NFT photography: deep dive into the $50M category
Photography has been resilient throughout the bear market. Premium 1/1 photography sales are breaking records, top-25 collections are up 5X, and 21 artists are setting new all-time highs.
Key findings
NFT photography has become a $50 million market in less than two years. Impressive result for a category that didn’t even exist two years ago. Since JN Silva’s debut drop in December 2020, over 1,000 photographers entered the space and connected with over 3,000 collectors. NFT photographs have been auctioned off at Christie’s and Sotheby’s fetching as much as $2 million. Some of the most acclaimed photographers in history like Bruce Gilden, Gregory Crewdson, and Joel Meyerowitz shared their works with crypto collectors. Hundreds of artists collected from their fellow creators, elevating each other, aligning on their shared vision, and succeeding together.
Creativity in NFT photography is unbounded. Besides making amazing art, many artists have founded startups, launched galleries, and built communities, forming a strong foundation for thousands of creators to thrive in web3. It’s inspiring to watch artists embrace and experiment with the latest crypto technologies (fractionalizing their art, forming DAOs); collaborate with painters, musicians, animators, and coders; build off each others’s work; reach and engage with collectors in novel ways; form communities around important causes and fulfill visions together. Started by artists, platforms like Quantum, Obscura, and Fellowship helped 2,000 people collect their first photographs, welcomed 100 most iconic photographers into web3, forged most supportive communities, and built a powerful infrastructure for artists to thrive.
The 25 leading photographers have seen their work appreciate 5X handsomely rewarding their early supporters. In less than two years, 100 photographers netted $40 million from selling their work and earned $5 million in royalties. Despite the crypto market slowdown, photography sales have remained strong, down 35% from the market peak in April. Premium 1/1 photography is on a tear, with sales on SuperRare breaking records and 20 artists setting new all-time highs. Photography has not only been a great store of value, with 70% of the biggest collections trading above their mint price; but also created enormous wealth for collectors (top-25 collections are, on average, 5X above their mint prices; while Where My Vans Go and Twin Flames are up 200X).
Despite the impressive results for the industry, there are many problems yet to be solved: not enough collectors, life-changing earnings not available to 95% of photographers, and lack of diversity. Earnings are highly concentrated at the top. Ten highest grossing photographers accounted for 39% of primary proceeds, while the top-100 captured 77% of sales. Female artists accounted for only 15% of all sales volumes. In two years, only 60 photographers grossed over $100,000. With the market slowdown, the situation is even more dire: while the top-10 photographers each grossed, on average, $150,000 over the last 3 months, the next 40 earned less than $15,000. As inspiring as it is to see the leading artists find new home for their work during these difficult times, we have a long way to go to empower thousands of photographers to make a living in the crypto space.
Must-read articles
Justin Aversano: A Twin Flames Odyssey
Cath Simard: rai environmental awareness
Alejandro Cartagena: inefficient NFT photography market
Must-listen podcasts
Dave Krugman: Endless Possibilities
JN Silva: Redefining Photography Through NFTs
Justin Aversano: Unlocking Real-World NFT Community
Must-follow Twitter accounts
Quantum Art (premier curated photography platform)
AlphaTrilogy (biggest photography collector and tastemaker)
Alejandro Cartagena (art historian, insightful thinker, co-founder of Fellowship)
Dave Krugman (street photographer, community builder, world traveler and foodie)
NFT photography in 5 charts
Chart #1: Total photography sales
Chart #2: Main drivers behind photography sales
Chart #3: Top-100 photographers
Chart #4: Photographer earnings concentration
Chart #5: Performance since the mint
Photography on the blockchain
Photographs can provide glimpses into life in the past, long-ago events, and forgotten places. They can help shape our understanding of culture, history, and the identity of the people who appear in them. Photography has been utilized in these ways, and perceived as a tool of accurate and objective documentation.
Photographs can also be powerful tools for telling stories and chronicling events. Their context and presentation can greatly influence the way we understand everything from historical narratives to current cultural issues and situations.
Photographs, then, are a precursor, a primitive, to blockchain technology. The overlaps between the two are astounding as both accomplish the same task – marking time and state in an immutable chain. NFTs and photography are a match made in heaven, and yet, despite this, it took the crypto community several years to embrace photography.
Humble beginnings
In December 2020, art on the blockchain was still very niche. SuperRare had just crossed $4 million of cumulative sales; an XCOPY was going for less than $5,000 (10 ETH); and Snowfro was still minting Chromie Squiggles for ~$20 (0.035 ETH) a piece. The only two collections that were slowly gaining momentum were CryptoPunks and Autoglyphs fetching $5,000-$20,000 (10-40 ETH) a piece.
