Dec 25 2005
Photokonkurs.com
I am one of these grouchy old pioneers; relatively speaking that is, because the Web was already there for a long time when I started off in 1994 building websites. I mean grouchy because in many ways the Web has not lived up to my expectations back then. It has been taken over by marketing engineers and crowds of visitors who seem mostly interested in obtaining free ringtones for their cell phones. Or anything that is “free” to be more accurate. Then suddenly you come across a Russian web project like photokonkurs.com.
Their community is growing faster than one could dream off. The concept is simple and brilliant, visitors vote for pictures posted by both professional and amateur photographers.
I am not saying it has not been done before, nor am I stating that it is The Louvre of Fine Art Photography, but it is alive and kicking. Russians, Americans, Europeans; the whole world seems to be posting and voting there.
Of course the Nudes section is most popular and sometimes the voters vote for the girls more than the pictures. Here is democracy at work!
Serious entrepeneurs as the photokonkurs people are, they decided that they needed a professional jury to iron out the sometimes unfair voting system and they asked a group of photographers to join their jury. I had sworn that I would never do another job without a pay check, but I said ‘yes’ right away.