Beyond the obvious

Young lady in the city. The above image has done rather well on a website where photographers share their images for critiques and points. Obviously I like it or I would not have uploaded the image. The thing that makes it stand out is the digital manipulation that I applied to the image. It literally took five minutes to do. The thing that bothers me though is that while I'm grateful for the recognition from other photographers I have produced far more meaningful images that have received virtually no attention. It seems that for the audience on this website the key point of interest is not the story a picture tells or the emotion it evokes but rather that a technique has been used. Any artist or creative is happy and flattered when their work gets attention but I think it is rather sad that so many images in the world by photographers who genuinely capture emotion or communicate something important are ignored by the photographic community. Their praise then rings rather hollow a...