Time Machine, by Echo Eggebrecht

Tuesday greetings, collectors! Special alohas for all of you who've just joined us over the last few days; if you're not a collector yet, today is a fine day to get started. Things have been pretty bustling in 20x200 land, what with recent media attention and all, but first things first. And what comes first in our world is the art.

Today we bring you The Time Machine, which is a reproduction of an original painting by the insanely talented Echo Eggebrecht.

These super beautiful high-quality prints, created using archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper, are available in limited editions exclusively through 20x200. Your print will arrive with an official 20x200 Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist her ownself.

The Time Machine is available in three sizes:

8.5"x11"
Edition of 200, each $20
17"x22"
Edition of 20, each $200
30"x40"
Edition of 2, each $2000

I am totally nuts about Echo's work; her version of Americana is familiar and yet unmistakably her own. I've had the good fortune to get a digital preview of the works in her upcoming solo exhibition at the Belgian gallery Ter Caemer-Meert Contemporary and all I can say is: Whoa. I have a different favorite each time I look at them, so it seems that the best solution is to have them all. Although I am not one prone to jealousy, by and large, I am indeed jealous of Echo's imagination and talent. I wonder what it's like to have her mix of intelligence, humor and aesthetics in the same way that I listen to Billie Holiday's voice and wonder what it might be like to be able to sing.

The Time Machine is a mysterious piece - the indecipherable text across galaxies of stars, amidst clouds (or is it waves?) And the in the middle, encasing utter blackness, is the machine itself constructed with the most unlikely material: rough-hewn two by fours. In my narrative, which draws upon some familiarity with Echo's other paintings, I imagine this machine to be the backyard invention of some childhood friends who use its structure (did they find it or build it?) and their powers of make-believe to travel across time and space, without ever getting beyond shouting distance of their own backyards. As always, I'm quite possibly entirely wrong, but that's ok by me, because I'm enjoying the ride.

As I mentioned above, we've received quite a bit of glowing praise via some recent press. The big kahuna was last Thursday's profile of me in the New York Times which also has an audio clip where I discuss how to go about getting your art bought and an accompanying sidebar which includes many of my recommendations of favorite art purveyors online and off. This came hot on the heels of a mention in Wired and then this week started off on a high note: We were proclaimed The Best by New York magazine. (But you knew that already, didn't you?)

All this hubbub leads me to believe that the prints of The Time Machine will be traveling at light speed themselves, so I recommend that you go ahead and get yourself a piece of the future. (Or is it the past?)

Tomorrow I am back with more 20x200 goodness, form of: photograph! See you then.

Drizzly Wednesday greetings, collector friends. I'm in a mad dash to get myself ready for a trip to the Lone Star state, so I'm going to keep today's newsletter short and sweet. (And a sigh of relief is heard across cyberspace...)

Today's edition, an untitled photograph, comes to us from fun-loving, portrait taking superstar Brandon Herman.

I've loved this photo since I first exhibited at the gallery several years ago as part of a Hey, Hot Shot! exhibition. It combines some of the essential elements that define Brandon's work (beautiful but not conventional people, lots of skin, bright but not harsh lighting) with some of the essential elements that attract me to a photo of any kind (beautiful but not conventional, classical references, greenery.)

Brandon's work is a fresh mix of contemporary memes. There's often a kind of Ryan McGinley vibe - sometimes it seems like you're looking at a slice of Brandon's young, beautiful life and its gorgeous, quirky cast of characters. There's also a lot of staged and outlandish narrative work that reminds me of Gregory Crewdson in its more sober moments, but when the fellas get together and go a little crazy, there's a distinct similarity to some of Anthony Goicolea's images.

Being the model of a modern media maker, Brandon doesn't limit himself to a single medium. He is doing some hilarious video work which draws on the B-movie star populated environs of his Hollywood home and he's also dabbling in some installation and sculpture too.

You can see all of this with your own eyes if you find yourself in NYC any time soon. Brandon's solo show My Vacation with a Kidnapper opens this Friday at Envoy Gallery, a very close downtown neighbor of my gallery's Spring St. digs.

I'm going to miss the festivities since I'll in Austin by then, at South by Southwest. If you happen to be there, come check out the panel I'm on, which happens on Sunday @ 5pm.

