What the Heck is a NFT?

If you follow the art world much in the news, you may have heard the term NFT.  They are a bit mind boggling, well at least for an old codger like me.  And they are connected to a world that frankly I have eyed with suspicion: Crypto Currency.  But recently a friend of mine showed me a NFT that I fell in love with and realized art is art and artists are always pushing boundaries of technique and medium especially photographers.

Here is the mind-boggling part for me.  NFT's or non-fungible tokens are not the art.  Think of it like this (and I might not be completely right), my friend just bought a boat, but the boat had no title.  They have possession of the boat but no title so one can argue until they get the title, they don't really own it whoever has the title is the owner.  The NFT is like the title to the art.

Consider this, recently the traditional business model of the photographer has been challenged greatly with social media.  The last wedding, I did, the couple didn't want physical prints of the wedding at all, they wanted all digital work to share on social media and to add to a digital frame.  In the past most wedding photographers made the lion's share of their income from selling prints (remember those pesky school packages of photos).  BUT... when I give the couple the digital file they can do so much with those photos, they can modify my edits, they can share with their friends, and they can print them.  The whole basis in the past for making money was the prints, give them the file and they can print!  So new business models are being created and photographers are trying new things.  

New things that is what NFTs are all about.  And it is not just photos!  Songs, sports cards, scans of old documents all sorts of things are being connected to NFTs.  Anything really that can be turned into a digital file.  

One of the things that excites me about NFT's is the fact that I have loved making time lapses and cinemographs and until now, none of those ever sold.  Not that I mind making art that doesn't sell, but it is hard to justify buying more of the equipment (which is pretty pricey) when I am not making money off it.   Time Lapse and Cinemographs are perfect for NFT artwork.  Many people who buy NFT's put the artwork in digital frames which can loop the work.  

I am very happy to be dipping my feet into the NFT pond and I am happy to say I have already sold several pieces!  And I have bought a few pieces!

Check out Opensea where my work is for sale:  https://opensea.io/Shammus