How much is your photo worth?
Some (5) years ago, I was able to sell one of my iPhone photography for $9 through an IOS app that I can't even remember the name of now. The app only applies to iPhone photos. I recall that my photography wasn't great back then which made me wonder why would anyone spend $9 for it. It's kind of frustrating that there is no information about the buyer of my photo. I just received a notification on the app that one of my photos was sold and the payment was delivered to my Paypal account.
It feels like that the process is lacking transparency.
I'm not even sure who set the $9 price tag for my photo. It made me think if this kind of centralization is something that I would comfortable with.
Afterward, none of my photos are selling and so I lose the motivation to upload more photos to the platform. I also learned that the app has ceased its operation some months after that.
Looking back into that experience while comparing it to what we are having on this platform, I just realize how lucky I am to be able to participate in this platform. The decentralized nature of this platform gives me the confidence that my content is safe because it doesn't rely on a single entity to operate. If in case, one or three of the witnesses will stop validating transactions in the blockchain, there are more backup witnesses that will step in and take over the job.
This model is resilient.
It's also transparent enough to let me know who is upvoting my content. I even think that my photos could be priced based on the payout that I get from my post. It's the community or crowd's wisdom that determines the value of photography. As more curators upvote my photography content then the more they became valuable.
This is the kind of system that gives me the feeling of trust in the system and the motivation to keep going on this journey.
Having that in mind, I look forward to more years of an amazing journey on this platform.
I guess that doesn't apply any more, right?
Cool shot, by the way :)
We are still curating photo content in different communities.
But we had to stop the Daily Feature post because it's being downvoted by some big accounts on this platform.
Sorry to hear that. This downvoting thing is starting to look like an indirect form of censorship.
Best wishes!
True.
Anyway, what's important is that we are still able to reward photographers through our upvotes. Might not be that big but at least it's something being added to their rewards.
Photography is valued less and less as media outlets continue to centralise, you'll see the same story ran, with the same images, by multiple agencies / outlets - with the photographer (or bystander who captured the moment) - being credited simply with "supplied" - when news agencies do end up using photographs, they claim it is in the public good for that image to be out there, and try to mess about photographers with paltry settlements for a benefit that they've already gained.
That's just journalistic photography - but then there's the fine art side. There's not a lot of support that I've seen out there for photographic NFTs - when really, it is a perfect platform that could see photographers paid appropriately for their work - but the smart contracts have a weakness - this is based on future sales of the work - as opposed to impressions.
A photograph makes an impact when it is seen, when it is observed, not when it changes hands. The same can be said for art. ... I might turn this into a rant that may end up as a full fledged post of my own on the topic.
You've hit a much broader topic than my post and I must say that you caught my attention.
I'd like to read more about it as soon as you let it all out in your post. Looking forward to it.