Otherwise, I'll be back in your Inbox on Tuesday with a fresh batch of 20x200 art, hot off the presses. See you then!

Greetings from Austin, y'all. A Texas BBQ hangover has slowed my progress today, so I'm late in bringing you the word on today's fine art edition, Black on Blue by painter Giovanni Garcia-Fenech.

Giovanni's paintings are formal meditations on geometry and color, and I was initially drawn to them as a counterpoint to the more organic forms I'm naturally inclined to fall for. Last night, Raul and I were on a bus back from the aforementioned BBQ extravaganza, and he teased me about the challenge which lay a few short hours ahead: coming up with something interesting to write about mazes and minotaurs. (I will note that there are no minotaurs present in Giovanni's paintings, although it's not hard to imagine them there.)

Actually what is most interesting, and often distinctly uncomfortable, about Giovanni's paintings is that he's used the most controversial of symbols, the swastika, as the foundation for the broad range of patterns you find in his canvases. Although its origins are as a Sanskrit symbol of luck and goodness, its modern history and (mis)use have transformed it into a symbol that many believe to be unredeemable.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel personally about its prospects for redemption. Giovanni's exploration feeds an optimistic view that it can be, but you'll notice that my choice of paintings to print is a most abstracted form of the symbol itself, making me immediately doubt my optimism. The debate, internal and external, speaks to some of the most critical functions of art - to challenge assumptions, to prompt thought and debate, to offer an avenue by which to explore concepts and ideas and yes, sometimes, to make people feel uncomfortable.

This might sound crazy, but when I first looked at Giovanni's work, the persistence of the symbol wasn't immediately apparent to me. I was, as Raul kidded me about, thinking of mazes and minotaurs and I also found the bold colors and graphical qualities of the work appealing. In theory it's quite possible to stop right there, on the surface. If you're not me that is; for better or for worse, I've always been prone to dive in and wrangle with the challenges.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more challenging art. Until then, I bid you adieu from the deep end.

Palms, by Ian Baguskas

Not even back in town a week from speaking on a SXSW Interactive panel in Austin, our jetsetting rock star leader Jen Bekman is in Texas again right now—in Houston this time, reviewing portfolios at the 2008 FotoFest Biennial.
While she's away looking at beautiful photographs and eating BBQ, let me update you on what's been going on with some of our favorite people:

Hey, Hot Shot! Ne Plus Ultras Ian Baguskas and Birthe Piontek, both represented by Jen Bekman, were recently named to PDN's 30 for 2008, and are featured in their March 2008 issue as two of this year’s top 30 emerging photographers. Congratulations Ian and Birthe! Ian's NYC solo show debut, Sweet Water, an exhibition of photographs documenting failed oases of the American West, opens at the gallery on Friday, March 21st and will be on show through April 26th. Read more about his show, or just come to the opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. this Friday!

Prints from Birthe's Untitled (from Sub Rosa) and Ian's Kamping Kabins 20x200 editions are still available, and we're very much pleased and excited to share the news that their fellow 2008 PDN 30s Shen Wei and Daniel Traub (a Spring 2007 Hot Shot) have agreed to do editions with us. Can't wait to see what they'll come up with.

Mickey Smith, a Winter 2007 Hot Shot and nominee for the 2008 Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers, has both the cover and the One2Watch feature in the spring Fine Art Issue of PDNedu. Writer Jessica Gordon says, "Smith’s distinct style is attracting much attention in the fine-art world, and her breakthrough work is her ongoing Volume series, a collection of wall-absorbing, installation prints of library books in their stacks. Each image is graphically clean and includes a certain angle of a cheeky, ironic or symbolic book title, derived from the journals or periodicals it contains. For example, a series of worn, tan books have “Loco” on their spines. Two black books, one imperfectly ripped simply says “Life.” And one of her bestsellers among middle-aged men is a ruddy series of textured, brown books titled “The Metal Worker”; the buyers often say it reminds them of their fathers."

Word Study, Mickey's 20x200 edition from last November, is from the Volume series and is also completely sold out, except for one 30"x40" print that could be hanging on your wall soon—but only if no one beats you to it! Jen wrote about Mickey on her personal blog Personism last year as a perfect example of an artist who's got her eye on the prize; if you're starting out in the art or design worlds and want to know how to best approch galleries or prospective employers with your portfolio, you really need to read how Mickey does her thing and take notes.

