I’m mag ( @mag_cinephoto ). I’m a Japanese photographer who searches for the beauty that lurks in everyday life. And I sold 3 NFT photo works at Foundation.
It's been a month since I found out about the NFT in December 2021 and have been exploring its activities. I wanted to show people how I see and think about my daily life through my photographs, so I created a collection of photographs at opensea. It's called "The Nearest Dusk".
In this article, I write about my thoughts on creating this collection. I hope you will read it to the end.
About The Nearest Dusk
"The Nearest Dusk" is a collection of photographs of the dusk seen from the window of my own house, especially the moments that moved me decisively.
This collection is the result of my life's work, in which I have been taking pictures of the dusk from the window of my closest house for about a year since I moved into my current house in 2020. I have carefully selected 10 of the most heart-moving sunsets.
Even though they were taken from the same point, the window of my house, no two sunsets are the same. Dusk is so free, and its appearance brings curiosity and excitement.
In order to get the most out of the colors and gradations of the sunset, as well as the texture and arrangement of the clouds, I only included the minimum number of buildings in the angle of view. I also used a wide-angle lens as much as possible, and composed my photos in such a way that you can feel the sense of immersion in the dusk.
All photos are 1/1 versions, independently contracted in ERC-721, and metadata and images are distributed and stored in IPFS. I hope that this collection will inspire you to find curiosity and inspiration in your everyday life.
The reason I created this photo collection
In conclusion, I wanted to leave behind and share with you through NFT the idea that I cherish: "If you have curiosity, you can find beauty in everyday life.”
Let me tell you the story behind the photo collection as follows.
I live in the countryside of Chiba Prefecture, Japan, where there are no glittering city streets or spectacular mountain scenery. All I see around me is a quiet residential area with ordinary houses. The scenery is far from what you would call "picturesque".
Also, my main job is a telecommuting job, so I don't have many opportunities to travel far. As a person who takes pictures, I feel that I am losing my curiosity due to the unchanging scenery.
In the midst of all this, a turning point in my life came in 2020. There was a COVID-19 pandemic, and my child was born at the same time. It became more difficult for me to go out and travel, and I started to get busy with childcare and work.
Not being able to go out meant that the only scenery I could see was the familiar scenery of my neighborhood. In addition, the lack of sleep due to crying at night made me lose my curiosity and interest, and I started to take fewer pictures with my camera.
Whenever I saw beautiful photos being uploaded on Twitter or Instagram, I felt as if I was being left behind or stagnant. It's hard to go to places with beautiful scenery, so what am I supposed to photograph?
It was the sunset from the window of my house that brought me curiosity and excitement again. One day, when I was tired after a long day of hard work, I casually looked out the window of my house and gasped at the beauty of the sunset.
I didn't want to forget what had moved me, so I unconsciously took out my camera and took pictures of the sunset. After taking the pictures, I felt strangely uplifted and my fatigue was somewhat relieved. I think I was just savoring the joy of discovering a beautiful landscape.
In the process, I realized that even if it wasn't a city or a spectacular view, it was a beautiful place. In the process, I realized that there are beautiful scenes in everyday life, not just in cities or spectacular scenery. From there, I started to take pictures of sunsets that I could see from my window.
I feel that dusk is a phenomenon that evokes a variety of emotions. It brings about emotion, awareness, peace, and healing. It can also evoke nostalgic feelings, like memories of playing outside until late as a child. I gradually remembered that I used to love watching sunsets, which evoke such a variety of emotions, as I repeatedly photographed them.
No two sunsets are the same, even though they are taken from the same location. The coloration and gradation, the shape and arrangement of the clouds are all different. Just a few minutes of time can make a big difference in the impression. Even though we are looking from the same place, the sunset is always free. For about a year, I found myself taking pictures of beautiful sunsets when I saw them.