In the midst of this, abstract artist ThankYouX and street photographer JN Silva who had been in crypto for several years were exploring ways to create something special. The result of their collaboration was a 16-second video clip portraying one of Silva’s still images of Manhattan being beautifully infiltrated by flowing blocks of ThankYouX’s cube art.
Two 1 of 10 editions, an open edition, and a 1/1 were launched on Nifty Gateway on December 30, and grossed $70,000. A record-breaking drop at the time!! A drop that outdid 3LAU x Slime Sunday’s collaboration a month earlier.
The significance of “Thank You New York” cannot be overstated. It not only put photography on the NFT map, but also demonstrated what photography can be in the new age. It will be another year before the photography community embraces editions. It will be a year and a half before Drift launches the first ever open editions. It will be a while before photographers start collaborating with one another and explore mixed media projects. JN Silva and ThankYouX were way ahead of their time.
The birth of collections
Following JN Silva’s drop, photography began to gain traction. Clubhouse rooms filled up fast with photographers looking to learn more about NFTs – what they were, what they meant, how they worked. The idea of creating art, doing what you love, being paid for it, and, most importantly, keeping (almost) all of it was revolutionary.
One such artist attending countless Clubhouse rooms followed his curiosity several steps further and reached out to a big collector who had sparked lots of chatter because of his record-breaking NFT purchase. Justin Aversano had been exhibiting Twin Flames at various galleries all over the country for three years. The collection of 100 twins drew significant interest. Collectors were interested in acquiring select pieces, but Justin insisted that all 100 images stay together. After seeing a tweet from Gmoney about spending $150,000 on a CryptoPunk, the most anyone had paid at the time, Justin asked him if he’d be open to buying all 100 Twin Flames. Gmoney loved the collection, but, being less interested in physical prints, suggested that Justin mint them as NFTs.
On February 18, Justin launched Twin Flames, the largest photography collection on blockchain at the time. Priced at $1,000 (0.55 ETH) a piece, the collection sold out in 6 days, at the time when photography was still very niche. What’s more, Twin Flames spearheaded a secondary market which didn’t exist for photography at the time. Over the next month, Twin Flames resold for as high as 5 ETH (up 10X from the mint price) and did 40 ETH in secondary sales.
August mania
The rapid ascend of Twin Flames encouraged more photographers to mint their work on the blockchain, as well as captured collectors’ attention. Minting artwork as NFTs at the time was cumbersome and expensive, but the promise of earning multiple times more for selling artwork was a strong motivation for hundreds of photographers.
Foundation was the easiest way for artists to get started in the space, and the platform played a huge role in onboarding the first generation of photographers. Billy Dinh, Monaris, Drift, and hundreds of photographers we know today minted their first artwork on Foundation in April. Meanwhile SuperRare, which was curating artists itself, was creating a premium market for photography, onboarding such legends as Reuben Wu, Jacob Riglin, Ryan Koopmans, Brendan North, Till Janz, and Cath Simard.
That summer, as NFTs were entering the zeitgeist , photography began to rapidly gain momentum. After recording over 300 ETH of sales in June, photography volumes surged 5X in July and then further 4X in August. Hundreds of photographers were finally selling their artwork directly to collectors bypassing the gatekeepers. Collections were selling out in days and, in some cases, even hours. Over 50 collections that launched in August grossed over 10 ETH and did over 20 ETH on the secondary market. Floors were rising 10X within the first week. Seven Twin Flames were resold for over 100 ETH, and one fetched 200 ETH.
Photography volumes exceeded $20 million (6,000 ETH) in August which at the time felt like the beginning of a new chapter and a breath of fresh air for thousands of photographers watching the space. What nobody knew at the time was that August would mark the peak of the market.
Photography becoming its own category within crypto
With its record sales (not only for NFTs, but also for traditional photography), photography was quickly capturing the mainstream attention. Christie’s which had led the $69 million sale of Beeple’s Everydays in March 2021 was now taking photography to the auction. Twin Flames which had yielded $13 million of volume and sold for as high as $1.9 million (506 ETH) was the obvious choice.
Twin Flames #83 Bahareh & Farzaneh which was auctioned off in October 2021 alongside works by Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and other legendary photographers fetched $1.1 million.
Despite the catchy headlines, photography was still tiny compared to the rest of art on the blockchain. Photography as a category had done 15,000 ETH ($45 million) of volume through the end of October which was less than one third of what a single Art Blocks collection Fidenza had done. Photography was still niche and lost in the sea of all crypto art, largely misunderstood, and perceived as too illiquid and therefore risky by many collectors.