Oh, and before I forget: hi! My name is Lia Bulaong, and starting today I'll be posting on the 20x200 blog, helping the incredibly busy Ms Jen keep you updated with news about our artists, editions, and all sorts of other things we think you might be interested in as art lovers and collectors. If my name seems a bit familiar, I've been bouncing around the internet for over a decade; I've been writing my personal blog at cheesedip.com since 2000, and have done stints at Gizmodo and Serious Eats in the past few years.

Some things you can expect to see here on the 20x200 blog soon: feature interviews with artists as well as collectors like yourselves (drop me a line at lia at 20x200.com if you'd like to share!), and the occasional inside look at what life is like at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ. Also the amazing Raul is currently working on enabling comments on the blog so we can have a public dialog in this space, hopefully they'll be good to go soon! has finally enabled comments, we're now good to go. Hoping to hear from you!

Tuesday greetings from the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel in Houston, Texas. (The glamor never stops for Ms. Jen Bekman, let me tell you.) Seeing as how I am very photo focused at the moment, not to mention a bit behind on my correspondence with all you fine collector people, we are going to have an all photo week here on 20x200. This seems especially appropriate considering that I'm currently at Fotofest, where I'm reviewing portfolios and hobnobbing with the photorati.

9-11-02 is from a new series that Nina Berman is developing. I started working with Nina just about a year ago when, much to my delighted surprised, she entered the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!; she submitted two photos from her internationally acclaimed series Purple Hearts, along with her stunning, heart-breaking photo Marine Wedding. It was a great honor for me to show that photo, which won last year's World Press Photo award in the portraits category; seeing it for the first time had been a defining moment for me, crystallizing my vague "war is bad, I wish we weren't there" feelings into something much more concrete.

After exhibiting the photo as part of the Spring edition of the competition, I invited Nina to show a broader selection of work from the Purple Hearts series during what is normally one of the sleepiest months in the New York art world. A rave review of the hastily planned exhibition in the New York Times, which ran on the front page of the Arts section and was accompanied by an extensive slideshow online, meant that last August was perhaps the busiest month in the gallery's history. It was also the most profoundly moving and important show I've ever had the good fortune to exhibit. Living with those portraits in my gallery for a month was intense; participating in the countless conversations about their meaning and the war's impact on our country and the world was transformative.

9-11-02, from the series entitled Homeland, explores a different aspect of the war's effect on our culture, focusing on how militarization has permeated our day-to-day lives since September 11th. It's sparse composition speaks volumes.

It's an image that's flashed through my mind often lately. All this conference going has meant a lot of airline travel. Each time I go through security check, juggling a laptop, as I try to remove my belt, while holding my shoes and trying to keep track of my handbag, there is a moment where I feel more humiliated than safe. The barking at and frisking of barefoot weary travelers seems to have a rather tenuous relationship to our national security, and continued exposure to it seems to be getting me more and more in touch with my inner radical.

What has commanded my abiding respect about Nina and her work is her insistence that we shouldn't just shuffle along, not paying attention. She shines a bright light on what shouldn't be ignored; unfortunately she has seemingly limitless material to draw upon. What she uncovers is often ugly, but pretending its not there won't make it go away.

Now it is I who must go away. I have photographers to meet, portfolios to review and coffee to drink. I'll be back tomorrow with an extremely super photography edition from one of my favorite new friends. Stay tuned.

• Like our Jen Bekman, I was in Austin to speak at SXSW Interactive last weekend. The conference has gotten so huge over the past three years I've stayed home that conflicts kept me from attending any of the panels featured in Mike Rohde's amazing sketchnotes, but I'm getting so much out of looking at what he's written and drawn. Part of the appeal is how lovely his sketchnotes are, stylistically reminiscent (at least to me) of old school band and circus posters, but his careful editing of which details and ideas were important enough to take down are what's really striking.
• Graphic designer Gino Orlandi shares the 30 photos that inspired him to learn photography—three photos each from ten photographers he likes. I love browsing through people's favorites on Flickr to see what moves them visually and what tickles their fancy—looking through mine right now, I guess I'm really into dogs, babies and my friends making strange faces! What do your favorites say about you?
• The Brooklyn real estate and renovation blog Brownstoner is putting together Brooklyn Flea, which will be the largest outdoor market in NYC when it opens on April 6th in Fort Greene. It's exciting to see that along with all the standard sellers of vintage furniture and clothing, jewelry and crafts, their list of vendors has 17 names listed under art and photography—and if you'd like to sell your art and press some flesh every Sunday this spring and summer, the site says they're still taking applications! Otherwise pencil a visit onto your calendar; flea markets are a great way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon, especially with a belly full of brunch.

