Obscura is a growing and vibrant community of artists, collectors, curators, and builders brought together with a mission to produce NFT native photography. Since our inception, we have envisioned the blockchain as the first place for photographic images to commence their cultural circulation. Through thoughtful curation, we enable collectors to support and assemble new work from a diverse group of artists around the world.
Our organization empowers emerging and established photographers by bringing their projects to life. We are an organization run by artists for artists. While commissioning world renowned photographers in projects with full creative autonomy, we redistribute a sizable portion of funds through grants, exhibitions, and more opportunities with input from our burgeoning community.
Since its founding in October, 2021, Obscura has provided more than 1.2 million dollars to 366 artists within nine different commission-based initiatives with the support from over 500 collectors in the NFT space.
Obscura Curated Commission, 8 artists
Our signature commission. Awarded to world renowned photographers to fund the creation of new and original work to be introduced on the blockchain.
Cristina De Middel - The Royal Pinedo
Ruben Wu - Aeroglyph Variations
Deanna Templeton - The Village
Alec Soth - Dissolutions (Sleeping by the Mississippi)
Tania Franco Klein - Subject Studies
Todd Hido - The Black Mechanism
Obscura Magnum Commission, 8 artists
Via partnership with Magnum Photos, we commissioned eight of their world class photographers to produce exclusive NFT-native photographs.
Alessandra Sanguinetti - Aerolites
Carolyn Drake And Andres Gonzalez - Ficciones
Sabiha Çimen - Transfiguration: The Double of Seyma
Lúa Ribeira - Agony in the Garden
Thomas Dworzak - El Salvador (Bitcoin Nation)
Hannah Price - It’s Expensive to be Poor
Obscura Foundry Commission, 5 artists
A set of 5 commissions awarded to emerging and mid-career photographers to produce new and original NFT-native work.
Josip Artuković - Tea Soaked Madeleins
Gregory Eddi Jones - Hanami Blocks
Claudia Pawlak - In Translation
Fernando Gallegos - Point of Entry
Obscura Community Commission, 10 artists
A set of 10 commissions for photographers to produce work according to a theme/subject designated by an Obscura curator.
Summer Wagner, Natalie Sosa, Heather N. Stout, Niall O'brien , Matthew Reamer,
Badir McCleary, Yogan Muller, Jahnny Lee, Amanda ”A.B” Martinez, Alize Jireh.
Who We Are 200 Grant, 100 artists
Obscura funded 100 photographers, $1000 each with a grant from PaisanoDAO to create a collection of portraits that tells the story of the new creators, collectors, and builders of the web3 ecosystem.
**Who We Are Prepetual Collection, 41 artists
**An ongoing portrait collection made by and of members of the NFT photography community. A continuation of the WHO WE ARE 200.
**The World Today Commission, 138 artists
**138 world-class, established and emerging photographers from all 5 continents, including various Magnum photographers, brought together by Obscura DAO to take the 1st global visual timestamp of the 21st century. 13,800 native 1/1 NFT photographs of cities, landscapes, communities, people, events and conceptual images that will tell our story for centuries to come.
Carousel Curated, Obscura's first community project, features a collection of found slides minted as NFTs. Co-founded by Felix Denomme and Oliver Dahl, this ongoing project aims to become the world’s largest archive of found slides, immortalizing moments of the past onto the blockchain that were otherwise left to fade away.
Emergency Reporting Commission: Ukraine Dispatch
In an effort to support reporters covering breaking news and conflict zones independently and without the support of the media outlets, Obscura facilitates this first edition with Lorenzo Meloni from Magnum Photos reporting from Ukraine.
Obscura Exhibitions
Who We Are - Vellum LA Exhibition
Vellum LA has exhibited two week pop-up billboard exhibition across Los Angeles featuring 50 portraits by 42 photographers of and by influential community members within the NFT space.This outdoor exhibition with Vellum LA is the second iteration of Obscura Who We Are 200.
Obscura - The Billboard Creative Project (Los Angeles), 30 artists
On Tuesday, February 7, 2022, The Billboard Collective (TBC) collaborated with Obscura to launch an exhibition of 30 NFT photographs on billboards throughout the streets of Los Angeles. The images on display were submitted from artists across the globe to an open call on Discord and then selected by artist Mona Kuhn and Obscura’s co-founder Alejandro Cartagena.
Obscura x NFT ART VENICE BIENNIALE Obscura marked a new event in blockchain and art history by partnering with Superchief Gallery, Artblocks, Bright Moments, Infinite Objects and WHIM for the first ever NFT Art Biennial in Venice, Italy. Taking place in the Venice Biennial, this exposition brings together leading forces in the NFT space with the most universally respected arts event in the world. Running for 7 months, Obscura will be presenting curated exhibitions from April 23 - November at European Culture Centre.
Obscura Journal is:
Gregory Eddi Jones - Contributing Editor
Brileigh Hardcastle - Contributing Editor
Brett Cody Rogers - Publishing Lead
Aaron Anderson - Journal Contributor
Kristyna Archer - Journal Contributor
Danielle Ezzo - Journal Contributor
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