Snapshot
Collection Spotlight
Preston Gannaway
Yulia Shur
The Latest
Camera Person NFT
Monolith Gallery
Obscura
Quantum
Tweets of the Week
Assembly
Jeff Excell
Photographer of the Week
Trevor Traynor
Collector’s Corner
The Alpha is the Frens
Bookshelf
Curator Conversations by Tim Clark
Collection Spotlight
While much of the NFT photoverse spent the week hob-knobbing in NY, this week saw the release of two new drops by Quantum.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Preston Gannaway
Quantum’s latest Curated drop is by Pulitzer Prize winning documentary photographer Preston Gannaway titled, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. The series centers on working-class communities in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, and probes the relationships between economic class, the natural environment, and the intruding affluence that occupies places of desire.
View Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Afternoon Dolls - Yulia Shur
From Quantum’s Community Curated series comes Afternoon Dolls, a 77 image collection by Los Angeles-based editorial photographer Yulia Shur who has shot campaigns for a range of clients like VICE, Rolling Stone, Apple Music, and Beats by Dre. In Afternoon Dolls Shur examines the social, cultural significants of dolls, their roles in constructing fantasy, and the ways in which they covertly reflect notions of identity.
Tweets of the Week
This is a new segment for PhotoVerso that looks to spotlight some important conversations occuring around the blockchain photography community.
Assembly examines the current bear market with an in-depth thread providing historical context on the relationships market downturns and art collecting.
Jeff Excell shares an appreciation post for those in his immediate community, and invites others to do the same.
The Latest
Camera Person
This week a new photography-oriented PFP project called Camera Person NFT opened for minting. The project’s aim is to bring members of the photography community together while drawing inspiration from larger NFT culture. Minting the PFP allows owners to submit a photograph to a “community collection,” which will be sold as a blind mint and provides contributors with 100% of the proceeds from their submission.
Visit the Camera Person collection
Monolith
Monolith’s fourth series of online exhibitions was published this week, featuring 21 curated features of NFT artwork. Photography standouts include Tommy Kwak’s typographic series of Lifeguard Towers: Miami and Simon Overton’s selection of moody, B&W abstract images. Monolith accepts submissions on a rolling basis, and anyone is free to send selections of work to be considered for a virtual exhibition
Obscura
Coinciding with its event at SuperChief Gallery on Thursday, Obscura has announced Season 2 of its commission series. The platform has opened sales for its Patron Pass, which is issued in an edition of 55 and will provide collectors with 8 1/1 photographs from photographers who produce new work funded by proceeds of sales.
Quantum
As we highlighted at the top of the newsletter, Quantum has just opened Season 3 of its curated program. While recently expanding beyond photography into the realm of digital art, the platform maintains a strong platform of support for lens-based artists as its rapid growth continues in a variety of avenues, from its recent brick-and-mortar Quantum Space opening to its Quantum Key series of exclusive airdrops. We remain eager to see what else the platform has up its sleeve.
Photographer of the Week: Trevor Traynor
Trevor Traynor is a commercial photographer, director, and visual explorer who has photographed a broad range of subjects over his career. His work has earned several awards, including distinctions from American Photography, PDN Annual, and the International Photography Awards.
Traynor’s recently released NEWSSTANDS NFT collection documents news stands and their proprietors around the world, spanning New York, London, Paris, Venice, Tokyo, and many more cities.
PhotoVerso: Can you tell us about your background as a photographer?
Trevor Traynor: When I was younger my Pops would project slides on the living room wall from our family vacations. That was were my fascination with preservation began. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the world shooting personal projects and client commissions. I started photographing people back in 2004 in New York with a decade long spotlight on hip-hop culture. Since then I have had the opportunity to explore an extensive range of subject matter from iconic rock and roll legends to flying with NASA on an operation IceBridge mission over Antartica. In 2020 images I created for the Visit Greenland tourism board were selected as part of a permanent polar art exhibit aboard the National Geographic Endurance. Since then I continue to shoot commercial & personal photographs with a new found focus in web3. I’m also a member of the RAW DAO community & part of Obscura carousel curated.
PhotoVerso: What inspires you as a photographer and what do you hope audiences take away from your work?
Trevory Traynor: My inspiration is boundless. Truly. I’m intrigued and often captivated from what some would find mundane or minute to the undeniable abundant grandeur of our universe. For example, Zoom down to a city corner in NYC and watch people bustle by a Newsstand. These Newsstands are treated not as a final destination but as a transient one. By providing an instant time stamp via magazine covers and headlines each kiosk revels its own micro galaxy. There is a zen proverb “The journey is the reward.” I try and live by this mantra. I look forward to new experiences and the ability to share those moments with others. My hope is that even for a moment if one of my photographs takes someone on a memoryscape, triggers an emotional feeling, or a unique connection that maybe my photographs also inspires others to see the moments in between.
PhotoVerso: What's the scoop with your latest NFT drop?
Trevor Traynor: NEWSSTANDS are web0 kiosks, Shot on web2, Minted on web3 as a collection of 100 1/1 photographs. The series began back in 2012 using an iPhone 4s and concluded in 2019 using the iPhone 11 Promax. From New York City to Puenta Arenas, Cairo to Kamakura, the collection spans 20 cities globally. To celebrate its launch I included a physical printed newsprint poster for all NFT pre-sales and a pop-up IRL event at Hot Shot Muffler in L.A. which was centered around a physical Newsstand installation with IRL minting, surrounded by ten 43” digital screens that displayed the entire collection. I would like to see the Newsstand travel and I’m working on plans to have it pop-up at future NFT events.
Collector’s Corner
The Alpha is the Frens
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