La Alberca #6 1/3/2005 12:56, by Bert Teunissen

Jen is still in Houston reviewing portfolios at FotoFest and is so busy that her newsletter for today's edition by the Dutch photographer Bert Teunissen is running a little late, it should be out tomorrow. I think this photo is especially stunning—taken in natural light and rooted in a history of place, like the rest of his incredible Domestic Landscapes series. In a 2007 piece about his work by the NYT's Kathryn Shattuck, he says his work archives a way of life that is "fated to disappear as a consequence not only of architectural standardization but also of social displacement and shifts in public opinion about life and how it should be lived," and estimates that 90 percent of the 350 or so structures he's photographed no longer exist.

Teunissen discusses both his process and his views on rapidly disappearing ways of life in his ongoing travel diaries for the Aperture Foundation, written as he travels through Europe and Asia working on Domestic Landscapes. They're all of them fairly compelling but if you've not got the time to read through the whole lot, I highly recommend the last two entries from his Japan diaries, Grand Finale one and two, to get a perfectly encapsulated view of the man and how and why he does what he does.

Aperture published a monograph last May, also titled Domestic Landscapes, composed of Teunissen's portraits of Europeans taken in their homes—all of which were built before the World Wars, many inhabited by generation after generation of the same family through centuries. The book is now completely sold out, but used copies can still be had if you know where to look.

• Over at the Magnum Blog, Stuart Franklin has a quiet, moving elegy for the Welsh photographer Philip Jones Griffith, who passed away yesterday morning after a long fight with cancer. Franklin says, "Philip was always concerned with individuals - their personal and intimate suffering more than any particular class or ideological struggle. And the strength of his vision, that inspired so many of us, led Henri Cartier-Bresson to write of Philip: "not since Goya has anyone portrayed war like Philip Jones Griffiths." RIP.
• Shoot the Blog's Rachel Hulin wonders how it is exactly that despite all the attention he's received for his Everyday project, Noah Kalina is still not getting the kind of jobs or even representation that he probably should: "When all this started happening, he was just launching his career, like so many other young dudes just out of SVA. And although he's sort of "famous" now, he doesn't have a rep. No agencies have contacted him. And when he's contacted them, the response hasn't been overwhelming. This project did not get Noah to where he wanted to be. He's rarely in print. Ideally he'd be shooting for Wired, GQ, Details, Fader, or the NY Times Magazine."

  We at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ think he's pretty awesome—he was a Summer 2005 Hot Shot, and his Untitled (LA20070805) was one of our first 20x200 offerings of this year. We've still got a few prints available if you like him as much as we do!

• My favorite new magazine of the last few years, Theme, has a great interview with Ray and David Potes in their February/March 08 issue, written by Drew Lazor. The brothers Potes are founders of the black-and-white photography magazine Hamburger Eyes, which started life as a zine photocopied at Kinko's and is still, seven years later, "all photos, not a scrap of verbiage. Ray says that this was essentially an accident that grew into one of the most vital and definitive characteristics of the magazine as a whole. “I actually had left some blank spaces for a friend to do some writing,” says Ray. “But he never came through, so I filled the spaces with random photos.”

Domenique Zuber wrote in recently with a question we get asked a lot here at 20x200, and was kind enough to allow me to reprint it to share with you:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the art you offer every week. And I love it so much that I've bought more prints than my walls can handle. So, do you have any tips on how to best store the ones that I don't currently have on display? I live in a small place, I don't have flat files, and I'm just not sure how to best tuck away my precious prints to ensure their pristine longevity...

