• John Knopf is an Emmy Award-nominated landscape photographer who works for National Geographic, and was an early adopter of NFTs.
• Together with seven other prominent photographers, Knopf helped found FOTO, a collective geared at training artists to work in Web3.
• Time magazine partnered with FOTO on its own NFT drops and Knopf’s work has also been featured in other notable galleries.

Photography and Web3: A Perfect Match

Good photography often requires both technical skill and artistic sensibility – making it ideal for experimentation in the world of Web3. However, many non-fungible token (NFT) creators and collectors have noted that it took a while for “photography NFTs” to take off.

John Knopf and the Founding of FOTO

Emmy Award-nominated photographer John Knopf was an early adopter of crypto technology, entering the space during the bull market era of NFTs in hopes of making a quick buck. But instead he became enthralled with what distributed networks could do for digital art – leading him to found FOTO alongside seven other prominent photographers: Alejandro Cartagena, Ben Strauss, Cath Simard, Dave Krugman, Isaac “Drift” Wright, J.N Silva and Ravi Vora.

FOTO’s Goals

The goal behind FOTO is to train artists to work within Web3 as well as elevate digital art through sponsored galleries exhibitions and events – all without profiting from any artist sales or purchases. In 2021 alone Time Magazine partnered with FOTO on their own NFT drops while John’s work has been featured in other notable galleries such as one from cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase earlier this year.

Why Photography?

Knopf explains that photography is especially well suited to be used within the world of Web 3 due to its need for both technical skill and artistic sensibility which can be combined together using modern technologies like blockchain or cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Bitcoin Cash. This allows photographers to create unique pieces that can be collected by enthusiasts around the world without having ever met them face-to-face or even knowing their exact location!

The Future of Photography NFTs

As more people become aware of crypto technology’s potential use cases like photography NFTs will only continue to grow in popularity over time – creating new opportunities for artists everywhere! With his experience working within the industry already it will be interesting to see what else John Knopf can bring us in terms of innovative applications between digital culture & blockchain technology going forward into 2023 & beyond…