Outdoor World by Colleen Plumb

We’re pleased to announce that Hey, Hot Shot! 2010 has been extended to Tuesday, August 31st, and the Grand Prize has been increased to $10,000.

The HHS! Blog has more information on the extension:

As part of this community, you are well aware of how hard we work at creating opportunities for artists and spreading the word about the competition. The good news is—it’s working! After we announced that we were teaming up with Blurb to offer each Hot Shot the chance to produce their own book a few weeks ago, a buzz of excitement percolated ‘round the web, and created quite a stir.

We’re happy to hear that you’re excited—all the energy is bringing new photographers into our community at this eleventh hour. We want to share the love, welcome this new community around us, and give them—and you—a little more time to get your entries in, which is why we’re doubling the Grand Prize to $10,000 and extending the deadline to August 31st.

So, think you’re a Hot Shot?

Think your work is a good fit for Jen Bekman Gallery? If you’re a photographer, we accept submissions through our competition, Hey, Hot Shot!—in fact, it’s the only way to send your photos our way both for consideration here at the gallery and to have your work released on 20×200. A little history: 15 of our 25 represented artists have come to join the JBG roster after they were first discovered through the competition.

There will be only one season of competition this year, so don’t miss it, submissions close this Sunday August 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). The Grand Prize winner gets a $5,000 honorarium, a solo-show and two years of representation from the gallery.

Panelists
A diverse panel of photography professionals—including founder Jen Bekman, Aperture Foundation publisher Lesley A. Martin, Chronicle Books chairman and CEO Nion McEvoy, a founding editor of Radius Books Darius Himes and photographer Todd Hido—reviews every entry.

5 Hot Shots: $500 + Group Exhibition
+ A $500 honorarium.
+ Participation in the 2010 Hot Shot Exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery.
+ The opportunity to release an edition on 20×200.
+ A $1,000 credit at Blurb to create your own photography book.

1 Grand Prize: $5000 + Gallery Representation
Jen Bekman will select one of the five 2010 Hot Shots for the Grand Prize and announce the recipient on March 15, 2011. In addition to the honors as a Hot Shot, the grand prize recipient will be awarded:

+ A $5,000 honorarium to support a personal project.
+ A solo exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery.
+ Representation from Jen Bekman Gallery for two years, commencing with his/her selection.

Countless Opportunities for Every Contender
All entrants are reviewed for participation in 20×200; entering the competition is the only way for photographers to have their work considered for an edition. Every contender receives ample opportunity for online exposure through our blog and on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

Curator’s Choice Awards
Apply by TONIGHT, August 20th, and we will put your work in front of the eyes of esteemed photographer, and Hey, Hot Shot! Guest Curator, Alec Soth. Alec will select one entrant to receive a “Little Brown Mushroom Love Pack” which includes three amazing books and a screen-printed LBM t-shirt.

Questions?
Check our Hey, Hot Shot! FAQ. If your question hasn’t been answered, send us a Direct Message on Twitter to heyhotshot</a> or an email to heyheyhotshot.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

22 Steps to the Sea #2 by First Edition 2009 Hot Shot Kurt Tong

People’s Park #38 by Kurt Tong

We are pleased to announce that Kurt Tong, one of the two 2009 Hey, Hot Shot! Ultras has been added to the Jen Bekman Gallery site.

We have included a selection of images from Kurt’s22 Steps to the Sea, Farewell in Labrador, and People’s Parkseries. Kurt has a large body of work and we encourage you to explore both the gallery site and Kurt’s personal site to see full bodies of work and other series.

A Bit More About Kurt:
Tong has worked and traveled extensively across Europe, the Americas and Asia. In 1999, Kurt co-founded Prema Vasam, a charitable home for disabled and disadvantaged children in Chennai, South India before becoming a full-time photographer in 2003.

He received a Masters in documentary photography from London College of Communications in 2006. He has since been chosen as a winner in the first Lens Culture – Rhubarb Photo Book Award, the Blurb Photography Book Now competition and the prestigious Jerwood Photography Award.