Justin and three other creators (Kris Graves, Alexx Shadow, and Jonas Lamis) saw an opportunity to help photography stand on its own. In November, they launched Quantum Art, an NFT platform focused entirely on photography. Their inaugural collections (Anxious Pleasures, Rizzo Collection, and Privileged Mediocrity) sold out in minutes. Inspired by Art Blocks, the post-mint reveal of photographs was magical, encouraged lively conversations among collectors, and created a vibrant secondary market where people traded their pieces for the ones they wanted the most.
By the end of December, Quantum had launched 11 collections, onboarded over 500 collectors into photography, and created one of the strongest communities. January through March was the strongest season for Quantum. Floors for the genesis Season 1 collections were rising 5X-10X. Season 2 drops were selling out in less than 5 minutes for 1 ETH ($3,000) a piece. Quantum was responsible for over 30% of total photography sales driving attention to the whole photography space.
Following two successful seasons, Quantum would go on to expand its ambitions beyond photography and enter generative art, launch a physical gallery and artist space in Santa Monica, and introduce a platform with tools for any creator to mint their NFTs.
Entrepreneurship and innovation in photography
The rise of photography and innovations in the space fueled creators with energy to experiment and push the boundaries of their art and ambitions.
The Metascapes was the first photography collaboration formed between landscape photographers Cath Simard, Ryan Newburn, and Iurie Belegurschi and artificial intelligence, aiming to bridge the gap between reality and the metaverse. The three artists uploaded their entire life’s work to create a collection of 2,500 hyper realistic landscapes.
Dream Lab created the first of its kind generative photography project that harnessed the serendipity of on-chain mechanics to produce 1,111 unique images based on Jacob Riglin’s photograph of Raktozbrucke Bridge in Germany and shaped by over 1 million photographs he had taken over his lifetime.
Some of the most supportive communities sprang out of photography projects.
Collective Strangers started by photographer Eric Rubens and entrepreneur Noah has made it easy for 900 people to learn the fundamentals of photography and collaborate on creative projects.
Big Hugs Studio founded by artist Christopher David Ryan and entrepreneur Jeff Excell has brought together 1,200 people excited to write stories, create characters, and spearhead artistic projects.
Photography is a very supportive community in crypto. Artists are sharing best practices and uplifting each other. Nearly everyone who’s ever sold an NFT has collected an artwork from their peers. The top-20 photographers have collectively spent over $1 million of their hard-earned income buying their fellow artists’ work.
Photographers and collectors who found success have been actively paying it forward educating artists on web3 and helping them launch their first collections.
Transient Labs is a creative studio that works with artists on the most groundbreaking projects pushing the boundaries of smart contracts. It was started by photographer Ben Strauss and software engineer Marco Peyfuss, and has enabled such coveted collections as Dave Krugman’s Drip Drop, Jeremy Cowart’s Block Queens, and Michelle Viljoen’s Hidden Stories.
Assembly, launched by photographer Shane Lavalette and curator Ashlyn Davis Burns, was the first curated photography platform to onboard fine art photographers into web3. Their debut series The 50 Carpoolers by Alejandro Cartagena became one of the top-10 grossing collections of all time.
Light Art, founded by collector & entrepreneur Marcos Siqueira and travel photographer Elia Locardi, is a launchpad for biggest artist collaborations. Their debut Alpha collection which included 200 works from 100 artists, many of whom were new to web3, sold out in 10 hours. The team will soon be releasing their first curated collection.
Allships is Dave Krugman’s studio that forges relationships between brands and the leading creatives. It’s also the biggest library of interviews and podcasts with photographers and collectors in crypto diving into artist stories and sharing best practices.
Monolith Gallery was founded by collector, curator, and big advocate for photographers Chikai Ohazama. Through his gallery, Chikai onboards new artists into the space, supports them with partnerships, and forges relationships with collectors.
Engaging collectors through creative web3-native experiences
Photographers in crypto are some of the most daring and entrepreneurial creators. The best ones are tapping into the most recent innovations to create new and engaging experiences, and form communities around their work.
Editions have been a fertile ground for innovative experiments and an effective tool for photographers to expand and strengthen their communities of collectors and patrons. Editions are multiple copies of the same photograph, typically priced at a discount to 1/1 photographs or collection pieces by the same artist. For top photographers like Michael Sidofsky, Cath Simard, Reuben Wu, Guido Di Salle, and those whose 1/1 work goes for five or even six figures, editions are effective ways to welcome more people into their families of collectors, making their artwork more affordable, but without diluting the overall supply.
