The Four Seasons of Jiuzhaigou
Michael Yamashita’s newest photography series on Ethereum explores one of China’s most pristine UNESCO Heritage Sites
Raising the bar for photography NFTs, a 40 year National Geographic veteran presents his stunning new collection paired with unique rarity features.
With an extensive archive of photographs from his 40 year career visiting some of the world’s most remote locations, Michael Yamashita’s entrance to the NFT space is notable. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are rapidly gaining traction as a popular asset to buy, trade, and flex as a profile picture or on digital frames. Yet, the draw of a popular public figure is not always enough to generate substantial interest among seasoned NFT enthusiasts.
Artists or photographers entering the world of tokenized art are strongly encouraged by the blockchain community to take the time to understand the subtle features required to set a collection apart from the rest. This article explains the complexities of Michael Yamashita’s new “Four Seasons of Jiuzhaigou” collection, highlighting important features that were considered and added after networking with the Ethereum NFT community.
On-Chain Branding
Appearing as “The Four Seasons of Jiuzhaigou” on the Ethereum blockchain, this collection is minted under the ERC721 standard with the token ticker “Jiuzhaigou.” This customization makes the Yamashita brand distinguishable in collector’s wallets, and allows for more accessible and accurate analytics of total token holders and sales volume across different NFT platforms.
Environmental Impact
Single edition NFTs, meaning the artwork or photograph is unique to only one token, are typically minted one at a time. For larger generative projects, multiple NFTs can be minted, but there is often a cap of mints per transaction at 10 or below to help ensure everyone can get a chance at participating. With the average Ethereum block having about 70 transactions, this can cause the network to become highly competitive, substantially raising transaction fees.
Using the ERC2309 standard pioneered by Sean Papanikolas, the developer and founder of Cargo, all 61 NFTs in the Four Seasons of Jiuzhaighou collection were minted in one transaction. Using this technology for bulk minting helps reduce the amount of transactions on Ethereum.
Rarity Traits
The NFTs in the Jiuzhaigou collection have 10–11 rarity traits. Accessible on the properties tab in OpenSea, these traits help collectors and photographers gain an in-depth understanding of each photograph.
- 6 technical photography traits, including Camera, Exposure, Focal Length, ISO, Lens, and Shot Angle. These traits are included to aid photographers in deconstructing the camera calibrations required to achieve each shot.
- 3–4 environmental traits, including Subject, Season, Light, and Unique Element. 17 of the photographs in the collection were taken prior to the 2017 Earthquake in Northern Sichuan province, which forever altered the landscape and made many of these photos impossible to recreate.
Rarity Rank
Since the rarity rank for the Jiuzhaigou collection was pre-determined, it has been hard coded into each photograph’s metadata. The rarity rank was determined using a formula created by the Solvency.art community. Rarity is an important way to distinguish which NFTs in a collection have features that are less frequent than others. On NFT marketplaces, collections have a “floor price” which corresponds to the lowest price a token can be bought for. Tokens with rare traits often have their own price floors, commanding a premium on the open market.
Many websites and Discord channels are available to track rarity, and being listed on one of these sites is costly. In addition, asking buyers of a collection to access an external site or Discord channel to check rarity can create security risks, especially if the user keys in a typo in the web URL and gets redirected to a phishing site. The coding of rarity into metadata simplifies the process, allowing users to get all of the information they need about a token’s rarity in one place without doing additional research.
Charitable Causes
As I mentioned in my recent NFT Minting Strategy article, Michael Yamashita plans to dedicate a portion of the revenue from his NFT sales to the advancement of carbon neutrality. He also recently joined several artists from throughout the world in donating artwork and photographs to NFTs for Saving Afghans. Through their collective efforts, over $16,000 was raised for No One Left Behind, a charitable organization focused on providing aid and asylum to Afghan interpreters left behind in the war.
Value Adds
Michael Yamashita has a sizeable vault of photographs from his 40 year career of visiting some of the most remote and dangerous locations on Earth, and is ready to share the benefits of this vast content ownership with his NFT collectors. The next release from Mike will include free redeemable NFT editions for holders of his work, including holders of the M.Y. Earth Collection, NFTs for Afghans campaign, and the Four Seasons of Jiuzhaigou collection.
Community Engagement
Mike’s team is led by 1King Media, founded by Jack O’Neill and Jason Kingdon from the Harvard Business School. Jack recently shared that “working with Mike to bring his photography to the NFT space was the logical next step in his progression as an artist. The community has embraced him and his work with open arms. The NFT space moves fast and competition is high. We will continue to learn and innovate best practices into Mike’s work. We’re currently looking into storage on Arweave to add an extra layer of longevity to Mike’s extensive archives.”
Mike’s team has been active hosting engagement time with Mike on venues like Clubhouse, helping field social media inquiries, and gathering the story and photography specs behind each NFT.
Mike plans to continue making scheduled appearances on Twitter spaces and Clubhouse to network with his collectors and the NFT community. He is also eager to explore the nuances of photography with aspiring photographers. Discord is also an important element of NFT engagement, although many users can become overwhelmed at the amount of channels in their sidebar. The team also plans to set up a regular Discord tour for Mike to visit different communities for AMAs and photography workshops. Contact the team if you’re interested in hosting!
The Future of Photography NFTs
Photography is currently only a small part of the overall NFT market share, but is gaining traction. Twin Flames by Justin Aversano, and the SuperRare and Opensea collections by Guido Disalle have been widely successful in recent months. With a lifetime of photography experience, and a team that is innovative and receptive to community input, Michael Yamashita stands to become a valuable contributor to the NFT community.
Follow Mike on Twitter and Instagram to receive the latest updates on his appearances and new releases. For inquiries on his work outside of NFTs, please visit MichaelYamashita.com, featuring his books, print portfolio, and photoshoots with National Geographic.