Thanks, Domenique! The first thing you have to consider when storing your art away is what you'll be placing it in. Here at Jen Bekman World Domination HQ, we actually employ three art containment methods; enjoy an image from behind our iron curtain courtesy of my three-year-old cameraphone + my 133t Photoshop skillz:

• Archival storage boxes are easy to find (Dick Blick has a nice selection that won't break the bank) and you can store a lot of prints in them, just make sure to slide a sheet of smooth tissue paper between each print.
• If you've got canvasses or frames to store, wrap them in bubble wrap. Make sure as you wrap that you're not disturbing the surfaces of the artwork, and that when you lean them against each other, nothing protudes from one to poke its neighbor. You can get rolls of bubble wrap from Kinko's or Staples—make sure to get extra if you enjoy popping!
• For large prints that you really don't have space for, you can roll them up very carefully and store them in cardboard tubes. My apartment is short on space, so this is my method of choice. If you're storing multiple prints this way, make sure to use tissue paper between each print like you would in a storage box.
• Our Raul has one last method to consider, if you're especially short on space: "I actually have a bunch of prints in plastic sleeves and then in heavy envelopes in a file cabinet."

Regardless of how you decide to store your art, the second decision you'll make is actually the most important one—where you store it. You want to choose a place that is cool and dry with relatively stable temperatures and good air circulation, avoiding humidity, heat and extreme cold. Bad places: beside a bathroom, fireplace, washing machine, dishwasher, radiators, anywhere that will be in direct sunlight. Attics and garages are out too; basements might be okay but you'll have to be careful. If at all possible, keep stuff on shelves in case of flooding.

How and where you store your art are really all there are this to affordable home art storage. If you have a lot of pieces stored away, you might want to keep a ledger or spreadsheet of what you've got and where it's stashed, but that's about it.

If you've got any questions you'd like answered, or tips you'd like to share with us or your fellow collectors, feel free to send them in to lia at 20x200.com or to leave a comment!

Not everyone observes Easter, of course, but many of the people that do celebrate it stick to traditions like going to Mass or painting eggs. Me, I prefer to go to brunch with friends and then wait for all the photos of dogs and cats dressed up in themed costumes to hit Flickr. I think this one to the right of Libby the Pug is my favorite this year, taken by Robin Tolbert. If you prefer costumed babies, I think Eleanor Mann as a lamb reigns supreme. Okay, holiday silliness aside, here's a bit news about two of our favorite people, both of them Hey, Hot Shot! Ne Plus Ultras represented by Jen Bekman Gallery:

NYC photographer Joseph O Holmes is participating in an event tomorrow: "PHTHRD II in NYC invites three artists to tell a story using hundreds of Polaroid pictures to craft a mosaic narrative. This will happen LIVE in Brooklyn. That means you watch them do it and you get to be in the pictures." Tickets are $11 for members, $22 for everyone else; pricey for sure, but they do promise an open bar. Both of Joe's sublime 20x200 editions, Prospect Park and amnh #30 are completely sold out, save for the large sizes—snap those up while you still can!

Kate Bingaman-Burt of Obsessive Consumption fame has limited edition letterpressed prints for sale at the Poketo First Editions Print Show, the inaugural event at their new space in the Little Tokyo district of downtown LA—go visit if you're in the area. If Poketo sounds familiar, you've probably come across their super awesome limited edition wallets in your favorite stores or magazines. Kate's got three wallets in their current series, each available for $20—you can still get her great eyeglasses print I Bought All Of These here at 20x200 for the exact same price, but her Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1 is now only available in medium and large.

LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56, by Bert Teunissen

Tuesday greetings, collectors! I am most pleased to be writing to you while curled up in my cozy armchair, ensconced (at last!) in the creature comforts of home. My apologies for being such an unreliable correspondent. As I said over on Personism, Texas times two threw me for quite a loop and interfered mightily with our regularly scheduled programming. It's good to be back.

LA ALBERCA #6 1/3/2005 12:56 by Dutch master Bert Teunissen is part of his ambitious and important series Domestic Landscapes. For the past decade, Bert has been documenting a way of life that is quickly disappearing; his painterly use of natural light (perhaps a gift of his heritage?) and the reverence with which he treats these places and people result in images that I find fascinating, captivating and deeply moving.