Kurt’s photographs have been widely exhibited around the world at venues including: Jen Bekman Gallery in New York, Impressions Gallery in Bradford, The Royal Academy in London, La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Abbaye de Neumunster in Luxembourg and the CPA Exhibition in Chengdu, China. This summer and fall, several of Kurt’s projects will be on view in the UK and France.

Farewell in Labrador #19 by Kurt Tong

22 Steps to the Sea #26 by Kurt Tong

To see more work from Kurt Tong check out his site. and make sure to get on the gallery mailing list to make sure you hear more about Kurt and his solo exhibition coming to the gallery in the next year.

Speaking of Hey, Hot Shot! the 2010 deadline for submissions is this Sunday, August 22nd at 8 p.m. (EDT). Note that the deadline for Alec Soth’s Curator’s Choice Award is slightly earlier, Friday, August 20th at Midnight (EDT).

The prizes this round, other than getting your work seen by our amazing panel: $5K, gallery representation, a solo exhibition at JBG, a $1K Blurb credit to each Hot Shot, and a chance for editions on 20×200.

For more info head over to heyhotshot.com or just click here to apply now!

Reid’s Farm by Derek Henderson

We’ve quickly reached the one month mark of Hey, Hot Shot!, and I decided to delve back into the archives of gallery shows past with a special look at 2008 First Edition Hot Shot Derek Henderson. A 40” x 50” print of Reid’s Farm by Henderson used to hang in the office and I was mesmerized by it. I relished the times when I could be alone in the office and take as long as I wanted to gaze at the image in silence.

There is a certain type of work I gravitate towards, and I tend to shy away from anything involving people (just a personal thing). However, there is something magical about this photo to me. At first, the subject matter seems straightforward—and Derek’s entire Mercy Mercer project is indeed a documentation of the Waikato River in New Zealand and its people. But where so often documentary work easily hands you the story, Derek has crafted a project that both tells of a community while simultaneously creating images that allow for the viewer to create their own narrative. While recently flipping through the pages of Derek’s gorgeous book of this series, on each page, I created a new story of my own making.

Even with my aforementioned aversion to people-focused work, I find the portraits magnetic. In Reid’s Farm, contemporary folk are surrounded by contemporary objects like nylon fold out chairs, yet the work takes me more to the Hudson River Valley painters than to anything contemporary.

On this note, I am pleased to share that Derek has forthcoming solo show at the gallery. You can visit his site or find his book here for a sneak preview at what you may see on our walls.

Also, don’t forget: Hey, Hot Shot! is open RIGHT NOW! Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot!, the premier international photography competition, has provided one hundred and twenty-nine photographers from all over the world with unrivaled exposure, support and recognition. This year marks the 5th anniversary of the competition and the 7th anniversary of Jen Bekman Gallery.

In addition to the hallmark awards of past competitions, this year we are offering a $5,000 honorarium and five Curator’s Choice Awards. The deadline for submissions is August 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) and there will be only one season of competition in 2010, so apply now!

Untitled by Joseph O. Holmes

If you are a photographer and an avid follower of Jen Bekman Gallery, you might just know that it’s through the Hey Hot Shot! photo competition that we discover artists that often later appear in both JBG and 20×200. Joseph Holmes, Ian Baguskas, Colleen Plumb and Nina Berman all first graced us with their presence through their entries in HHS! prior to their representation at Jen Bekman Gallery. The competition has always been a fantastic source of new artists for sharing between various Jen Bekman Projects, but we just thought we’d bring this little fact to your attention, because the HHS! 2010 competition is now open for entries!

The deadline for submissions is August 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). There will be only one season of competition in 2010, so don’t dally, read on for all the details, and get your work in!

