Jacks by Katie Baum

Greetings, collectors. It's Youngna here today to bring you Jacks, the latest edition from Berkeley-based photographer Katie Baum. Katie, whose three previous editions, Peeps, Gumball Machine and Frozen speak to the inner child in each of us—the kid with sticky fingers, an insatiable sweet tooth and a limitless capacity for imagination—harnesses the quintessence of youth and of summer in this newest edition.

Jacks is a game comprised of six-tipped metal objects and a rubber ball. It is a game that creates champions of playgrounds, queens of summer camp (Jen reports that she was a player of some notoriety back in the day at Mid-Queens Day Camp), and as in Katie's case, rulers of the beach. One imagines leisurely days spent at the water's edge, the ball bouncing astray into the incoming tide and sandy hands gripping the pieces just before they slip into the gray-blue waters.

Katie, like several other photographers whose work we've released here lately— including Thomas Prior and Marion Belanger—are photographers we initially discovered through their entries to Hey, Hot Shot! This year's competition—the final deadline for entries is in four days on Sunday, August 22nd at 8:00 (EDT)—has once again called our attention to the many, many photographers out there tirelessly making challenging, witty and thought-provoking work day after day and week after week.

This year, we're very excited to offer a host of opportunities that embrace every single contender, including the chance to have your work featured here on 20x200. At competition's end, our esteemed panel will select five photographers as the 2010 Hot Shots. Each Hot Shot will be part of a group exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery, receive a $500 honorarium and receive a $1,000 credit towards the creation of their own book on the self-publishing site Blurb. One of these five photographers will be selected for the Grand Prize, winning, in addition to the aforementioned awards, a $5,000 honorarium, a solo exhibition at JBG and two years of representation by the gallery. (And, bonus: if you apply by Friday, August 20th, you'll be eligible for our final Curator's Choice Award selected by photographer Alec Soth).

The clock is ticking and we hope you'll take the only opportunity this year to submit your photos; we can't wait to see 'em.

Now, before this summer really comes to an end, I'm headed eastward and closer to the beach with the rest of Team JBP for a change of scenery that'll get our creative juices flowing. Jen will be back next week with new editions from a few 20x200 favorites.