Before Cath Simard launched her editions, she had asked her community to pick the artwork they loved the most. This spurred engaging conversations leading up to the drop. Eric Rubens’ editions served as mint passes for his subsequent creative endeavors, including the launch of Collective Strangers. Guido offered the community to mint for free the editions of his “Sicilian Kiss” photograph. Almost 15,000 editions were minted, but the best part was yet to come. Since the mint, Guido offered several opportunities to convert “Sicilian Kiss” editions into more limited series engaging his community in vibrant discussions, sharing stories behind his art, and in the process driving demand and increasing value of what was offered for free just a few months ago.
The demand for editions was steadily rising since December 2021. By the end of March, top-5 editions did over 500 ETH of volume and were trading at 5X-10X their mint value as the mania spread to all parts of the NFT ecosystem. The timing worked well for Drift who launched open editions for 24 hours on April 9 to commemorate one year since his release from jail. First Day Out was minted 10,351 times and grossed $6.5 million (2,070 ETH).
The power of storytelling in building value and longevity
Following the release of First Day Out, Drift became the #1 grossing photographer in crypto. Over 3,200 ETH in primary sales and 300 ETH in royalties. How did he get there? What made over 10,000 people want to own an editioned piece of his art?
Stories are the most powerful force in photography. Stories spur nostalgia, memories, and thoughts. We find connection in these shared stories, connection that spawns from a place of meaning.
Drift’s story instills courage, resilience, and faith, calls to action, and invites to follow your dreams. Drift’s story is not only a glimpse into the past, but also a philosophy guiding his path forward. He’s one of the most generous people, uplifting others and supporting artists and numerous causes that are dear to him. With “First Day Out,” he raised over $1 million for the bail project in Cincinnati to be used for bail relief in the same facility in which he had been incarcerated.
High-quality artwork and powerful stories are a strong combination, but it doesn’t fully explain why some photographs sell for 100X more than others. Is there more to a photograph than a story? What are collectors really buying?
Guy Bourdin and Gregory Crewdson are some of the most iconic photographers in history. Guy Bourdin was a legendary fashion photographer well-known for his editorials in French Vogue during the 1960s and 1970s. Gregory Crewdson has been renowned for his elaborately devised photographs of life in small towns of the U.S. Their work is highly sought after and fetches as much as $50,000 a piece at the most prestigious auctions around the world. So when Fellowship Studio partnered with their estates to mint their work as NFTs, it is no wonder that collectors were eager to pay the asking price of $5,000-$10,000 (some auctions went as high as $70,000).
Artist reputation is important. However, it doesn’t automatically translate into reputation in web3. There are plenty of photographers who boast enormous reputations in the traditional art world, with collectors waiting several years to buy their work for five digits, but completely lost momentum and even never took off after entering the crypto space.
The opposite is also true: photographers who had a following, but were largely under the radar, absolutely crushed it in web3. Cath Simard, Monaris, Billy Dinh, and several others worked tirelessly 24/7 for over a year to build their reputation, promote their work, and foster relationships; learned the ins and outs of crypto; and have been highly thoughtful about their work. The majority of what others see are headlines such as “sold for 15 ETH” and “set new all time high of 30 ETH.” However, what preceded these incredible results were the countless hours in Discord groups and Twitter Spaces, sharing about their work, getting to know the community, supporting fellow artists, brokering deals, and more. No wonder the most visionary collectors who followed these artists’ journeys are paying $20,000-$50,000 for their work. They saw how much these artists accomplished in one year, and they are betting on them doing even greater things in the decades to come.
Engaging with the community and promoting artwork contribute significantly to the artwork’s value and longevity, but they are not a means to an end. Artists, first and foremost, make art. “To ask an artist to be creating and maintaining a community is limiting their mission as an artist,” posits photographer Alejandro Cartagena. “Artist’s commitment is to build a solid career based on pushing their art and experiments. The more liberty the artist has, the bigger of an artist they will become and the value, artistic, historic, community and monetary will build around their work. The art that was created is the community.”
Flight to quality
As the market began to cool off in April, collectors started looking for ways to preserve their capital. Many gravitated toward the most premium and exclusive artwork that they thought would stand the test of time. This was true across all categories within NFTs, including photography.
While recent sale prices across the top-100 collections are down 20%-90% since the peak in April, nearly half of them have held their value when compared to their mint prices. Besides Justin’s Twin Flames and Drift’s Where My Vans Go, collections by such OGs as Alejandro Cartagena, Ben Zank, Billy Dinh, Brendan North, Brooke DiDonato, Chris Hytha, Dave Krugman, Kristopher Shinn, Michelle Viljoen, Mike Szpot, Monaris, and several others are still 2X-10X above the mint price which, even at a lower ETH price, has translated into over $15 million (12,000 ETH) of net gains for original collectors.
