How Much Do Top Landscape Photographers Actually Earn Selling NFTs?

I analyzed the top 50 landscape photographers with accounts on the NFT auction platform Foundation, between July 5th and 9th to answer the following question: How much do landscape photographers earn from selling NFTs?

Below is a summary of my full findings that can be read on my website.

Specifically, I used public data to compile the following:

  • My list of 50 Top landscape Photographers selling NFTs on Foundation, ranked in order of ETH sales between the snapshot dates (July 5 through 9, 2021) to get a feeling for the range of earnings
  • Stats like the max, min, and average ETH sales of the 50 photographers combined
  • A list of the collectors who bought NFTs from them

Excited? Okay, let’s dive in!

A Summary Of My Most Interesting Findings Are As Follows:

Creators’ Findings

The total ETH earnings per photographer from NFTs in the list, by Foundation account, ranged from between 25.551 ETH (approximately $51,100) to 2.370 ETH (approx. $4,700) during the data collection period. The average total NFT sales per photographer on the list was 7.802 ETH (approximately $15,600) during the period.

This graph shows the range of earnings by landscape photographers in the 50 Top List from 25.551 ETH to 2.370 ETH, with average earnings of 7.802 ETH.

The highest price paid for a single NFT was 8 ETH as sold by John Kopf (although John has recently smashed this, it was outside the study period). The total value of NFTs sold by all 50 photographers on the list was 390 ETH (approximately $780,000) during the period.

Photographers from 10 countries featured in the research, with the USA having the highest representation at 60%, Spain (8%) coming second, and Canada and New Zealand tied for third (6%).

Collector’s Findings

Currently, there appears to be a limited number of landscape photography collectors, as compared to other niches like memes, collectibles, or 3D art NFTs, where individual items can sell for dozens, even hundreds of ETH at a time. During my study, I found one hyper-patron in the landscape photography niche — Vince aka @caktux — who is involved in collecting from a staggering 46 of the 50 accounts (92%) surveyed on the list.

Vince aka @caktux is by far the largest collector and patron of landscape photography NFTs from my Top 50 List

Other notable collectors in the space are norcal_guy (@norcal_guy) involved in 8% of all accounts on the list. There are some other big NFT collectors like Jesse Powell (@jespow), but their involvement in collecting specifically landscape photography NFTs has so far been limited to a few pieces (2% of accounts on the list). A small number of photographers are buying other photographers’ NFTs.

Conclusion

To date, most landscape photographers are quite rightly sticking to the tried-and -ested methods of re-packaging and re-monetizing their existing back catalogs rather than reimagining the NFT space as a new place to create original artwork. It will be interesting to see how the new medium of NFTs influences what it means to be a “landscape photographer” and how they respond to the financial incentive to create specifically for NFT-first collectors.

Collecting landscape photography NFTs is dominated by very few patrons, which I believe means the current resale market is thin. The market could benefit from additional collectors entering the niche which would boost both initial auction valuations and add some much-needed resale liquidity.

Not every “top” photographer has decided to sell NFTs — some may be holding back to see how the NFT space evolves in terms of auction platforms, prices, and other factors.

The average account value of 7.802 ETH (approximately $15,600) is not representative of all landscape photographers who list on Foundation, only those in my “Top 50” list. As mentioned, there are several great photographers who have not sold an NFT on Foundation for what are likely all different reasons. Most NFT sales of those on the list have occurred recently, the majority from March 2021 onwards.

You can read the full article where I go into much more detail here.


About the author: Daren Cox is a landscape photographer, blogger, and digital coach. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram, and read the full NFT report he has compiled here.

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