Photographing unique tales

KOCHI: Hari Menon, an acclaimed Malayali travel photographer who has been exploring every nook and corner of the country in search of interesting frames, started his tryst with NFT quite recently too.

There are spaces on Twitter where collectors want you to come and talk about your work, and they buy them according to how well you can put a story across,” he says. In June, when Hari began looking into the NFT sale of his photographs he realised that most entries were landscapes - the familiar, safe images like an aurora in Iceland, so I decided to do the opposite of that,” quips Hari. However, recently, there has been a change in trend, he says. A photographer from the Dominican Republic sold a series of 50 pictures on migration as NFT last week.

One of Hari’s first entries was a series on the Indian festival Holi, titled ‘Colour corrected’. “It is the presentation I gave impetus to. Rather than portraying it as a celebration, I personified the colours, relating them to emotions and happiness. There was a photograph that extensively discussed the colour pink,” he says.

His new collection, one that explores the life of almost 60 indigenous tribes across 21 states in India, also has many takers. “I call them ‘Invisibles - Lesser-known tribes of India’ because the outside world has no knowledge of what goes on in their communities. It is this kind of effort and unique signature that is valued by collectors on NFT platforms,” he says, seconding Vimal and Arijit’s idea of how it is the artist’s brand that actually pulls in the investment.

“It can even be in many forms,” says Hari, who usually follows a purist method of uploading photographs. “Texas-based Malayali artist Melvin Thambi recreated one of my photographs and made a short video of his drawing process, and we got Malayali musician Lakshmi (@lami) to do a background score for it. She is also one of the first Malayali artists to put out audio works on NFT platforms.

The short video did really well and struck a deal,” he says. Though most collectors are from the Western and Middle Eastern parts of the world, Malayalis, Iranians, Koreans and Bengalis are the most popular contributors in the realm, he claims. “Indian collectors are still doing most of their business around galleries, but with time, they would join in too,” he says.

Hari has joined hands with other NFT enthusiasts from his background to form ‘Focus Collective’, which is helping more photographers explore the space. “For every sale made, 60 per cent of the revenue goes to the artist and the rest is split between the functioning of the group and in investing in more pieces. In terms of visibility and brand placement, venturing into NFT is one of the best things you can do as a content creator now,” he says.