NFT and crypto art survey results

We sent out a survey to get feedback on the idea of having an NFT or Crypto Art gallery for our members. Listening to your feedback, we decided not to do it, at least not for now. Saying this, we are of course not stopping any individual artist from doing this on their own. Read the feedback here.

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We sent out a survey to get feedback on the idea of a NFT or Crypto Art gallery. Since we see established enterprises like Christie’s auction house moving into the NFT sphere we wanted to test the idea with you. The idea we wanted to test was:

• Find one of the more environmentally friendly Crypto Art platforms.
• Provide a gallery on the platform for our members.
• Offer members to sell their art under the same gallery, preferably on a platform that does not have high charges.
• What would be sold would be the usage to the art, whilst the artist keeps rights to the physical work and, depending on the platform also the rights to the digital work.

The purpose for this would be to:

• To give artists more exposure of their work.
• To give artists a chance to earn royalties from their work. Yes, we would have to take a cut for charges and expenses, but pass on as much as possible to the artist.
• To give the artists the royalties of any future sales of the art; we do not intend to take a cut in this process if we can avoid it.
• To be where artists are and spread the word of alternative photographic processes on yet another platform, hopefully, inspire more people to enjoy creating images.

Whilst the feedback was both positive, negative and ambiguous, it was not overly positive, so we have decided not to do this at least not until some of the more pressing issues like fraud and uncertainties around ownership rights and environmental issues of cryptocurrencies are solved. Saying this, there is nothing stopping artists from trying their luck on their own.

Summary of NFT and Crypto Art survey

66 people replied to the 3 questions, none of the questions were mandatory so the number of responses varies on the different questions. Thank you to everyone taking part! We analyzed the responses and have summarised them under each question. We have cleaned any personal details or anything that can identify any specific person.

Some of you are really experienced in this already and are doing it already, some are not sure what it is and some are against the idea.

Have you already tried selling your art as NFTs or Crypto Art? If “YES”, please let us know your experience

Not one of the responses indicated that there was anyone who had tried this already, though some of the comments on the last question did. There were much curiosity and thoughts like this one:

“Crypto art is to art, as the digital camera was to photography and the camera was to painting. Take from that what you will. I do feel however that crypto or NFT does have a future. I think the change is inevitable.”

Would you be interested in selling your art as NFTs through AlternativePhotography.com?

12 people said “No” to the idea of selling CryptoArt on AlternativePhotography.com:

Those who gave a reason or commented:

• “I still believe in actual craftsmanship”
• “It’s digital art, not photography or printing”
• “I don’t trust this like I don’t trust but coins”
• “I prefer to live in the real world.”

15 people said “Yes” to the idea of selling Crypto art in our gallery:

Those who gave a reason or commented:

• “If it seems viable”
• “Yes, though I don’t know enough about it to have a take 🙂 I would love to hear more”
• “Yes – but I have little to no idea how it would work.”
• “I haven’t, but would like to. I don’t feel confident about the process itself; seems very complicated.”
• “Yes, I think so. The digitized piece would be offered for sale. Upon purchase, it would have a new owner. The new owner could resell it and the creator would receive royalties from that sale. I’d assume alternativephotography.com would receive a cut from each sale. The original artist would maintain ownership of original art if it was a physical piece, for example, if it was a print that had been scanned.”

6 people were “Not sure”:

Those who gave a reason or commented:

• “How it would work?”
• “I am not sure yet but maybe, I’ll keep my eyes wide open”
• “Possibly, right now the gas price on Etherium is far too high. If Etherium changes the way they calculate the price of gas, or if a clear alternative to Ether arises I might be interested.”
• “Maybe, I haven’t thought about it properly yet”
• “In the future”

Any other thoughts on NFTs and CryptoArt you would like to share?

The feedback is unedited apart from removing anything that can identify any individual artist.