It’s a similar story with premium 1/1 photography. Sales by the top-50 photographers on SuperRare in the last three months reached the peak levels last seen in January. Sales in July-September exceeded 850 ETH ($1.2 million). Of these top-50 artists, 21 set their new all-time highs. On average, recent ATH are 4X higher than these artists’ first sales in 2021.
Counting Fellowship Studio, photography on SuperRare during July – September had the strongest period ever. Led by Alejandro Cartagena, Chadwick Tyler, Fernando Gallegos, and Studio137, Fellowship is the most successful gallery on SuperRare. It grossed 1,500 ETH ($2 million) in July – September, which is equivalent to 65% of total photography sales on SuperRare during those three months.
Since its founding, Fellowship onboarded into crypto ten legendary artists who are some of the most significant photographers in the medium’s history. Releasing their work as NFTs marked the beginning of a new age for collectors seeking truly rare grails.
Fellowship’s approach strongly resonated with the leading collectors as the released artwork was scooped up in just a few hours despite the five-digit price tags. Three images from the archive of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin set new records fetching 25-50 ETH ($35,000-$70,000) a piece. The whole series of 99 works grossed over 620 ETH (almost $1 million) – the most of any photography collections ever released on the blockchain.
Strong start, but still a long way to go
Since the beginning of 2021, over 1,000 photographers joined web3 minting their work on the blockchain and grossing over $50 million. This is a remarkable result for the industry that didn’t even exist two years ago.
However, behind the catchy numbers is the hard reality:
Earnings concentrated at the top: 100 photographers = 77% of sales
Only 60 photographers grossed over $100,000 in 2 years
Female artists = only 15% of sales
With the market slowdown, the situation is even more dire: while the top-10 photographers each grossed, on average, $150,000 in the last 3 months, the next 40 earned less than $15,000.
It is inspiring as it is to see the leading artists find new home for their work during these difficult times. However, we have a long way to go to fulfill the original vision – empower as many artists as possible to earn a living by doing what they love doing the most, i.e. making great art.
Web3 has seen an enormous amount of innovation over the last two years. It is easier and more affordable than ever to mint artwork on the blockchain. Manifold and Transient Labs provide effective tools to spin up a custom smart contract and launch the most unique collections, while Foundation and (soon) Quantum Studio help artists create work and list it on their marketplace.
The space that has seen little innovation and that is ripe for improvement is the collectors’ experience. Today, there is no place to get a comprehensive overview of each art category: browse artists, see their work, track their prices, learn about their exhibitions, study their collectors, etc. These problems are even more prevalent in photography. Based on my surveys, over 80% of collectors have heard of no more than three photographers who usually happen to be in the top-5.
Moreover, the space isn’t safe for collectors from outside of crypto. Verification on NFT marketplaces or Twitter doesn’t instill much confidence, while infinite spam and scam accounts make it a dangerous place to invest substantial sums of money.
Collectors such as AlphaTrilogy, Studio137, GuyNorcal, Anonymoux, Jacqueline Scripps, Matt, Jean-Michel Pailhon, Punk 2070, and several others have contributed enormously to the space, collecting from over 200 photographers and collectively spending over $6 million. Punk6529 and batsoupyum have spent over $3 million curating the largest photography collection which they display in 6529 Museum. Justin Aversano, who has spent over $1 million of his hard-earned income, is an amazing example of an artist who is playing the infinite game, elevating his fellow photographers and expanding the space. Chikai, Rainbow, and 33 are not only collecting, but also actively curating exhibitions and galleries, sharing artist stories and educating about photography.
The early photography patrons and leading collectors have done a lot to stand up, expand, and shape photography on the blockchain. However, to create a truly global digital art market that is fair and equitable and 100X larger than today, we need to make it attractive, engaging, and safe for millions of those who are not yet in crypto to enter the space. Anybody can make a difference by educating their friends and colleagues about web3 and the new generation of art, sharing about artists you admire, taking them to exhibits (IRL and online), helping them buy their first artwork on the blockchain, and more.
The majority of people in web3 are motivated by short-term profits. There is nothing wrong with it. However, as the current market is demonstrating to us, the desire for instant gratification does more harm than good. In traditional photography, hundreds of artists see their work go up in value 2X, 5X, and even 10X over the course of 10-20 years. I believe that photography on the blockchain will follow in the same footsteps.
Imagine we are just getting started.