---

Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot!, the premier international photography competition, has provided one hundred and twenty-nine photographers from all over the world with unrivaled exposure, support and recognition. This year marks the 5th anniversary of the competition and the 7th anniversary of Jen Bekman Gallery. In celebration, we are introducing even more incredible opportunities for every contender.

In addition to the hallmark awards of past competitions, this year we are offering a $5,000 honorarium and five Curator’s Choice Awards.

A diverse panel of photography professionals—including founder Jen Bekman, Aperture Foundation publisher Lesley A. Martin, Chronicle Books chairman and CEO Nion McEvoy, a founding editor of Radius Books Darius Himes and photographer Kent Rogowski—reviews every entry.

This season, we are thrilled to welcome Tod Lippy, editor-in-chief of Esopus magazine and president of the Esopus Foundation Ltd., to our panel. Tod served as a senior editor at Print magazine from 1990 to 1997, is an award-winning filmmaker and also a frequent lecturer on topics ranging from screenwriting to graphic design.

Our panel will select five photographers as the 2010 Hot Shots. Each photographer will be awarded:

+ A $500 honorarium.
+ Participation in the 2010 Hot Shot Exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery.
+ The opportunity to release an edition on 20×200.

Jen Bekman will select one of the five 2010 Hot Shots for the Grand Prize and announce the recipient on March 15, 2011. In addition to the honors as a Hot Shot, the grand prize recipient will be awarded:

+ A $5,000 honorarium to support a personal project.
+ A solo exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery.
+ Representation from Jen Bekman Gallery for two years, commencing with his/her selection.

All entrants are reviewed for participation in 20×200; entering the competition is the only way for photographers to have their work considered for an edition. In addition, we will feature one contender each weekday during the competition on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog. Every contender receives ample opportunity for online exposure through our blog and on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, where HHS! has thousands of fans and followers and serves as a leading voice in the dialogue about contemporary photography.

Ever looking to expand contenders’ opportunities for recognition, each month, a guest curator will choose a photographer from those who have applied todate for a Curator’s Choice Award. This contender will be featured in a Hey, Hot Shot! newsletter and awarded a prize from the curator’s affiliate organization.

Stay tuned on our blog, mailing list and Twitter for upcoming details about the first Curator’s Choice Award.

The guidelines are simple: submit five photographs from a single body of work, using our online upload tool, with an entry fee starting at $60.

The entry fee will increase throughout the competition, so don’t delay: Apply now!

Got more questions? Check out our frequently updated FAQ.

Landscape Missing a Byte (2009) by Jessica Eaton

We hope you’ll join us at the gallery this Friday, March 5, 2010 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the opening reception for the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 Second Edition Exhibition, featuring fifteen works by the five photographers newest to our Hot Shot roster: Marisa Aragona, Leah Tepper Byrne, Alejandro Cartagena, Jessica Eaton and Justin James King. All five photographers will be present at the opening, so stop on by to say hello in person!

The exhibition will remain on view from March 6 through March 20, 2010.

We had the chance to do Q&As with each of these talented photographers a few months ago over on the HHS! blog, but in case you missed them, head on over there to learn a bit more about the artists:
+ Marisa Aragona
+ Leah Tepper Byrne
+ Alejandro Cartagena
+ Jessica Eaton
+ Justin James King

We’re also celebrating the fifth anniversary of the competition in 2010 and offering photographers more opportunities than ever before. HHS! 2010 will open for submissions on March 15, 2010. To be automatically notified of the competition’s opening, sign up for the low-volume newsletter, keep your eye on the HHS! site and follow us on Twitter.

Ty With Gun by Nina Berman from Marine Wedding

Jen Bekman Gallery artist Nina Berman spoke with Mike Melia of PBS’ Art Beat to discuss her work, particularly the series Marine Wedding, which will be exhibited at the upcoming 2010 Whitney Biennial. In the article, Associate Curator of the Biennial Gary Carrion-Murayari says of Berman’s work:

You come away with a real emotional connection to the individual she is depicting. Anybody could take a picture of someone who is disfigured and make a shocking image. These go beyond that and get to the emotional experience of soldiers.

