Morning Minute | Post Photography and AI Art's Hottest Newest Genre
GM!
Take a minute to catch up on the latest in the Web3 space with today's NFT market analysis, top movers, and upcoming mints:
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TylerD's Market Summary
Roope Rainisto and Fellowship AI raised $2.2M in 30 minutes yesterday selling a new style of AI art. Is this a fad, or the next major iteration of AI art?
📸🤖Post Photographic Perspectives and AI Art
The robots are coming for photography.
And the market wants it.
Fellowship AI has proven that there is serious demand for a new style of AI art called "Post Photography."
Back on March 16, they sold 1,000 (technically 950) Patron Passes for 0.2 ETH, with the NFTs primarily serving as access passes to their upcoming Post Photographic Perspectives collection.
That 190 ETH raise was peanuts compared to what was to come.
Yesterday, artist Roope Rainisto and the Fellowship AI team sold 500 NFTs in Roope's "REWORLD" collection in a Dutch auction that ended at 2.34 ETH.
That's a whopping 1,170 ETH raise ($2.2M).
All for a new up-and-coming style of AI art that I'm calling "Post Photography AI."
Welcome to the next evolution of photography-based art.
What is Post Photography AI Art?
Post Photography is photographic work created using generative AI methods.
There is no camera taking a photo.
The art is the output of various AI-based models and programs (like Stable Diffusion and Dreamboat), which artists use to create photo-like outputs (via prompting, setting parameters and inputs, etc.)
Artists will create thousands of outputs using those programs, then choose which to fine-tune (using programs like Photoshop) to create final outputs and curate their collections.
From Roope in conversation with Fellowship co-founder Alejandro Cartagena:
"I take comfort in observing that the photos I am creating now have motifs similar to the very first photos I took 30 years ago. The creation technology may constantly change - there might be a camera, there might not be a camera - but the choice of themes and subject matters is ingrained in me."
Regardless of the tools used, the art still has to tell a story. If it does not do that, it won't be received well.
Again, from Roope:
"A photographic piece should speak to you, no matter how it was created. The artists selected here tell stories through their artworks."
The ability of these AI artists to tell stories through their curated collections of Post Photography pieces have and will be a core criterion in determining their success.
How was Fellowship AI so successful?
The Fellowship AI team was sharp to make Roope the face of the Post Photography project and have his REWORLD collection mint first.
Roope has been incredibly hot in the AI art space since his Braindrops collection "Life in West America" (LIWA for short) caught fire 2 months ago.
LIWA minted out below 0.3 ETH and rocketed as high as a 12 ETH floor in its first few weeks, before slowly retracing (it's 5 ETH now).
The reason LIWA was embraced so much by its collectors was its ability to tell a story through the collection, with all of the images featuring individuals seemingly in a small town, doing typical Americana things, but with an AI twist.
The concept of selling the Patron Passes as access passes was smart as well, as those holders had 1)first access to REWORLD and now 2)first access to the next round of artist drops.
And while Roope's collection was pricey at the 2.34 ETH level, today's mints are fixed at 0.1 ETH.
So holders will have a relatively cheap entry to collections of 100 from various up-and-coming and established AI artists curated by Roope.
Market Reaction
While the primary sale was a huge success for Roope, it was less successful for minters.
The price fell to 1.9 ETH within about 3 hours post-mint and sits at 1.75 this am, down 25% from the mint price.
Roope's LIWA collection has also taken a hit since the announcement of REWORLD, with the floor falling about 50% from a 10 ETH floor to 4.75 ETH this morning.
Certainly some of this could be attributed to a general downturn in the art market.
Chromie Squiggles are down about 22% in that same time period.
But certainly the influx of supply for Roope is not helping the cause of his NFT holders - hopefully they (we, I own 2 LIWAs) are in it for the art.
Conclusion
Post Photography is very unique, interesting and has clear market demand.
For me personally, it is one of the most exciting styles and use cases for AI in the digital art sector.
With the momentum of the Post Photography Perspectives collection coupled with Roope's appearance at Christie's 3.0 NFT Auction in April, this genre very well could be the next one to take off.
Get your popcorn ready.
For those who want to learn more, I highly recommend this conversation with Roope and NFT Statistic's interview with Roope.
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of the headlines from the day in NFTs:
- Trading volume came in just under 20k ETH on Thursday, with OS Pro seeing 1,386 ETH (-11% on the day); Blur holds 60% share
- Most NFTs down 1-2% though Nakamigos soared 55% to 0.82 ETH after 10KTF (a brand started by Beeple and acquired by Yuga) tweeted a picture of a Nakamigo on a "Wanted" poster alongside Koda backpacks
- Magic Eden officially launched its ETH beta platform, in partnership with 17 ETH-based creators
- LooksRare announced the launched of its upgraded V2 platform, reducing protocol fees and gas fees while introducing numerous new features for users.
- PROOF Curated unveils its "Evolving Pixels" NFT exhibition, featuring 10 leading generative and AI artists on April 12
- Cool Cats launched Journey 5, an interactive, gamified experience with puzzles and rewards; the Journey lasts 2 weeks and must be joined by Apr 10
- Knights of Degen dropped its Purple Paper, with new details on the use of its $DGEN token, its multiple verticals, and a staking program for Knights NFTs
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- The crypto market was even yesterday; BTC even at $27,930; ETH -0.5% at $1,860; APE +1% to $4.22
- Doge fell 7.7% to $0.082 after Elon pulled the Doge logo from the Twitter platform
- Ralph Lauren announced a partnership with web3 community Poolsuite for NFTs and events, while also sharing plans to accept crypto at its Miami store
- Gucci Koda Pendants have started popping up on Kodas and Vessels after the sale went live last night (they look pretty good)
🚀 NFT Total Volume
- Wrapped CryptoPunks (3,403 ETH, 56.7 ETH Floor)
- Nakamigos (1,978 ETH, 0.82 ETH)
- CryptoPunks (1,771 ETH; 59.9 ETH)
- BAYC (1,745 ETH, 59.2 ETH)
- Otherdeed (1,091 ETH, 1.55 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
- Nakamigos (56%, 0.82 ETH Floor)
- Pixelmon (17%, 0.48 ETH)
- Ordinal Kubz (16%, 0.19 ETH)
- DigiDaigaku (11%, 4.55 ETH)
- Killabits (11%, 0.91 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
The main drop today is once again from Fellowship AI and the Post Photography collection (covered above).
Today's mints are at a much more attractive entry for pass holders at 0.1 ETH, with each artist dropping collections of 100 supply.
While I have not done a deep dive into each of the artists, there's a good chance that some/most of these trade above that 0.1 ETH mint price on secondary given recent success of AI art.
The public sale starts at 1:30 pm ET with the price jumping to 0.2 ETH.
- Realm Hunter Genesis Pass (9:00 a.m. ET); free
- Life Death & Cryptoart No. 3 - Pixelord (11:00 a.m. ET); free
- Post Photographic Perspectives (Day 2) (1:00 p.m. ET); 0.1 ETH
- JOYWORLD Scramblers (1:00 p.m. ET); 0.02 ETH
- Gurt Corp (TBD); 0.15 ETH
Enjoy this write-up? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.
For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.
For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's Project Schedule page.
