, see the work, and support the winners. The show will be up from June 14–17, 2007 and quite a show it promises to be!

Special thanks to our fabulous group of panelists––Anthony LaSala, Lesley Martin, Jörg Colberg, Raul Gutierrez, 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 whoppin’ thank you goes out to all of the participants for sharing their work with us.

And what work it is! Our panelists were posed with what seemed the impossible feat, narrowing it down to a mere ten proved just as difficult as expected. Some honorable mentions are in order:

Matias Aguilar, Rob Ball, Nelson Chan, Larissa Cleveland, Kate Copeland, Shane Lavalette, Maria Passarotti, Will Sanders, Michelle Sank, Deidre Schoo, Tamir Sher, Rylan Steele, Joseph Tripi, Ching Wah Lam, Greg Wasserstrom, Emily Winton

Congratulations to all! Stay tuned to the HHS! Blog for more news, fun facts, and other tidbits of information for your pleasure and entertainment.

A Bump in the Road by Spring HS Clint Baclawski

Clint Baclawski
Currently residing in Boston, MA

website: http://www.clintb.com

Work Statement
My most current work depicts a spectacular American culture saturated with large-scale color imagery, consumerism, and forward momentum. The attractions featured in this series are both novel and commonplace, including parades, reenactments, fairs, and trade shows in ordinary communities around our country every day. Each event is transitory, challenging me to capture a single image before that scene is forever altered. Photographing multiple frames at each location allows me to draw out fragmented cinematic feeling narratives between the subjects and their environments by seamlessly compositing them together.

Defying conventional framing techniques, my photographs appear in large (40×50x12inches), wooden, double-sided (one image on each side), freestanding light boxes. They strive to capture the attention of the fast-paced onlooker in our image-glutted world. Taken out of context and into a gallery setting, I encourage the viewers to experience the work from multiple perspectives. One has to bend, crouch, and circulate the work in order to see its entirety. This movement leads to the discovery that although the two images on either side are the same; one photograph is reversed, thus, horizontally resembling the effects of a mirror. The height restraints of the box are set to the level that spectators on the opposing sides have to face one another as they view the work. This shift from passive reception to active participation mimics the subjects in the photographs.

Bio
Clint Baclawski was born in Lewisburg Pennsylvania (a twin in fact), in 1981. He currently resides and works in Boston, MA where he is pursuing his MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art, expected 2008. He received his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) in 2004. Additionally, Clint has traveled and photographed extensively in the United States, Cuba, and Northern Ireland. To know more about Clint, visit: www.clintb.com

Pfc. Adam Zaremba by Spring HS Nina Berman

Nina Berman
Currently residing in New York, NY

website: http://www.ninaberman.com

Work Statement
I’m a documentary photography interested in the American political and social landscape. I started as a writer wanting to tell stories but found myself increasingly frustrated with the act of writing and would edit myself into oblivion. I chose instead to make images because I felt the process was inexact and I enjoyed not knowing for sure if what I felt and hoped to convey actually came through in the photograph. Now I intentionally seek the ambiguity of a photograph’s meaning and welcome the conversation generated by imagery that has multiple interpretations. I have no formal training other than a dark room course long ago at the New School. I am submitting images of those wounded in wartime. I made the photographs in an attempt to explore the myths of warfare and offer images that strip the warrior of heroic sentiment.

Bio
I was born in NYC. I was moved by my parents when I was in grade school to the suburbs of New Jersey for the excellent public schools which I thoroughly despised and left high school early. I went to college at the University of Chicago where I started taking pictures inspired by the work of filmmakers, photographers and writers. I returned to New York, got a journalism degree at Columbia University, and have worked as a freelance photographer for magazines ever since. I’ve won a few big photojournalisim awards, an Open Society Institute grant and a NYFA fellowship.

Chris Austin’s nail accident by Spring HS Michael Julius

Michael Julius
Currently residing in Interlachen, FL

website: http://mjulius.com

Work Statement
The pictures I am submitting are from a work in progress, Rescuing Putnam. The completed work will reflect approximately ten years of my experience as a paramedic in the rural south of North Central Florida.

In this project I have looked at the charged environment of emergencies and the quiet spaces between looking for a presence that is difficult to define but permeates this rarefied environment. I am also interested in showing the evolution of a community through its rapid growth and how it has affected emergency services and its personnel. This work is an attempt to honor something significant and essential despite the rapid pace of change.

Bio
I grew up in a small town in Indiana and attended Indiana University for a while. I studied Anthropology before leaving to live on the West Coast. Since then I have been employed at various jobs around the country and briefly overseas until I came to Florida in the late 90’s. I am now 35 years old.