PBS’ site also features an audio interview with Nina. Click HERE to read the full text and to hear Mike and Nina’s conversation about her exceptional bodies of work, Purple Hearts, Homeland and Marine Wedding.

Danziger Projects (James Desk) from Workspaces by Joseph O. Holmes

JBG artist and 20×200 edition-maker Joseph O. Holmes has been included in the upcoming show The Year in Pictures at Danziger Projects, opening this Thursday. The show, which has been put on annually since 2007, is curated from work that has been featured in the last year on the popular Year in Pictures blog of gallery owner James Danziger.

Danziger writes,

The 15 contemporary photographers featured in the show represent 9 different countries – Saudi Arabia, Korea, Denmark, Britain, Mexico, Japan, France, Canada, and the U.S.. Over half have work I had originally only seen via the internet, evidencing the well-known power of the web as a connector, and what is sometimes taken for granted – the web’s unrivalled capacity as a transmitter of photographic images.

Earlier this year, Joe and Danziger crossed paths when Joe was working on his Workspace series, candidly documenting the unique spaces in which people do their work.

About the series, Joe writes,

Because I document a space exactly as I find it, never arranged for the camera, the Workspace project is necessarily a spontaneous process. I can’t, for example, call ahead and explain what I’m after without inviting the destruction of what I hope to capture. Lately I’ve been finding workspaces by walking in off the street with camera and tripod and simply asking (though “simply asking” doesn’t quite convey the complex dance of explanation, skepticism, persuasion, and fascination that goes back and forth). What I end up capturing, then, turns out to be the work that was interrupted to answer the door.

Danziger responded, “As I like both my workspace and Joe’s work, I was happy to co-operate and now his picture (above) is about to be all that remains as a visual record of where I’ve sat for the last five years, often writing this blog!”

Congratulations to Joe and to Danziger Projects on the show, which we cannot wait to see!

You can view the full Workspace series on Joe’s website and grab limited-edition prints on 20×200. Keep your eyes peeled because we’ll be opening a solo-show of Joe’s work later this year at Jen Bekman Gallery.

The Year in Pictures
Danziger Projects
Opening reception: January 21, 6-8 p.m.
534 West 24th Street
New York, New York 10011 USA

Featuring: Jowhara AlSaud, Chan-Hyo Bae, Thomas Bangsted, Mandy Corrado, Stephen Gill, Joseph Holmes, Alejandra Laviada, Greg Miller, David Schoerner, Patrick Smith, Tommy Ton, Scout Tufankjian, Oliver Warden, Katherine Wolkoff and Tsukasa Yokozawa.

West Nineteenth Street (Yellow Dress) by Joseph O. Holmes

Marine Wedding by Nina Berman

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to announce that represented artist and 2007 Hot Shot Nina Berman and 2005 Hot Shot Curtis Mann have been selected as 2010 Whitney Biennial artists.

Berman’s first solo show with Jen Bekman Gallery in 2007, Purple Hearts, the ground-breaking work that placed Berman in the Biennial, received international attention and acclaim. In a review for The New York Times, critic Holland Cotter proclaimed, “the images add up to a complex and desolating anti-war statement.” Purple Hearts received a tremendous response both locally and internationally. The gallery presented Berman’s second exhibition, Homeland, in October 2008.

Both Berman and Mann have released editions on Jen Bekman Projects’ online print program, 20×200.

The 2010 Whitney Biennial is being curated by Francesco Bonami, in collaboration with the Whitney’s Gary Carrion-Murayari, who will be associate curator. This will be the 75th in the series of Whitney Annual and Biennial exhibitions, inaugurated in 1932 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The show—which is scaled back to exhibit just 55 artists at only one location in 2010—opens to the public on February 25th and runs through May 30th.

