Ever since the digital camera entered our world, hobby photographers began multiplying everywhere like tiny, annoying little rabbits. The cost of film disappeared, the auto button became the answer to everything, and around the globe half blind grandmas and annoying Uncle Bob’s became instant geniuses (well, to their family at least). In 2003 when Canon released the 300D aimed fairly and squarely at the consumer market, it heralded the beginning of a very different era in photography - one where the amateur photographer would begin buying $10,000 worth of gear and swamping the internet with photoblogs and online businesses. Anyone could be a photographer.
Search online now and there are countless photo forums, all encouraging newbie photographers to learn photography, post their photos, create their own photo blogs, start their own photography businesses and sell sell sell online.
And then there was Onexposure.
Onexposure ( http://1x.com/ ) is an online photo site with a big ambition - aiming to “… create a collection of some of the most beautiful photos in the world.” Photos are screened by both the site moderators and then through to the membership, and only the very best and those considered suitable for the ‘feel’ of onexposure get through. There is no sympathy for the learning amateur - either the photo is worth it publishing, or it’s out.
Online photographers have a love/hate relationship with Onexposure - they love the site when they get published, and hate it with an unexpected passion when they get rejected, then rejected, then rejected some more. Onexposure is openly elitist by its very nature - they reject much more than they accept, and in doing so have created (with the help of a little human nature) an atomosphere where many photographers secretely crave that little email that congratulates them on their published Onexposure photo.
So is Onexposure’s decision to raise the bar this high fair? Of course it is. If Onexposure was a high-brow art magazine no one would be throwing a tantrum when their images simply don’t get in. Onexposure has a certain feel, and it is in their interest to reject photos that simply don’t look good as part of the site. The ‘tastes’ of Onexposure membership are undoubtedly European, and you will find that black & white and mono-toned photographs definitely monopolize the published entries. Nature photographers will struggle and Pet and Child photographers might as well give up now - but when a photo fits the Onexposure mould it will get in, no matter what the genre.
The criticisms of Onexposure aren’t baseless - unlike the comments on most photo forums where people make a huge effort to be friendly, the Onexposure members are cutting and straight to the point. Plenty of photos that would get a mountain of kudos on one site, will be scorned and rejected without much of an explanation on this one. But while there is a cost to their perceived snobbery (including the loss of some great photographers who object to their “attitude”) the benefit is that they will never turn into “just another Flickr” and you will never to have to wade through snapshots just to discover the good stuff.
There are undoubtedly huge benefits in the ‘opening up’ of photography as a genuinely accessible hobby. Plenty of amazing photos have been captured by people who would never have picked up a film camera or have learnt their skills and accessed their creativity from the support found in photo forums. But art has always and will always require talent, and no matter how much we pretend otherwise, some people are better photographers than others. No amount of photshopping or lense buying will change that. There is no shame in having levels of expertise in any artform - instead we should celebrate those who go beyond the ‘average’ and shine in their chosen field, creating works of art for us mere mortals to enjoy. Elitism is not a dirty word.
(And yes - I have been published on Onexposure, which I un-humbly advise is no mean feat with zoo photography, but I also have been rejected 10 times!)
http://1x.com/member/6118/
There is a plethora of amazing work on Onexposure, explore the nature category by clicking
here
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