Non-fungible tokens or NFTs have made a great hype in the digital asset world lately. The great advantages and progress of NFTs have attracted lots of digital artists to this world which has led to the introduction of lots of various trends in NFTs, such as NFT paintings, music, videos and games. Photography also stands out as a well-known area that has experienced sharp growth in 2022. Some photographs have been introducing their artwork in form of NFTs recently and attracted lots of attention from NFT investors. Therefore, it seems necessary for both photographers and investors to learn more details on how to invest in NFT photography. In this guide, we aim to provide a guide on how to invest in NFT photography as well as introduce some of the most successful photographers in 2022.
What is NFT photography?
NFT photography is a verifiable asset that is easily traded on the blockchain. Simply saying, photographers upload their photos to an NFT photography marketplace, such as OpenSea or foundation, and sell them to the interested investors and collectors. The process is almost similar to stock photography, however cryptocurrencies are involved in NFT photography and there is no middle man to connect the creator and investor. Investors may keep their NFTs in a virtual gallery and resell them for profit in the future.
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Read This Post2022: the big year for NFT photographers
Since the success of artists in the world of NFTs and the high incomes, the NFT artists made as well as creating communities to support their art, photographers also have shown their interest in providing their art in NFTs. However, they have been active in the scene earlier than the other artists.
The hype of NFT market and the wide acceptance of cryptocurrencies in 2021 paved the way for photographers to sell their talent as NFTs in 2022. Since most photographers offer their art in collections as the main character to attract investors in the NFT world, along with the rarity issues, 2022 seems to get a great share in the NFT mainstream the year. Also, investors show more interest in new NFT arts that may lead to financial benefits in shorter times. Furthermore, the NFT market seems to act better in collecting followers of NFTs and artists compared to other media such as Instagram, as it provides community channels such as exclusive Discords and Twitter moves.
Altogether, it could be concluded that 2022 is the year of NFT photography and, by now, many successful photographers have already started the move with their valuable, unique NFT photography collections.
Best NFT photography marketplaces for investing
Among all the different trends in the NFT world, photography seems to experience great success in 2022. Successful NFT photography collections such as Twin Flames, Where My Vans Go and Foodmasku have attracted more investors to NFT photography. However, many investors are not familiar with the best NFT photography marketplaces to do their investment. Here we aim to introduce 5 of the best photography-focused NFT platforms.
Quantum Art
Justin Aversano, the creator of the NFT photography collection Twin Flames, co-founded the NFT platform Quantum Art which is focused on NFT photography. It is the first on-chain platform that is solely developed on NFT photography.
Quantum Art not only organizes NFTs by collection and artists but also suggests curated collections or items of NFT photography. Therefore, investors find it easy to choose from great works on the site and it keeps attracting big photographers and collectors in the market. Quantum art owns a profile on OpenSea which enables them to trade unique photos at high prices.
Ephimera
NFT photography market to a great extent focuses on both photos and images; however, Ephimera is mainly interested in incredible shots and movies since it only sells lens-based works in its marketplace. Therefore, major photographers and video artists, such as Sarah Zucker and Peter Molick, are attracted to the platform.
Ephimera is known for the high-quality NFT photos it presents. As the result, creators always face competition to get into the site. Ephimera only accepts ETH for payments. It charges %10 of the final price and considers a %5 for royalty in the secondary sales.
Obscura
Obscura is a small NFT photography platform that includes a few hundred NFTs. Nonetheless, it has created a unique platform for NFT photography enthusiasts. The platform provides some regulations to accept photographers and their artwork that will be put on sale on the platform. In fact, Obscura aims to support and fund fine art artists and set free their creative possibilities by saving sales commissions. Although it may be difficult to join the platform, Obscura has created a big opportunity for photographers to pursue their projects by selling their NFTs in an exclusive NFT photography platform.
Makersplace
Makersplace is a premier Ethereum-based NFT marketplace for rare and authentic digital artworks, including photography. Photographs are interested in selling their authentic and unique edition of photographs on this exclusive platform. Creators need to be invited to Makersplace, which suggests its sense of exclusivity. Some well-known photographers such as Rizacan Kumas
and Vier Bottzzini sell their NFT photographs through this platform. However, Makersplace is a little expensive in terms of fees and charges %10 royalty for NFT artists on secondary sales.
Unique One Photo
Unique One Photo is the first decentralized NFT photography marketplace. It categorizes NFT phots in various themes including Astro, travel, drone, time lapse, wildlife, landscape, etc. Like any other decentralized platform, Unique One photo offers no centralized authority to observe royalties and licenses. As a Web 3 photography marketplace, photographs are allowed to set royalties, trading options and certificates of ownership.