Tree Tops, from the series Somewhere in Israel by Curtis Mann

G.I. Goat by Nina Berman

Howon-dong | 40” x 50” | Edition of 5 | Digital C-Print
Larger views and image details are available on our Flickr page

Jen Bekman Gallery is pleased to announce the extension of  A Square through November 14th. Hosang Park is one of two artists to be awarded representation by Jen Bekman Gallery in 2008 through the international photography competition, Hey, Hot Shot!

Park, a Korea-based artist, began taking aerial photographs of parks that are often developed alongside luxury apartment buildings in Seoul. His resulting images in A Square flatten the spaces into geometric surfaces reminiscent of modernist abstraction.

Recently DLK Collection posted a review of the exhibition; there is more to Park’s photographs than meets the on-screen eye. Associate Director of the gallery, Jeffrey Teuton, also talks about the subtle details of Park’s work in the 20×200 reprise of the artist’s two editions.

Untitled (Hanoi no.2) by Hot Shot Kelly Shimoda

We at JBP are an understanding group of art lovers, so we have extended the deadline for Hey, Hot Shot! to Tuesday, October 27th at 11:00 p.m. (EDT). THAT’S TODAY!!

The exposure Hey, Hot Shot! affords is unbeatable—editions of each selected Hot Shot’s work will be released on 20×200! Every applicant is considered for 20×200 editions. Check out work by former Hot Shots we’ve featured on 20×200 in the past.

Buona fortuna!

Time flies so we want to remind you that the deadline to apply to Jen Bekman Projects’ international photography competition, Hey, Hot Shot! is upcoming on Friday, October 23rd @ 8 p.m (EDT).

Hey, Hot Shot! offers photographers at all stages of their careers unrivaled opportunities for exposure and advancement. All entrants have their work reviewed by top-shelf panelists and enjoy the potential to be promoted online, selected for 20×200, and exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery. Now in its fifth year, the competition has been acclaimed by curators, critics, educators and journalists alike.

Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia) by 2007 Hot Shot Carlo Van de Roer

The guidelines are simple: contenders submit three photographs from a single body of work using an online upload tool, with an entry fee of $60.

Incomparable Exposure:
Our panel will select five Hot Shots for inclusion in a two-week group show at Jen Bekman Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, editions of each photographer’s work will be released on 20×200.

Additional Benefits:
Each Hot Shot is awarded a $500 honorarium.
At year’s end, two Ultras will be selected from 2009’s ten Hot Shots. The Ultras are represented by Jen Bekman Gallery and slated for solo exhibitions.

All entrants are reviewed for participation in 20×200; entering the competition is the only opportunity for photographers to have their work considered.

In addition, as always, our writers will select contenders to feature daily on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog throughout the entry period.

Apply now:
We only accept submissions online, via this website.
The deadline for entries is Friday, October 23, 2009 @ 8 p.m (EDT).

Hot Shots will be announced on Monday, November 30, 2009.

There is a $60 handling fee for your entry.

Submissions are open to everyone, from anywhere in the world!

Questions?:
Check out our informative FAQ, follow us on Twitter or find us on Facebook.

Interested in seeing work from previous Hot Shots? Check out the index for all previous Hot Shots, visit the Hey, Hot Shot! blog or look at our photo sets on flickr.

Apply Now!

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Part of what makes the photographs work in Hosang Park’s A Square is the myriad of entry points into the photographs. In Dongbaek-dong, my eye moves like a snake through the images and between all the subtle details.

When I first unpacked the photographs, my favorite find was the two abandoned bicycles in the pond (above). In order to help show these details in the work, we have created four detail images of each photograph that is included in the show. Moving clockwise through each image, the detail shots help to bring this amazing work closer to those of you who cannot make it in to the gallery.

To check out all the detail shots head over to the gallery’s Flickr page.

