I've stated numerous times that I think we need to distinguish between exotic shots and masterful shots sometimes when we evaluate the merit of pictures.
This is to me an exotic shot merely because it's in an exotic locale, to me a westerner, and the interest lies in that fact, and not in the belief that it is masterful and/or overly well done.
I think the same thing can be said about "access" shots.
Some photographers have access to various things and their shots have interest because of that, but are not anything exceptional in execution.
To me where the magic can happen is when someone has access, and/or exotic locales and the shots are more that a mere recording of that fact, but instead masterfully executed far beyond the voyeur element of them.
But my real admiration of photographer's work comes when someone has the mundane, or ordinary settings and has the ability to create masterful works from what we may have walked past every day and barely given a second look.
As one of my teachers once said, "impact is achieved by taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary".