The sunsets that I could see from the window of my house were the most familiar to me, and they reminded me of my curiosity and excitement in my ordinary life. The act of daring to watch the sunset from the same place gave me the inspiration that beauty can be found in familiar places.
“The Nearest Dusk" is not only a record of my curiosity in photographing the sunset from the window of my house, but also a proof that my curiosity has responded and my heart has been moved. I hope that everyone who sees this collection will be able to feel a little of my excitement. And hopefully, I will be able to inspire people to find beauty in their daily lives as well, which would make me very happy.
About Making the Own Smart Contract
"The Nearest Dusk", which is listed in opensea, and I have adopted the own smart contract (ERC-721). The metadata and images of the NFT are also decentralized and stored in IPFS.
The reason for this is that due to the nature of the opensea marketplace, I wanted to avoid a situation where the first owner of the minted NFT is opensea, and I wanted to ensure that I myself issued the NFT.
Also, by storing metadata and images in IPFS, I try to keep them in a highly persistent form. I also hope that my thoughts and feelings will remain on the blockchain as long as possible in the form of dusk.
However, to be honest, I was unsure about the cost of making my own contract. As I have written so far, the sunset from my house has saved my life, and I want to put it on the blockchain in a better way. After receiving advice from various people and considering the matter, I decided that the best way to prove the creator of the collection to the viewers and to show to the maximum extent who had the thoughts and feelings in the collection and who expresses them is to use the form of an original contract.
I didn't have any prior knowledge about making the own contracts, so I had to do a lot of groping, but the service chocofactory and the information on Discord, which is its community, really helped me. I'm actually working in it myself, so I was impressed by the service's concern from that standpoint as well. I was impressed by the service's thoughtfulness. And even if the chocofactory service were to be shut down, the design includes support for decentralization such as IPFS. I learned a lot and it was very encouraging. I would like to thank you again.
About Price and Roadmap
The price for each piece will be a flat rate of 0.15 ETH. As for the mint/list of subsequent works, I will add them as soon as I encounter a dusk that moves me and I am satisfied with.
What I value in My Photography
Now that I have written down my thoughts on "The Nearest Dusk" collection, please let me finish by telling you what I value in my own photography.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, what I value in photography is that beauty can be found in everyday life through curiosity and interest.
I am currently working as a photographer with a limited amount of time due to the combination of my day job and raising my child. Even now, it is difficult for me to go out. However, instead of lamenting this situation, I always try to capture images with a sense of curiosity and interest in everyday life.
I put my thoughts into this collection of dusk images, but until recently I have not been able to put them into words. However, Takuya Inoue, a Japanese painter who is active in NFT activities, recently introduced the following words on space, which I feel expresses it well.
面白きこともなき世をおもしろく
高杉晋作の辞世の句
Living an exciting life in the not-exciting world.
Takasugi Shinsaku's last words
It is up to us to live interestingly in this world, which is originally neither interesting nor uninteresting. That is the meaning of this phrase. How can we live interestingly in the situation we are in now? How can we find beauty in this world? I feel that it depends on how your mind is, how you perceive yourself, and how you perceive your daily life.
Through the activity of publishing my photos on NFT, I started to ask myself why I was taking photos and what I wanted to leave on the blockchain. And I'm still asking myself the same questions.
At the same time, it has been a very stimulating and inspiring experience for me to meet people who have selected the photos I have published as NFT and to interact with photographers from all over the world, including Japan, who are active in NFT photography. It also motivates me to create even better works in the future.
Through this precious opportunity, I will continue to take pictures every day to find the beauty hidden in everyday life. I will also continue to polish my photographic skills and devote myself to creating even better works.
Wrap-up
Thank you once again for reading this article! Through NFT, I am able to be more passionate about my activities as a photographer. It is also very exciting and fun to interact with wonderful creators and collectors on a daily basis!
I hope that this collection will contribute to the future growth of NFT photography. If you think this article is good, please share it by Twitter RT or like, and I will be happy to cry!!
Thank you for reading!