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park (detail)

Dongbaek-dong by Hosang Park

For his upcoming exhibition, A Square, photographs of man-made Korean parks surrounding luxury high-rise buildings, Hosang is looking at areas that are created to bring people out of their homes and bring them together. However, he says of his photographs:

I find that showing the parks in this way reflects the characteristics of the Korean metropolis where I live. While a park might be associated with rest and play, these areas are increasingly used commercially as a means to boost property values. It would, after all, be hard to have discussions or take rest in such places. Likewise, for people in contemporary Korea, days are compressed in terms of time and space and taking a rest in a small downtown area doesn’t seem to have any meaning at all.

Have Park’s parks lost out to video games such as Second Life perhaps? James Deavin’s work from his 2006 solo show, Photographs From The New World explores where perhaps the people have gone. Deavin says:

Second Life is a place where people can live out their dreams. Some people’s dreams are to have a bigger version of what they already have. Others’ fondest wish is to be a talking elephant from Mars. Second Life is not a ‘game’ – there is no “next level,” no “level boss,” there is no winning or losing. Rather, characters enter into complex relationships, build things, earn and spend money. In fact, the world turns over ten million dollars a month. This money is spent in the market place and certain consumer products have become ubiquitous: grand pianos, waterfalls, boats, Japanese gardens. If money were no object, is this how real life would look?

Untitled (interior) by James Deavin

Are the parks in Park’s photos just as much a fabrication of an ideal as what Deavin found in Second Life? Is one more real than the other, just because it physically exists? Is the online world winning out against our real lives?

Though the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Exhibition is only up at JB Gallery for a few more days, on Tuesday, September 29th, you’ll have another opportunity to mingle with Hot Shots. Team JBP is hosting the first-ever Hey, Hot Shot! Confab + Print Trade at White Rabbit from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Come mingle with past and former Hot Shots, esteemed panelists, contenders and fellow artists.

Space is limited, so please RSVP to RSVP@heyhotshot.com.

We’ll also be having a Print Trade! To participate, bring an 8.5” x 11” (or smaller) photographic print of your own and leave the party with another artist’s work! When you RSVP, please send a jpeg (800 pixels wide, 72 dpi) of the print you plan to bring to RSVP@heyhotshot.com.

We’ll also have drink specials, giveaways from our generous sponsors at Arlo/Artists and Crumpler—with a few surprises from JBP as well—and ample opportunities to meet fellow photographers and artists in the JBP community.

If you’re interested in applying to Hey, Hot Shot! and want to know more about the competition, more information is available on the site. Or, come by the confab and ask us about it in-person.

Faering, 2007 by Michelle Arcila

Why don’t you join the New Museum as they lead two groups of tours around LES galleries! It is this Sunday, September 13 with a group leaving at noon and another at 3 p.m. Both groups meet in the New Museum Lobby and take off from there. Each tour is different so come to both!

The JB Gallery’s Associate Director, Jeffrey Teuton (me) will be around to talk about the current Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Exhibition that is currently on view, as well as other Jen Bekman Projects, like the Hey, Hot Shot! competition itself and 20×200. The show looks great so I suggest you take advantage and get here before it comes down on September 19!

LES Gallery Tour Group One 12 PM @ The New Museum Lobby
DCKT Contemporary (I love the current show, LOVE), Jen Bekman Gallery, CANADA, James Fuentes LLC, Rental,Invisible-Exports, Lisa Cooley, Rachel Uffner, Number 35.

LES Gallery Tour Group Two 3 PM @ The New Museum Lobby
Sue Scott, Thierry Goldberg Projects (a great painting show is up), Eleven Rivington, KumuKumu, Nicelle Beauchene, LMAK Projects, Small A Project, On Stellar Rays, Sloan Fine Art, SUNDAY.

New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212.219.1222
MAP

Be there or be boring and sleep all day.

Laundromat by Colleen Plumb

If you are in Fort Collins, CO you can start off your Labor Day weekend by going to the opening reception of JBG, 20×200 artist, AND Hey, Hot Shot! 2008 Ne Plus Ultra Colleen Plumb’s Animals Are Outside Today at the Center for Fine Art Photography, this Friday, September 4th.

