Interview on Hey, Hot Shot!

My friend Sara Distin over at Hey, Hot Shot (a Jen Bekman project) just posted a little interview with yours truly:

From the interview with Sara Distin:

“I had the pleasure of first meeting Darius a couple years ago at the Winter 2007 panel review, held in Jen’s cozy and art-filled apartment. In spite of the casual atmosphere, it was an intimidating room to be in: some of the smartest and most insightful individuals working in the fine art photography world were hunkered down, ready to look at hundreds of Hot Shot entries and determine the fortunes of the top ten (now it’s five, but then it was ten Hot Shots). Darius was one of the first to crack a joke and seemed to be having a good time during what can be a really grueling process.

His enthusiasm for contemporary photography was evident. I’m guessing that kind of energy also spills into his other projects, which most recently include Radius Books. Radius, a non-profit, publishes gorgeous books (I am a delighted owner of Michael Lundgren’s Transfigurations) and as part of their mission, donates at least 300 copies of every title to libraries and schools, because as they put it, “the arts–all arts–are vital to our nation and our culture’s future.” To learn more about Radius and to be notified about new editions, sign up for their mailing list. It’s good to be in the know as limited editions sell quickly, like the signed and slipcased Lee Friedlander: New Mexico, which is almost gone.

Here to stay, thankfully, is Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Darius Himes, former editor of photo-eye Booklist, current independent curator, writer, consultant, and co-founder of Radius Books.

SD: How did you come to be a panelist for Hey, Hot Shot!?

DH: Jen and I met at Review Santa Fe a few years ago. There was a really great group of reviewers and photographers that year, and we’ve all stayed in touch. It was right around then that Jen launched 20×200. I like to think that she and I have similar eccentric tastes in photography and share a similar enthusiasm for the field. She asked me shortly thereafter to be a panelist. (At least that’s my version of how it all happened! Jen’s may be different…)

SD: What’s most interesting/engaging for you in seeing so much work from emerging photographers?”

READ MORE ….

Tags: Hey, Hot Shot!, jen Bekman
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