Thoughts about the design and content of this photo-gallery on
December 1st 2007
Dear friends of photography,
because so far I have not found a space in
the worldwide web where I was feeling comfortable enough with my pictures, I
decided to design a gallery for interested and interesting photographers
myself. The aim is to create a versatile platform where photographers can
meet on a high level.
To bring life into this gallery, I am going to ask
one by one selected national and international photographers to exhibit
their work here. In a second phase, the gallery should be enlarged by
proposals from the existing members. To be accepted as a new member, a
2/3-majority could be required for example. These are current thoughts that
could be revised as better solutions may emerge. Self-proposals for
membership will be allowed. The voting procedure might be the
same.
Every member will be given a start page with six pictures free of
charge. Links to the email address and to already existing pages of the
respective photographer are explicitly desired. This way, comments can be
directly forwarded and will prevent public "backslapping". The pictures
should speak for themselves! The aim is to encourage a dialogue between
likes.
Because this is a private photo gallery and solely financed by
myself (yet), I will offer those photographers who wish to go further in
their presentation on this site an extended upload volume at 1 euro per
picture per year. For example, should someone wish to publish 30 pictures
(in addition to the already 6 pictures free of charge) it would cost 30
euros per year or 2.5 euros per month.
This contribution would allow
me to extend, enhance and develop the gallery further.
No internet
presence can be perfect, that is why I gladly look forward to any questions,
comments or critiques.
Kind regards,
Volker Vontin
INFOS
Dear „Photokunst“- friends,
one year has passed very quickly and „Photokunst“ celebrated its 1st anniversary. It`s time for a review: Launched on Dec.12th 2007 with
a few friends of fotocommunity, "Photokunst” has taken a thrilling development,
which I had never expected in such a short time. The number of members has
risen permanently up to 68 members so far. “Photokunst” has become attractive
not only for amateurs, but also for professionals. I’m especially proud of its
international performance with photographers of 14 nations and visitors of more
than 40 nations all over the world (excluding antartica). More than 25.000
visits and a top-ranking in searching-engines prove this. All this was possible
by your participacion with wonderful photos of high standard. Therefore I’d
like to thank you very much at this moment. Our sreening-procedure was the
guarantee for keeping this high level up to now. To be a member of “Photokunst”
is something special, an award for outstanding photography.
Like everything in life these facts have got another side, too. The
amount of work has risen as well as the costs. The server-capacities have to be
raised.
Therefore I intend to charge a small fee of 24,-€/year from 01.01.2009.
In return for this fee everybody will get 6 free “six-packs”. It will also be
possible to exchange single images of
existing “six-packs”. With these actions I intend not only a lowering of
costs but also to intensify the photographical work and enhance the present
portfolios, which certainly will rise the attractiveness of “Photokunst”.
I do hope very much that these innovations don’t cause anybody to leave
“Photokunst”. This would be a pity as we have created something worth keeping
and enhancing.
I´m also thinking about organizing an exhibition and/or publishing a
calendar of “Photokunst”.
I gladly look forward to any questions,
comments or critiques.
Volker
December 13th 2007
From now on, a self-proposal will be possible by providing
a corresponding URL where a selection of pictures by the photographer is
shown. Should the photographic quality meet the standard for this site, then the candidature should go through. See also: http://www.photokunst.vontin.net/Screening.htm
Kind
regards,
Volker Vontin
P.S. Special thanks to Marc Erpelding for translating this site into English