If you can’t make it, check out Colleen’s available 20×200 prints. Don’t forget about free shipping on orders over $50 (before shipping + handling + taxes!) through Monday, September 7 @ midnight EST.

Center for Fine Art Photography
Friday, September 4, 2009

400 North College Avenue
(in the Poudre River Arts Center)
Fort Collins, CO 80524
MAP

The exhibition will be on view through September 26, 2009.

American Heritage Encyclopedia by Hot Shot Parsley Steinweiss

Mark your calendars! Before you know it it will be Thursday, September 10th! On this day from 6-8pm be sure to swing by Jen Bekman Gallery to see our Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition. You’ll see photographs from a brilliant bunch:

Michelle Arcila
Daniel Cheek
Mike Sinclair
Parsley Steinweiss
and Kurt Tong

See you there!

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, New York 10012

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday | Noon – 6pm
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10th, 6pm – 8pm
On View: September 10 through September 19, 2009

Untitled by Mike Sinclair

Since the 2009 First Edition Hot Shots were announced at the beginning of June, everyone at Jen Bekman Projects has been excitedly looking at the photographers whose work will be hanging in the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition opening September 9, 2009 here at JBG.  One of those Hot Shots, Mike Sinclair, caught my and Jeffrey’s eye with his spectacular artist blog.

I think Youngna said it best when she wrote that Sinclair “takes large ephemeral portraits of crowds at sun-soaked fairgrounds, beaches, and baseball games capturing a sense of nostalgic Americana that many of us get lost in, but hardly look at with any distance.” The work on the blog continues in this vein offering images, most recently, from the Missouri State Fair.

Untitled by Mike Sinclair

I’m a sucker for portraiture so I can’t stop looking at images like the one above. Everything from the subject’s poncho to her modest toe ring to the bangs flowing from her visor describe something normal and everyday, but her posture and Sinclair’s lighting transform it into something out of 16th century Dutch paintings. Nothing is particularly invasive or exploitative about what Sinclair captures in the festival goers—what he captures is honest and true.

When asked about the best advice he’s ever received as a photographer (and/or a human), he responded that his wife told him: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Sinclair seems to view every subject with new but knowing eyes.

I’m excited to see more of his work in the upcoming Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition opening September 9, 2009. Stay tuned for more!

Jen Bekman personally took to the Hey, Hot Shot! blog yesterday to introduce the project’s new Associate Director, Alan Rapp. I won’t repeat too much of the eloquent Ms. Bekman’s introduction (you can read the full post), but here is a brief bit about Alan and the path that led him to Jen Bekman Projects:

Alan recently joined the JBP team as the Associate Director of Hey, Hot Shot!. As our intrepid panelist Nion McEvoy can attest, we’re awfully lucky to have him! Alan arrived here in NYC about a year ago, leaving behind SF and his plum role as Senior Editor of art, design & photography titles at Chronicle Books. Nion—Chronicle’s Chairman and CEO —was recently telling me how hard it’s been to fill Alan’s shoes, giving me the opportunity to proudly announce our good fortune. (There might’ve been a little bit of “Nyah! Nyah!” in there, not that I’m competitive or anything.)

It is a busy time for Alan to come aboard and we are pleased to have him.

The 2009 Second Edition of HHS! is currently open for submissions! The deadline for entries is Friday, October 23, 2009 @ 8pm (EDT).

And the gallery is in full swing for the upcoming opening of the Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition.

HHS! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition Opens September 9th

Artforum by Parsley Steinweiss

Hey, Hot Shot! 2009 First Edition Group Exhibition
Please join us at the gallery Wednesday, September 9, 2009 from 6-8 p.m. at a reception for the artists.

The exhibition will be on view from September 10 through September 19, 2009 and features photographs by 2009’s First Edition Hot Shots: Michelle Arcila, Daniel Cheek, Mike Sinclair, Parsley Steinweiss and Kurt Tong.

See you there!