🌱 “A paradigm shift not only in the world of digital art but in the world of photography generally.”

🎨 This is how Sotheby’s described the relevance of the first NFT drop of Sebastião Salgado, one of the world’s most celebrated living photographers. And I fully agree.

I understand and empathize with collectors that value NFT artists being cryptonative, and I think that’s awesome and a must. But I’m also positive that having mainstream artists in general and photographers in particular lean into the technology is great for the health, growth, and normie acceptance that are indispensable for the success of our beloved and novel artistic medium, the blockchain.

“Salgado’s bold entry into NFTs represents a paradigm shift not only in the world of digital art but in the world of photography generally.” - Sotheby’s Metaverse

✨ Salgado has been a personal hero of mine for many years, both as an artist and as a human being.

I share many of his values and views on the world, and I really believe on his hands-on approach to philanthropy. Beyond that, he’s just a terrific photographer with a unique eye and history.

I particularly remember being 19 years old when Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders directed the breathtaking documentary “The salt of the earth”. I had the pleasure of watching it the first day it was screened in Barcelona, and it really had a huge impact on me.

It describes “The life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.”

And man, ¡what a life he’s had so far!

I won’t talk further about him because I could really write a book and that’s really not the point of this article, but I wanted you to grasp what a legend he is and maybe entice you to check his work and his life in a bit more depth.

So, without further ado, wonder at the amazing piece I could get from his collection “Sebastião Salgado: Amazônia - #493” [Collection floor on secondary 0,0538 ETH]:

🧙‍♂️ This article (and my wallet) will only cover legends, I don’t make the rules.

So, since this is legends only, the other artist I was able a collect an NFT from is no other than…

🐸 ¡Matt Furie: The creator of Pepe the Frog!

The meme we all know and love, and a beloved internet culture icon.

Pepe is an absolute main character of the internet culture in general, and has been fondly adopted by CT, evolving with the influence of the crypto culture. If you’re reading this post you probably already know that and have seen him a thousand times, so let’s get into it.

Pepe not only permeated the crypto culture by seeing his image portraited and adapted to a sub-culture as it had happened in the past in other niche internet communities, but it also got monetized, and incredibly successfully.

The paramount example of that is the Nakamoto card, the card that started the legendary Rarepepe series:

🔥 Going back to it’s creator, Matt, he had already ventured into the world of crypto and NFTs in particular with his PFP collection “HEDZ”:

It’s comprised by 1000 hand-drawn characters, each with a unique name and no rarity system. [Current floor 2,5 ETH].

Nonetheless, it’s surprising to how moderate its echo has been considering the influence of its author and the seemingly obvious “product-market fit” there is, to put it a name.

What I find just as much interesting is the fact that he decided to democratize his artwork by starting to offer a more affordable alternative:

His new ERC-1155 OE Collection “Pepe Open Editions by Matt Furie”.

So far it has two pieces minted. One with a 1000 supply named “HEDZ Pepe”:
[Floor on secondary @ 0.299 ETH]:

And the other one is “ZOGZ Pepe” (I managed to mint two straight from his mintpage for 0.01234 ETH each, my last March NFT purchase <3).
(Supply: 28.531) [Floor on secondary @ 0.0115 ETH]

I hope you enjoyed the article, stay tuned because I’m already working non-stop on my next project.

I wanted to prioritize getting this articles out so that you could all see the huge positive impact my genesis drop has had and it’s second order effects.Again, thank you collectors. <3

🙏 This is only the beginning.