The one and only 4 Million Dollar Home by Crumpler

What do the hottest of hot photographers do to stay on top of style? Well, they don’t wear vests and sling 5 straps around their shoulders. Hot Shots sport Crumpler.

That’s right. Crumpler has signed on as a Hey, Hot Shot! sponsor for 2007. Cool? Very. In fact it is as cool as Crumpler giving our 10 Winter Edition winners their very own drool-worthy photo bags. These are not just any ol’ photo bags, they are 4 Million Dollar Home photo bags. Jealous? Me too.

To tempt you: a fully padded, waterproof bag with all the necessary pockets to store your most treasured of equipment––the kicker, it’s simply a good-looking bag that we can sufficiently geek out over.

AND! We are proud to announce that each of the 10 Hot Shots will be at the showcase in full form. Juho’s heading our way from Sweden, Ben from the UK, our new west coast pack is trekking east just for us. They are all Manhattan bound! So do come say hello, support the work, schmooze a little, and see some Hot Shots don Crumpler goodies.

PS: If you need some easy entertainment, Crumpler has a pretty amazing website that everyone should pay a little visit.

It seems to me that one of the most difficult things about being an artist is getting one’s act together and getting work out there. If only each of us would jump on every opportunity we ran across, well we’d be a lot better off––procrastination can be a killer.

Here is one not to miss, The Photographic Resource Center’s annual juried exhibition EXPOSURE. An amazing resource, the PRC is “an independent non-profit organization that serves as a vital forum for the exploration and interpretation of new work, ideas, and methods in photography and related media.” Their Annual Juried Exhibition promotes some of today’s most promising photographers and is an opportunity not to pass up.

AND our own Jen Bekman has been asked to be guest juror for 2007 and will be giving a lecture there in March as part of the amazing line-up of speakers for the spring.

The deadline has been extended through February 18––that’s Sunday!

Exposure: The Annual PRC Juried Exhibition
Deadline: February 18, 2007
Entries can be postmarked or hand delivered to the PRC by Sunday and the entry form can be downloaded here.

You’re reading about it, thinking about it, so why not enter before it passes you by. Good luck!

From the series Three Star by James Deavin

Here it is. The second segment of my interview with James Deavin. Enjoy!

Alice: Visually your show is not that different from your earlier work, other than it is shot in another world… It is an impressive body of work. Were you working on the SL shots before NYC, HHS!, and your Ultra status?

James: No I started 3 months before the show opened. In the meantime I made work in the UK, in Bourneouth, a series called 3 star. . . . And some other stuff in NYC… I was introduced to SL and logged in w/ the sole intention of making pictures. I wandered around for 3 months without interacting really with anyone working out what it was all about

A: Did you figure it out?

J: its a shame the 3star stuff has been TOTALLY overlooked because of the SL stuff… Figure what out?

A: What it’s all about? This second life… I’m joking, you don’t need to go there. I’m still somewhat in awe over it, that’s all.

J: WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT????? SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE. Well I know I have different opinions on what its all about to everyone at Linden Labs. I am writing an essay at the mo, on photography and SL, that makes it all clear.

A: I anxiously await.

J: It just fascinates me how it is possible to approach an entire world through the medium of perspective.

William Henry Jackson and his glass plates and camera gear

A: I can’t help but imagine you virtually lugging your view camera around that treacherous landscape… That’s still how it is in my mind.

J: Heh… Well that’s the funny thing about it. That camera in SL was made for me! I mean its really mad in fact - there is NO way that camera system has been used by anyone to its full potential until I came along… it is a view camera.

A: A pioneer… THE pioneer.

J: How would non view camera users know that, or want to know that, its bizarre in fact… I asked Philip Rosedale about it at the opening. he said: “We made it for you.”

A: sweet!

J: …and 77mb file sizes! who would use that?? Except someone who wanted to make 40/50 prints??

A: It is a bit crazy.

Photographs from the New World by James Deavin

J: The funny thing is… I thought the SL images were a massive step backwards at first. They reminded me of the stuff I was doing in the RW at age 25 or something. You know just wandering around, taking pictures, whistling, taking pictures, all very innocent… Stuff like Three Star seemed to have much more depth to it. It was only as i started reading about and looking at still life painting that the penny dropped, and i saw how the SL stuff could develop.

