A group of fine art photographers have come together to launch a series of NFTs in an effort to fight climate change…but who’s buying NFTs these days? It seems very much like they’ve had their heyday, and as much as I’m here for anti-climate initiatives, I can’t help but feel that selling NFTs isn’t the answer.
Over the past few months, it feels like AI has replaced NFTs as the latest tech trend. For a time, everyone from Instagram to the Associated Press was said to have created NFT marketplaces and sold NFTs – but since May 2022, the market has fallen severely.
• This is how to sell my photos as NFTs
NFTs first became a big craze when Beeple’s collage, Weekdays: The first 5,000 days, sold for a whopping $69 million (about £55 million / AU$104 million). Since then, photographers have sold NFTs of Nirvana much to the chagrin of fans, Ashley Benson sold an erotic slasher movie as an NFT, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold the first tweet for $2.9 million (2, £3 million / AU$4.4 million) .
The three photographers joining together to raise awareness and money for climate change are Yann-Arthus Bertrand, Nicolas Henry and Namsa Leuba. Neither photographer has ever had work minted and available for purchase on a blockchain, so it seems like an odd move. However, they believe that selling NFTs is the most environmentally friendly way to reach many people.
European NFT platform Rhapsody Curated has been announced as a partner, while Ethereum will be the blockchain used to mark the collection. Although Ethereum is widely regarded as the most planet-friendly blockchain, and NFTs themselves are not particularly bad for the planet, blockchain companies have faced criticism in the past for the amount of energy required to create NFTs.
“It’s difficult to broadcast [our environmental] message,” Pierre-Elie de Pibrac, Rhapsody’s chief curator, told Decrypt (opens in a new tab). “You have to go to Paris, you have to see the art, to start communicating the ideas [represented]. But with NFTs, we can broadcast this message to many more people, and use this technology to allow people to buy artwork they couldn’t [otherwise] purchase.”
Since Ethereum changed its minting model from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake model, the company has reportedly reduced its carbon footprint by 99.99% according to the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute. There’s been no word on how much the NFTs will sell for, but if the trio is hoping to raise a serious amount of money, I can’t imagine they’ll be cheap.
Each of the artworks available for purchase as NFTs will be very different, as all three have a distinct style, but all have the same intention: to raise awareness and open the conversation about climate change. While I can’t honestly say that I think the sale will make that much of a difference, I really hope that I’m wrong and that the trio succeed in raising lots of money for such an important cause.
If you ask “What are NFTs?”, you are not alone! Follow these steps to make a photography NFT.
