This Week in Photography – Dec 12
Strongest photography volumes since the summer; Cath Simard, Dave Krugman, and Ayla El-Moussa at Christie's; new ATH for Ben Skaar; massive Ben Zank editions; diving into composite photography.
Gm!
What a strong week for photography! Almost 300 ETH in sales, including 220 ETH in primary proceeds. The strongest result since the summer.
Ben Zank released his first open editions, grossing 42 ETH and onboarding 300+ new collectors into his family. Fellowship grossed 33 ETH from the sales of Todd Hido, Max Pinckers, and Pieter Hugo. Cath Simard, Dave Krugman, and Ayla El-Moussa grossed 32 ETH through a Christie’s auction.
Ben Skaar set the new ATH of 9 ETH – almost 3X increase over his previous sale. Ayla El-Moussa reiterated her ATH of 12 ETH. Jessica Cardelucci received her first SuperRare bot fethcing 3 ETH for her 1/1.
Among the most anticipated releases are Michael Sidofsky (Mindzeye) and Natasha Chomko (postwook) editions on Nifty Gateway, as well as Trey Ratcliff 1,000-piece collection.
Wishing you a great week.
Tim
Contents:
1️⃣ Top Stories in Photography NFTs
2️⃣ Photographer I’m Betting On
3️⃣ Top Grossing Photographers
4️⃣ Trending Collections
5️⃣ Upcoming Releases
1️⃣ Top Stories in Photography
Manifold, the leading custom smart contract design studio backed by a16z, made it easy for artists to track sales and royalty payments across all marketplaces.
Photography platform Light Art is blending digital and IRL experiences by bringing an exclusive photography collection to Mandarin Oriental’s on-site gallery at its hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Auction for Dave Krugman’s 1/1 is live and ends Dec 13. Caveat: you don’t bid with USD or ETH; you bid with Drip Drops – Dave’s 1,011-piece collection co-created with Transient Labs.
2️⃣ Photographer I’m Betting On
Cath Simard is one of the most important photographers of our generation. I first heard about Cath a year ago when she set the record for the 1/1 photograph. Her #FreeHawaiiPhoto was purchased for 100 ETH ($335,000). It wasn’t just the price paid for it. The photograph was the first NFT to have its usage rights released to the world after its purchase. This had been unheard of in the industry.
Seeing Cath turn the ownership rights on their head with #FreeHawaiiPhoto, I began to follow her journey. Her drive to innovate, embrace new technologies, push the boundaries of her creative process, and propel the industry forward was obvious. Several months later Cath launched the first ever collaboration with the AI. Developed with fellow artists Ryan Newburn and Iurie Belegurschi, The Metascapes created 2,500 stunning hyper realistic landscape images demonstrating that there is no one way to define photography, where it ends and where the other form of art begins. Cath continued to explore the power of AI and recently collaborated with AI design studio EpoLabs to create the first AI-commissioned artwork.
Known for her landscape photography, Cath continually ventures into the most remote corners of the wilderness to create composite photography of sights unseen. Composite photography is a controversial subject. Many people call them fake as the final image is created in post-production by blending together two or more images to create the final mesmerizing shot.
There’s more to composite photography than meets the eye. With her photography, Cath creates dreamlike memories. Sometimes she shoots the same scene at different times of day or even varying years. On other occasions, she combines multiple locations into a singular image, creating a landscape of her imagination. Her goal is not to evoke a sense of realism, but express her experience through art and to elevate the landscape to match her imaginative lens of the world.
Cath uses her surreal renderings of natural landscapes to raise environmental awareness while advocating for fair compensation and recognition for other artists. “I actually feel that the emergence of NFTs has inspired many artists to explore beyond their traditional landscape photography style. It just feels like, for the first time, we’re finally being valued for our worth.”
I strongly encourage you to read more about Cath’s creative process or watch a 7-minute video that would take you behind the scenes.
3️⃣ Top Grossing Photographers
💎 Ben Zank | 42 ETH
💎 Drift | 28 ETH
💎 Todd Hido | 24 ETH
💎 Ayla El-Moussa | 19 ETH
💎 Cath Simard | 18 ETH
💎 Magnum Photos | 13 ETH
💎 Ben Skaar | 9 ETH
💎 Dave Krugman | 7 ETH
💎 Obscura DAO | 7 ETH
💎 Max Pinckers | 6 ETH
Ben Zank (top-20 photographer; 300+ ETH in primary sales) sold 464 open editions in 48 hours @ 0.09 ETH each.
Drift (#1 photographer; 3,500+ ETH in primary sales) sold a 1/1 for 27.5 ETH. His previous 1/1s on SuperRare fetched ~50 ETH.
Fellowship (#1 Space on SuperRare) grossed 33 ETH from the sales of Todd Hido, Max Pinckers, and Pieter Hugo.
As part of Next Wave: The Miami Edit, Christie’s auctioned off 15 works, including 3 by photographers Cath Simard, Dave Krugman, and Ayla El-Moussa (top-25 photographers who collectively grossed 1,300+ ETH) who grossed 18 ETH, 7 ETH, and 7 ETH, respectively. It’s noteworthy that prices were ~30-40% below their most recent sales on SuperRare.
Ben Skaar set a new ATH of 9.2 ETH vs his previous record of 3.69 ETH in July 2022.
4️⃣ Trending Collections
✨ Beautiful Cities of the World by Trey Ratcliff | 12 ETH volume
✨ Guido editions | 7 ETH
✨ Amazonia by Sebastiao Salgado | 6 ETH
✨ 52icons by Rainer Hosch | 5 ETH
✨ Drip Drop by Dave Krugman | 5 ETH
Trey Ratcliff (top-10 photographer; 300+ ETH in primary proceeds), exhibited at Smithsonian, auctioned at Sotheby’s, featured in National Geographic, collected by people all around the world including celebrities like Edward Norton and Leonardo DiCaprio, announced a new project. The 1K1K project consists of 1,000 unique 1/1 photography NFTs from his travels across all seven continents. This has likely triggered increased activity in his genesis collection Beautiful Cities of the World which is among top-10 most trading photography collections of all time.
5️⃣ Upcoming Releases
The World of Mindzeye by Michael Sidofsky (@mindzeye)
Dec 14 on Nifty Gateway | limited edition and open edition @ $99 each
Nature’s Mittens by Natasha Chomko (@postwook)
Dec 15 on Nifty Gateway | open edition @ $99
Flow State by Nate Hill x Sungrazers(@natehillphoto)
Dec 15 on Nifty Gateway | 1/1s, limited editions, and open edition @ $99
Michael is a top-10 grossing photographer on SuperRare