His monograph, beautifully produced and published by Aperture last Spring, is both an aesthetic joy and a precious history. I'm so happy to be able to offer a print from the series here, and I confess that it was awfully hard to choose just one. There's so much to every picture, and I discover something new in each one, every time I look at them. I ended up choosing this one based on its ancient quality, the woman's proud demeanor, the moodiness of the light and, well, the meat. It reminds me of the Polish butchers in my East Village neighborhood (they're disappearing too) and of the wonderful lithograph I got when I was in Paris at the holidays, taken from a very old cookbook.

In our next post, part two of 20x200's super Tuesday: some words on painter Rachell Sumpter.

Cave Dwellers, by Rachell Sumpter (Detail images at the bottom of this post.)

Brand new for today is Cave Dwellers by the extraordinary Rachell Sumpter. I have been enamored of Rachell's otherworldly landscapes and beings for a while now, and was lucky enough to snag an edition of hers from the fine people at Tiny Showcase a while back.

Using real world memories as a launching pad, her pieces evoke communities and landscapes that I want to dive into. There's a feeling of connectedness and warmth, but with a hint of some larger purpose or ritual that could turn ominous. That sense of impending something, combined with the way her tribes are so often assembled in lines, remind me of schoolyard games and all the mixed emotions they embody.

Speaking of tribes, Rachell is part of a few that I truly admire. In LA, she shows with Richard Heller, which is my A-1 gallery crush object. I adore so many of the artists showing there, including 20x200 hit-maker Jacob Magraw (who also happens to be the husband of Ms. Sumpter) and painter of fictitious houses and 'hoods Amy Bennett, whose work I have been absolutely gaga over for ages.

In late May, Rachell will be in a group show alongside another talented 20x200'er, Echo Eggebrecht at our friendly gallery neighbor Sunday, which is a few short blocks from Jen Bekman. I'm looking forward to meeting her in person and seeing more great work.

As much as I'd like to go on and on about 20x200 artists past, present and future, I have other things to attend to on this too-cold-for-springtime NYC day. So that's all folks, until tomorrow when I'll be back (promise!) with a great photo edition for you to add to your growing collection.

details:

• This is going to sound really weird, but my favorite photos that I've seen today were taken with webcams attached to elephants in India: "One carried a "trunk-cam" - a device resembling a huge log concealing a camera which could be held in its trunk and dangled close to the ground. Another had a "tusk-cam" hooked over its tusk. The elephants moved so steadily that the images are pin-sharp." The first two on the page are especially great, but I kind of am totally crazy about the wild boar in the very last photo.
• It's barely a month old so who knows if it'll stick around long or if the anonymous person running it will get bored and dump it (which is what happens to the vast majority of blogs ever created), but I'm really enjoying Photoshop Disasters, which takes great glee in pointing out "clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching" in commercial ventures like magazine covers, ads, and movie posters.
• If you find yourself around Charlotte, North Carolina between now and June 29, make sure to check out the group exhibition Food for Thought at the Light Factory's Knight Gallery, curated by Ariel Shanberg, Executive Director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock. One of the featured artists is the photographer Brian Ulrich, whose 20x200 edition from December (Untitled, Thrift 2006 (0635)) sold out before I could even collect my thoughts about it enough to buy one. Alas! I wish I could go see the show, especially Brian's Kenosha, WI 2006 (Jello), which I just can't stop thinking about—I find it so seductive, and yet also so very subtly menacing. (And why yes, it does disturb me to have feelings like that associated with something Bill Cosby sold during my childhood.)

The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between, by Colin Blakely

Dreamy Wednesday greetings, Patrons of the Emerging Arts. Have I mentioned that it's good to be back? So good!* And just in time for the Springing of New York, no less. Ollie and I spotted a teeny purple iris, freshly unfurled, on our morning walk today. A truer sign of warmer days to come has never been seen (or in Ollie's case, sniffed.)

Today's photographic treat is brought to us by heartland Hot Shot Colin Blakely. With Spring on my brain, it's hard to attribute the soft focus of The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between to winter weather. I prefer to imagine that we're viewing Colin's dreamy field through the static snow of a 50s TV set, a fitting frame for his sentimental (but never too sweet) meditations on a small, fragile slice of Midwestern heaven.

