NFTs continue to create new opportunity and possibility for artists, that are inherently empowering, nurture creativity, and that value autonomy– all attributes of the artist that should not be comprised for arts’ sake
Fine art photography has a greater lease of life with these technological advancements– namely, the ability to value and independently credit works that could previously be screenshotted, or reprinted. Photography is therefore becoming NFTs next big genre, as NFTs naturally fit into the evolution of fine art photography, and its respective valuation: creating new breakthroughs between the intersection of art and technology, benefitting the artist, collector and industry at large.
1. Intellectual Ownership Though often times misunderstood as only being a digital version of an original, in the same way an image download or a screenshot is, NFTs go beyond this. An NFT can be understood as a virtual certificate to prove ownership of a digital asset. This virtual certificate, is traceable, trackable, and one of a kind, unlike a download or a screenshot.The term non-fungible quite literally means, not something you can exchange/break down/mix with other similar goods or assets. Something non-fungible cannot be replicated or broken down and traded into valuable parts in the same way you could do
Minting an NFT, or non-fungible token, is publishing (Authenticating) a unique digital asset on a blockchain so that it can be bought, sold, and traded. Once (art)works have been minted (Signed / Certify), and digital data has been converted into a digital asset, it remains with traceability, on the blockchain. The digital products, or files, that have been minted are stored in this blockchain— distributed ledger or decentralized database— and cannot be edited, modified, or deleted. Thus ensuring the minted file is completely secure and now holds a new level of protection and value, that just being an image (or video)
The earliest recorded use of the term market in English is in the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle of 963, the phrase was: “Ic wille þæt markete” [“I desire that there will be a market”] There have been, and there will always be, a desire for spaces that facilitate mutually beneficial trade. It is with this very desire– fundamentally rooted in the human pursuit for connection and exchange– that the marketplace was born, and continues to rebirth itself anew. The marketplace, is originally recognized as localized bustling arena of commercial dealings, and regular trade, in basic commodities: livestock, fruit, vegetables, cloth, coal, ceramics, and animal
For many artists to create with unrestrained creativity- is a privilege. Between gallery contracts, the heavy hand of vigilant representation, and cost of production, there is little to no room for artists to freely create. Though they try to seek refuge through idyl escapes in residency programmes, and other lands afar- the seemingly unperturbed creative process is still at the mercy of the middleman. Artists selling works through platforms that allow transparent interaction and minimal intermediary demand, like Uncontaminated- offer up remedies to such restraint. Though all artists pass through rigorous verifications before joining the platform, founders stress the importance
What does it mean to own an NFT of fine photography artwork? And what does it mean to choose to own an NFT of fine photography artwork over a physical print? When we think of owning a physical fine art photography artwork we might imagine it as an investment of durability, despite its wonky hangings on the wall, listed 1/100, delicately fading with rays of the outside sun. We are certain, that this physical aspect of the work makes it unique, something we can feel, and touch, and put on display for others to see. When we imagine owning NFTs
When one thinks of how photography began, it feels inconceivable that somebody, somewhere, dressed in hand died linens stumbling between cattle and ravines discovered the refraction of light. Even more inconceivable when we think of modern day developments of digital imagery. Though concepts of photography did very much begin somewhere within this imagined landscape before 5th B.C.E, the camera as machine we know it as began its early developments in remote 11th century antiquity, with Iban Al- Haythams’ discovery of the camera obscura proceeded by several other developments in the 18th century, with finally an accessible and functional 100 film