Unique One Photo is unique in that it incentivizes the photographs with rewards provided as the platform token $FOTO. The token holders are able to vote for changes and take part in governance decisions. Although it is still young, many photographers are joining the Unique One Photo day by day.
The platform charges a fee of %2.5 of the sell price. The fees are collected from the investors or buyers, not the photographers. Unique One Photo platform supports both Bianance Smart Chain and Ethereum.
How to buy NFT art in 2022
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Top NFT photographers to invest in 2022
The NFT market has seen many successful projects such as Bored Apes, Axie Infinity, CryptoPuncks, Decentraland and Solana. It is clear that something similar is happening with NFT photography and some of the best NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare and Foundation are sharing a space for NFT photos. Meanwhile, some photographers appear to be better known in the market with their brilliant NFT photography collections. Many investors consider these big names as the best options to invest in NFT photography. Let’s review 6 successful NFT photographers in 2022.
Justin Aversane
Justin Aversane is one of the earliest pioneers in NFT photography and the owner of Quantum Art which is a photography-based NFT marketplace. His latest collection Twin Flames included 100 photos as a body of work on Valentine’s Day, 2021. The collection focuses on the existence of multiple births using the simple idea of seeking an intentional phenomenology.
Since the release, Twin Flames collection has sold for over $17 million in total. At the time being, the floor price reaches 150 ETH. The success goes further to the secondary market and an NFT photo from Twin Flames was sold in Christie’s auction. Besides, Gary Vaynerchuk and Snoop Dogg also own a set of twins.
Issac Wright
Issac Wright aka Driftshoots is a retired Army special operations veteran who suffered from mental illness. To cope with his illness, he started shooting photography and released Where My Vans Go NFT photography collection. 119 iconic images were taken during three years when Issac was traveling all over the United States.
Every portrait in the collection touches the heart and causes viewers to face their possible fears. Photographs show the view of different weather conditions such as snow, fog, sunshine and rain from the top of skyscrapers and bridges. According to OpenSea, Where My Vans Go is the second most successful NFT photography collection after Twin Flames. One of the NFT photos named #11 sold for 43 ETH recently.
Tery Ratcliff
Tery Ratcliff is a Smithsonian featured fine artist who has sold many physical artworks to collectors such as sports heroes and celebrities like DiCaprio. His collection Beautiful Cities of the World comprises 56 images (some of them animated) taken in some of the greatest cities across the globe, including Lisbon, Istanbul, Budapest, Delhi, Guilin, and some others.
Ratcliff is the world’s best travel photographer and owns the best travel photography blog. There have been over 140 billion views for his photos on social media and he has over 5 million followers online. The floor price of the collection is 0.7 ETH and its total volume reaches 491 ETH.
Mario Testino
Mario Testino is regarded as the most influential fashion and portrait photographer in the last decade. Along with documenting stars, supermodels and artists, he has also taken photos of the subjects he has encountered throughout his travels, including cities, landscapes and private soirees. Testino put out his first NFT collection Four Iconic Portraits in April 2021.
The collection seems to picture his forty-year-career as the world’s most renowned fashion and portrait photographer presented as NFT photography; a combination of life experience and modern technology. The collection sold for $36 million in Christie’s auction.
Dave Krugman
Dave Krugman is one of the first photographers who adopted NFTs. He strongly confirms his interest in NFT by introducing himself as Crypto Artist in his Twitter bio. Being active as a photographer, he has released several NFT photography collections. The most successful one seems to be DRIVE which is one of the best NFT collections recognized with OpenSea. DRIVE features 111 1/1 vehicles photographed during 10 years of street photography. The collection is divided into some categories such as the Trophies, the Grails, and Tires 1, 2 &3 which own certain features. the collection comes with lots of visual rarities which have made it unique.
The floor price is about 5 ETH while the total volume reaches 171 ETH.
Antonio Wiriadjaja
Antonio Wiriadjaja created a lovely NFT photography collection called Foodmasku in 2020. The collection is a one-of-a-kind that makes use of food to create food masks and then eat them. The food mask ingredients depend on what is available in the season. New York times announced the NFT collection as one of the 5 best to follow. The artist wears the food masks, photographs himself and then easts them. There are 2,000 tokens in the Foodmasku collection and the floor price is 0.03 ETH and the total volume reaches 29.9 ETH. Since the idea behind this NFT photography collection is unique, many investors try to add one to their collection.
A final word
Recently, NFT photography has provided a good chance to combine photography and modern technology. It provides a good chance for investors to buy items that can end with future profit. Since 2022 offers wider areas to NFTs, NFT photography collections are to expand this year. So, if you find yourself interested get to the market and invest in NFT photography as it is becoming a huge trend.
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