• “Not feeling it… one of the reasons I make the work I make (mostly cyanotypes) is for the tactile objects…”
• “Not sure how stable is the NFT market.”
• “I’m not sure I understand the point of NFTs and until I do I won’t be getting involved with them.”
• “Still seems gimmicky overall but if the monetization of art through NFTs continues to gain momentum, then it will be something to get involved with.”
• “The future won’t replace analog. The future shall make analog even better.”
• “Doubt it has a long future.”
• “Immense carbon footprint, huge energy waste, a silly ill-thought fad.”
• “Looks like a fashion statement or vapourware from where I’m standing.”
• “Just not at all interested in any way. Making things more complicated takes all the fun out of it for me. Then again, I’m not even interested in even trying to make money from my art.”
• “I make things that are physical. I don’t even like it being online but that’s the world we live in. The concept of NFT is 100% not why I’m into alternative photography. NFTs as I understand is a digital method of authenticity and not a new alternative photograPhy, not even a new or alternative presentation, and the process of making and selling an nft isn’t interesting. Seems completely tangential to what your website and community is about.”
• “I own crypto so I’m not an anti-digital or anti blockchain and the stuff I do own supports and runs NFTs I just think it has no relevance to alternative photography or historic process.”
• “I’d be interested to hear/read a pitch that made some kind of logical connection apart from it being trendy. I guess I think of one-off music releases or bad art of apes. The idea of an NFT cyanotype actually almost makes me laugh. To the extent that if alternative photography.com wanted to pay for me to make them and host them and sell them then take a cut of sales I’d do it just to troll.”
• “But I have zero interest in paying to mint NFTs”
• “No, but I do find this Survey intriguing. I look forward to seeing the outcome.”
• “I think the whole practice is obscene.”
• “Slippery slope. I don’t appreciate this approach and think it is not conducive to my approach to photography.”
• “I’m an old-fashioned guy, who wants to sell paper.”
• “An interesting use of technology. I don’t know enough to pass further comment.”
• “Seems iffy to me, and I doubt I’d want to turn over any use or licensing of my work to someone else. Have a friend who works at a bank and they automatically block cryptocurrency because so much of it is fraudulent; I’m not sure about NFTs.”
• “Best of luck with this.”
• “NFTs are something stay clear of. If you are to include an NFT gallery I will stop following you on social media and move away from keeping up with your work even though it is interesting. There are too many problems with NFTs to start listing them here, but the obvious ones are the environment and the negative impact in can have on humans. Instead of empowering artists the misuse of NFTs often mean the opposite are happening.”
• “They are the opposite of alternative photography, living only in the digital realm.”
• “I think it’s a fad and a ripoff.”
• “I still value actual prints more than digital files.”
• “If you can’t succeed in the real world…”
• “If you are going to do an article on NFT’s please also acknowledge the issues with environmental concerns from the use of power for blockchain as well as the murky situation with regards to copyright.”
• “I have been around for a while, and it seems that NFTs are yet another way for platforms like Etherium and SuperRare to profit off of artist. The promises are high but reality is quite different. Clearly, some artists are getting wealthy off of NFTs, but for the rank and file photographers and artist, it just seems like a new faster way to be exploited.”
• “Not interested in buying or creating NFTs.”
• “I think they’re bullshit.”
• “Personally, I feel they are just a way to separate people from their money. a 1 of 1 print gives the same exclusivity and the ability to actually (reliably) properly view & transfer the ownership of the Art without being tied to digital magic to decode it…”
• “Not really, I don’t really get it.”
• “Enough already. What’s interesting is that Image Source held an Alt Photo competition last year, and limited it to more traditional definitions of alt photography. I do glass enamel on photo-etched copper, but because it isn’t “recognized” by your alt photography site, I wasn’t eligible to enter, even though my work is published and nationally recognized. (Media that you recognize was the criteria that Image Source’ used.) Now… I’m in favor of experimental work, but be fair. What IS alt photography? Don’t be all over the ballpark.”
  Editors note: We have wrestled this issue of “What is alt. proc.?”, what to show and what can be shown on other websites for a long, long time, and though there are as many opinions as artists out there, we have tried to come up with a definition of which kind of art we show.)
• “From what I’ve read, it seems like it’s not just understanding NFT’s… you have to be an active social media marketing wizard, which a lot of us are not, to reach potential NFT buyers.”
• “Prefer the real thing.”
• “There are environmental concerns over the energy consumption ‘issues’ attributed to the bitcoin ‘industry’ but it does seem to offer another viable way for artists to gain some cash. This makes it somewhat of an ethical issue that sits a bit awkwardly with me… that said I would fly back and forth without batting an eyelid, and so this just leads to a set of moral/ethical questions that we need to navigate simply to live…”
• “I think the industry is so new that it challenges traditional notions of what art is and what it is about. It challenges the foundations upon which art is valued and paid for.”
• “Fantastic as this proves ownership !!!”

Please contact us or comment below if you have any questions about the survey.