A: Some of the SL shots would have gone over very very well in my beg. Large Format class…

J: right. its all straight verticals and so on. is that what you mean?

A: Basically.

J: And sharp back to front! Without focusing! Joy!

A: It amazes me how much talk the work generates.

J: I always forget to focus my view camera. it can be really annoying (when i get the film back) I am an expert “sharpener’ in Photoshop…

A: How’s the SL lens…?

J: what talk, Alice?

A: I got into a 30 min chat with someone in the gallery the other day about the work and SL

J: Wide angle.

A: Some people just won’t stop…

J: Which is ok, although use normal to long in RL.

A: Maybe they’ll make options…

J: do you get the feeling that people are thinking about authorship???

A: No, I don’t…I think it’s more the “mind trip” it takes them on…

J: OK…but wouldn’t they get that trip through the computer screen too?

A: It seems we’re all so caught up in the idea of a photographer documenting another world in the same way that he would document this one.

J: Right.

A: I thought it was a show of novelty at first, I will admit… However, no longer the case.

J: lol

A: It’s good stuff. Anyways… Do you have any advice for aspiring Hot Shots and/or the new round of winners?

J: OK. My advice is that you could have a great opportunity on your hands. There can be no better way to get a show up quickly in NYC, with great people. That and remember to focus and stop trying to be William Eggleston…I mean, really!

From William Eggleston’s Guide

A: Remembering to focus, not always an easy task. But Eggleston, he might be even harder to let go of…

J: and STAY OUT of SL!! Incidentally, where do you study?

A: Chicago

J: SL is my turf!

A: Oh we’re all moving in, and never sleeping again.

J: Do you take pictures? Do you have an avatar? Questions questions! Role reversal!

A: Yes. And in fact I am still taking pictures.

J: What’s your avatar’s name? (Send them to me.)

A: Alie Wheels

J: Oh yeah? Brill.

A: flickr.com/photos/akwells

J: Do you think Flickr is a good medium for a portfolio?… Alie wheels -that makes me laugh!

A: It’s not necessarily bad. But, my website is still a work in progress, stay tuned…

J: So do you need to know anything else, alie wheels?

A: I think that’ll do. You’re too kind to offer your time…

J: Well get back in touch if you need anything else, pleasure. Nighty night.

A: Will do. Sleep well.

Sometimes people come by the gallery and introduce themselves and get to talking about how they’re planning on entering the upcoming edition of Hey, Hot Shot!. I’m always happy to put some faces to names of people who enter the competition. If I’m sweating a deadline, as I so often am, I might not be as attentive and engaged as I’d like to be, so it goes, but this kind of interaction gets to the heart of the matter for me: The whole reason I started the competition is because I really do love looking at new work and meeting and working with emerging photographers, and Hey, Hot Shot! allows me to engage in this process regularly in a manageable way.

Anyway, these aspiring Hot Shots usually ask me for some pointers about what kind of work they should submit. My stock answer is this “Think of it like a haiku.” Meaning: you get three chances to express something and although each expression might be wildly divergent from the next, there’s something that ties them all together. OK, maybe it’s kind of corny, but it’s how I see it.

Panelist Eliot Shepard was less corny and more specific in his very thoughtful post on the slower.net weblog, Advice for those considering entry into the Hey Hot Shot competition at the Jen Bekman Gallery. His post caused quite a stir a while back - it got Kottke’d and then in turn inspired another post on the Signal vs. Noise blog entitled Art statements, Pitchfork, and fancypants analysis, which was a broader meditation on “fancypants, look-at-me analysis has nothing to do with good art or good rock ‘n roll.” It was all good stuff, and the discussion threads on both posts are interesting reads. Jen says: check it out.

Also, and for the record, I’m not one for a lot of flowery prose when it comes to statements, but I do like to know what an artist has on their mind when they go about doing what that they do. It’s just about that simple.

Photojojo is a quirky and creative photo newsletter edited by an entrepreneurial duo: Amit Gupta and Kara Canal. They keep their readers both entertained and well informed with DIY projects and tips on how to become a proficient digital camera user. All good stuff.

It turns out they’ve just written a piece entitled “The 7 Best Photo Contests to Enter Today: You’re a Star, Now Show the World,” and Hey, Hot Shot! was on the list! Damn straight.