500px

500px.com is a photo site balancing between usual photo-sharing and a juried selection of photographs. Members can upload whatever they wish but the photographs will soon sink into oblivion unless they become really popular. All viewers can vote pro or contra on a particular image, but it's not mandatory to vote. The more votes an image receives, the less is the weight of a vote. In other words: the more popular an image becomes, the more votes it needs to proceed and finally stay in the top selection. Popularity votes are not to anyone's taste but at least every upload has a chance. I also like the easy-going and slightly ironic attitude of the founders. For example, if you upgrade your membership you don't become "pro" or "bronze" or "full" but - "awesome". (Quite an easy way to become an awesome photographer.) Their portfolio service doesn't offer too many gimmicks but what they provide is decently designed, bug-free and comes with an interface that's a pleasure to use. On the negative side, a great part of the chat goes in Russian and the site lacks a real community because there isn't any discussion forum. But for easy photo sharing with a little competition, the site is perfect.

Anyway, most of what's popular there is escapist-beauty-glam stuff (and I don't mean this in a dehonestating way because who wouldn't want to see nice things once in a while?). I had a hard time establishing myself since my "work" is mostly documentary-oriented with just a few attempts at fine art, but at last today one of my nudes got into the pool of most popular images.It's one from a 2009 shooting with model Ewelina in Cologne. Moreover, through my 500px portfolio I received an inquiry from a German gallery about buying this one. I hope it can be realised but in any case, isn't this the kind of email all photographers hope to find in their mailbox one day? At least it gave me good impetus to work the image over, having at last a real image in mind and not just the usual 900x600 pixel thumbnails.