Photo competition news Hotshoe Photofusion Award 2010 – The show goes up, let the judging begin

There’s something fun about travelling to Photofusion as to get there you have to “rock down to” Electric Avenue (remember the Eddy Grant song?) and Electric Lane to get to the upstairs gallery.

For today’s post I leave you with a quick preview of the show, which I  visited yesterday before coming home with a CD of the 10 images submitted by each member. This allowed me to look at each submission in its entirety, and to consider the work as a whole, as not all the photos are on the gallery walls due to curatorial and space considerations. All photos © Miranda Gavin.

The 14 selected, from whom I will choose a winner, are:

Alexander Bartsch
Odette England
Kellie French and Gary Anderson
David Gopsill
Miranda Hutton
Vikram Kushwah
Jason Larkin
Jo Phipps
Heiko Prigge
David & Magda Sampson
Toby Smith
Chris Stockbridge
Oliver Woods
Jane Ward

The show runs until 28 January, so you have plenty of time to take a look at the work – and if the show is anything to go by, Photofusion members are producing diverse bodies of work, some of which are very strong. Carole Evans and the team at Photofusion have done a great job putting the show together, especially given the difficulties currently facing many arts organisations that receive public funding such as Photofusion which will celebrate its twentieth anniversary soon.

Photo competition judging Hotshoe/Photofusion Annual Members Photo Show Award 2010

I have had a full on week of organising day workshops on marketing and social media for freelance creatives, so there has been precious little time to blog.

However, I’ve been listening to lots of comments on the pros and cons of social media and blogs such as “Why blog”, “Who reads it, anyway”, “Isn’t it too time consuming”, “Aren’t there too many out there? “How do you get yourself heard through all the noise?” “What’s the point?”.  Thankfully, I have a reprieve as I have signed off on the most recent features on photography that I have been commissioned to write – with Christmas coming up, deadlines are brought forward – so, it’s been a bit like the proverbial buses; they all come at once.

Today I’m off to Photofusion’s second members’ exhibition, AMPS/10 to see the work as I will be announcing the winner on Thursday.  The work on show “reflects the different genres, approaches and interests from photographers within the membership scheme and is open to annual members”.

This afternoon I will get a chance to look at the work of fourteen photographers who are showing prints, “either from a recently completed series, or a project in development” and will choose a winner with my Hotshoe hat on. The winner receives the Hotshoe Photofusion Award title,  an annual subscription to the magazine, a single-page feature including profile and image in the February/March issue of the magazine, and an interview with on the Hotshoe blog.

The public will also have a chance to vote for their favourite photographer, who will receive the “AMPS/10 Public’s Choice” at the end of the exhibition. it will be interesting to see what is selected.

Keep posted for news on the competition and other photo news

 

Hereford Photo Festival 2010 celebrates twenty years and Jason Larkin wins OPEN HERE – Press preview photo stroll

HEREFORD PHOTO FESTIVAL 2010
This is the year that Hereford Photo Festival celebrates its twentieth anniversary which makes it, I believe, the longest running annual photography festival in the UK.

Hotshoe editor Melissa Dewitt was on the selection panel with Paul Seawright, Stuart Whipps, artistic director Caitlin Griffiths and Nina Gustavsson for the the OPEN HERE submissions where the work of 23 photographers was selected from over 200 applicants. The winner of OPEN HERE is Jason Larkin with his project, Past Perfect Museum II. He wins a £2000 commission to make new work for the festival next year. More of this tomorrow when I post some images from the OPEN show with a couple of audio recordings from photographer Jackie Nickerson‘s talk and co-curator/photographer Paul Seawright.

For today, here’s a preview of some of the work on show shot on my iPhone.

Hereford Museum and Art Gallery

Hotshoe hits the high street shelves of WHSmith in the UK

Finally, the first edition of the new A4 magazine, Oct/Nov, has hit the shelves. Look out for it at select WHSmith book stores. The front cover feature is a must read. Jan Banning’s Comfort Women project is covered in an essay by Bill Kouwenhoven and is a moving account of the women in Japanese occupied Indonesia in World War II who were taken into sexual slavery as young as ages 10 and 11. The cover portrait is of one of these survivors, Wainem, 1925, Mojogedang, Central Java.

And here’s the proof…

Hotshoe contemporary photography magazine rebrand new issue Oct/Nov out now

It’s the seven year itch. Hotshoe contemporary photography magazine, which was redesigned in 2003 and was a compact A5 size, has been rebranded in A4 format. It is now available for £6.00/issue at WH Smith stores and specialist outlets throughout the UK, in select stores in the US and by subscription worldwide.

Front cover feature Jan Banning, Comfort Women, also featuring portfolios, interviews and essays on Dan Dubowitz, The Past Is Always With Us; Garry Fabian Miller, Shadow Catchers; Stuart Bailes, Photography Should Build a Tent; Crude Metaphors, a section curated by Edgar Martins; Brian Griffin, Face to Face; and Stephen Shore, Urban Surfaces. Hot Seat with Markus Schaden, Bringing Books to Life. Book reviews Carl de Keyzer’s Congo. Show reviews Eadward Muybridge, Tate Britian and Alejandro Cesarco, Tate Modern. Plus What’s On, UK, Europe and International, shows, fairs and festivals.

With an aim to create a stronger identity for Hotshoe, the magazine has moved to a larger, A4 format, designed to incorporate newsstand appeal and a shelf position in WH Smith as well as to give more space within the magazine to the photographs.

The bimonthly magazine comes out six times a year:
Feb/March; April/May: June/July; Aug/Sept; Oct/Nov and Dec/Jan.

The relaunch sees Hotshoe go into 120 WH Smith outlets throughout the UK. A full list of these stores will be available on this site in the next couple of days.

See for yourselves…

Subscriptions are:
£30 – UK and Northern Ireland
£40 – Europe
£50 – Overseas/Worldwide

Contact powens@hotshoeinternational.com.