I wanted to quickly mention two photography contests/grants that you should consider applying. The first is called Name Your Dream Assignment with a deadline of March 3, 2009. The other is called Emerging Photographers Fund, and is hosted at David Allan Harvey's burn magazine. That deadline is March 15, 2009. Good luck to all the applicants.

From Laura Nathan [at InTheFray.org]

This June, INTHEFRAY Magazine will get the skinny on the 21st century's obsession with fat.

With meanings ranging from obese to wealthy, from productive to foolish, fat has many faces today. While the diet industry rakes in billions and the fashion industry glamorizes anorexia, public health experts have declared an obesity epidemic of unprecedented proportions. Meanwhile, public officials and corporate executives are dealing in a different kind of fat — politicians skim the fat off taxpayer dollars to finance a war from which their fat cat friends profit, while CEOs cook the books to fatten up company profits and feed their own growing compensation packages.

With fat shaping our lives at every turn, we invite artists and writers to our big fat June issue. Possible questions to explore include: Is the obesity epidemic a hoax? Do fat studies departments have a place in academia? When it comes to discrimination, is fat the new black? How do race and class influence what we eat and what we consider to be beautiful? What does obesity say about affluence in our society? How will bans on transfats change dining experiences? How is newly acquired affluence affecting health in developing countries? How is fat related to phat? Who is getting fat off the war in Iraq?

Contributors interested in pitching relevant news features, poetry/fiction, cultural criticism, commentary pieces, personal essays, visual essays, travel stories, or book reviews should e-mail us at fat-at-inthefray-dot-org. Send us a well-developed, one-paragraph pitch for your proposed piece NO LATER THAN APRIL 30, 2007. First-time contributors to ITF should familiarize themselves with the type of content we publish, our submission guidelines, and the honorarium and publishing rights we offer beforehand by visiting http://submit.inthefray.org.

“Take your best shot—and send it to us,” asks The National Geographic for Your Shot, a monthly feature that will showcase the first 5000 images submitted by its readers.

Karen Nakamura of Photoethnography.com thinks it is an ongoing scam.

What do you make of it?

Heather Champ and Derek Powazek say that JPG Magazine is open again for submissions. The theme this time around is “Fabulous.” Interpret that word visually and submit your work. It will be considered for the third issue of the magazine. The first issue's theme was ORIGIN. The second theme, currently under production, is LOST.