This particular photo is one of my favorites from Somewhere in Middle America, wherein Colin manages to evoke the everywhere of our center, while never straying more than a block or two from his own home. Colin first got on my radar with this project last year, when he was selected for the Winter Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!. Since then, fellow HHS! panelist Lesley Martin and I have frequently commiserated about the lyrical qualities of both the images and titles of the series. (There was, in fact, some back room lobbying from Ms. Martin to be sure to include a piece from Colin on 20x200.) While it's wonderful to have a woman of such impeccable credentials as a champion of his work, hers is just one voice in a chorus of admirers. His skills, both photographic and titular, are held in high esteem by other photographers, and yours truly too, but of course!

And with that, I am truly done for the week, with the newsletter writing at least. Want to feed your 20x200 jones in the interim? Well, wouldn't you know it, I've got lots of juicy pointers:

- Lisa Gray, 20x200 collector and Houston Chronicle columnist, wrote a feature most flattering that appears in today's paper: On the Internet, it's real art for $20.

- Lia Bulaong is now posting daily on the 20x200 blog, bringing you link love, storage advice and artist updates.

- Former Village Voice photo critic Jen Snow, a shutterbug in her own right, is firing up the Hey, Hot Shot! blog in preparation for the first round of 2008.

- Also not to be missed is Sweet Water which just opened at the real-world arm of JB projects, Jen Bekman Gallery. Ian's a Hot Shot, an Ultra and a 20x200 edition maker. (And I'm not the only one who sees what a talented fella he is.)

• The Polaroid as we know it will soon be going the way of the dodo, but that's not stopping the people behind the For the Love of Light: A Tribute to the Art of Polaroid book, which will be out this July, featuring 25 photographers (most of them women!) from ten countries on five continents.
• Face Your Pockets is a project by Timur Akhmetov and Yulia Yakushova, who are interested in all the detritus "living in the pockets of your bag, jeans or jacket: travel and pay checks, old cigarette pack that just looks interesting, sugar lumps and all the stuff that has found home in your pockets," and encourage people to place these things and their faces on a scanner and then send in the resulting image to add to their collection. It's an interesting twist on the What's In Your Bag? meme that goes around every few months; I actually think the results of this project are more interesting, both visually and also as a voyeuristic look into a slice of a stranger's daily life.
• The National Geographic feature Bedlam in the Blood: Malaria is up for an ASME National Magazine Award in the photojournalism category, and it's not hard to understand why once you've seen John Stanmeyer's photographs. Many of them are painful to view, some outright shocking, and they really do bring home the awful reality of malaria deaths—half a billion people a year fall sick with it every year, and about a million die, many of them children under five in Africa. Increasingly drug-resistant, it's easy to prevent with insecticide-filled nets—but actually getting those nets to the people who need it most is more difficult than raising the money to buy them in the first place.

• Dith Pran, the New York Times photojournalist whose survival of his native Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge was the basis of the movie The Killing Fields, passed away Sunday at the age of 65 from pancreatic cancer. The NYT has a slideshow of photos taken of and by Pran, spanning from his work with Sydney H. Schanberg in Phnom Penh, his return to Siem Reap after the Vietnamese invasion, up to his life and work as a photojournalist in the US. In 1997, he released Children of Cambodia's Killing Field, a compilation of eyewitness accounts of Pol Pot's genocidal regime. RIP.
• I love this super cute blog post from Colin Blakely, whose 20x200 edition went up for sale just last week; he says, "Wow. I am stunned and ecstatic by the outcome of my 20×200 edition. In my most optimistic hopes I saw the small edition eventually selling out, but never in anything close to 28 hours." I wish everyone had a blog; it's truly one of the great gifts of this age that you can get information directly from someone if they choose to share it. Colin's piece, The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between, is still available in medium and large—pick one up while you still can!
• Magnum Photos has just kicked off their new series of conversations with their photographers by inviting friend of 20x200 Jörg M. Colberg to interview the photographer Miguel Rio Branco.

  It's a long, fantastic read, well worth your time; my favorite part is his discussion of what art is: "The boundary between fine art and photography is clear at least to me. Between fine art and photojournalism it is the same. What I have seen lately is mostly commercial [photography], or technical or photojournalism, becoming "ART" just because of its size or because of who in power says that this or that is ART. To me Art is a question of: first, having something to say from the inside that has nothing to do with description of reality, reality being just the material thing that the camera captures. So for this question I must say that I always focus on the images I want to SHOW, not necessarily to see, some of those images I would even want NOT to see."