NFT & Photography
Whale Shark has started some work for photographers in the NFT world. This good news has been promising for many photographers, including myself. An especially decentralized Instagram destination can be the salvation for photographers who are tired of algorithms.
Photos uploaded by photographers to traditional social media platforms are constantly blocked by algorithms. Opportunities created by institutions have always been exploited by people who belong to a certain audience. In order to stand out, photographers had to follow and adapt to the Instagram algorithms that change almost every week.This stole the time allotted to production and lowered motivation.
Another factor that reduces motivation is that the basic needs of the photography industry are becoming more and more difficult to afford for photographers. I think the increasing value of photography worldwide was the 7650 that Nokia released in 2002. This mobile phone was the first phone with an integrated camera. Do you think everyone would be a book writer if they put a pen on it? :) I’m not saying this to complain. I think photography adds a vision to societies in general. But the uncontrolled increase in the number of photographers brought with it extra taxes imposed by the states on photographic equipment. For example, speaking on behalf of my country, the price of the camera I own has increased 4 times in 2021. The photography industry may be one of the industries hit hardest by inflation. Since it is essentially electronic materials, the increase in costs affects the end user.
After all this effort and activity, you are left to the initiative of a social media platform run under the dominance of a single person. This desperation has no name. A photograph is more than a “like” button.
Photo genres and NFT
Photography is a culture that divides itself into many branches. It covers many areas from experimental style works to astro photography, especially fashion advertising and documentary photography, including myself. I would like to talk about my two different fields of work. Fashion photography, (which I haven’t been able to do for the last 2 years due to the pandemic), does not seem to be revived in the NFT world. Bringing the products of many famous names that I had the chance to photograph, or of fashion brands that I served financially, into the NFT world can cause serious copyright problems. At this point, the fate of the photographs that were sold to individuals or institutions in the past and turned into money seems uncertain for now in the NFT world.
I think documentary photography or landscape photography is more appropriate. For example, the refugee story, which I photographed in my own project, puts an end to a small piece of world history. It freezes time and tells its story. This is a chain of events that we will never hope to return to and that we will read about in history books. At this point, beyond being an artistic feature, it has the quality of being a document. It gains its archival value by hiding the emotional states and cultural reflections of that time.
The same can be said for landscape and street photography. Photographers, who go hunting every day with their camera in hand, record many things that happen in the time period they are in. The right light, the right composition and the right details… It’s really hard to catch people with no verbal dialogue on the street and take valuable pictures that tell about life. In this, they need to develop a very serious observation skill. When this talent is reflected in the presentation, we can see valuable works. Landscape photographers, on the other hand, continue to photograph and present many sights of the world in the most accurate way. If we take into account the right light, the depth of the sky and the jokes mother nature sometimes makes. This is a great work of patience.
As a result, what kind of Photography can exist in the NFT world. I think there are three answers to this.
1- Abstract photographs created by photographic techniques or manipulations
2- Documentary photographs reflecting the time, world history, events and cultures
3- Moments in life, landscapes or architectural structures.
I think the thing that should not be forgotten for both collectors and creators is this; The next time you encounter the subject you are photographing, everything you see in the photos may not be the same or not at all. In this sense, each is a document.
Finally, the perspective and perception of photography
We are in a time period where we measure the photo with the numbers created by the like button below, rather than its narrative. This is a period in which even the original dimensions of the photo taken from the camera are not accepted, resized according to the decisions taken by the social platforms, and sometimes the integrity of the frame and even the narration are broken.
It is also true that photographers’ own narrative language is beginning to disappear and they are forced to bow to standard perception. I know many photographers who change their style just to get likes on Instagram. This is understandable sometimes, but still, if this is a passion, it should be more free.
From the viewer’s point of view, the fact that social media platforms show the same type of content to everyone with the algorithm has turned the visual perception of the societies in the direction they want. This shows that concepts such as “beautiful” and “art” are being emptied. Which one is better? for whom? according to what? Many collectors have a taste for wanting to replenish their collections with valuable artifacts. But the visual perception of larger audiences is weakened and even manipulated.
This new movement, led by Whale Shark, seems to find a solution to the problems of the photography world, thanks to the budget and time they allocate. I believe that with the right categorization, there will be the right interactions and that freer and freelance works will emerge within a decentralized formation.
Remember, no one can change your passions. go after WAGMI!!!!!
PS: About the photograph
Photography… It is a document that the photographer creates by directing the camera to the subject with the sense of reason and vision. they are like open letters in which a moment is frozen and sent to infinity.. it is like a universal language among all people.. A camera is required to speak this language, but even the best machine may not give you the ability to speak fluently. In order to understand and speak the photograph, it is necessary to listen to it first. Among the material cries of the photographic industry increasing every day, it is necessary to listen to the voice of its spirituality.
