About the nomination of Jonas Bendiksen - The Book of Veles: this is a quite a complex project to grasp. Please watch this very informative lecture; Jonas Bendiksen talks about The Book of Veles, photographing what does not exist, Fake News and reality in photography followed by Q&A. Fellowship Lecture - Jonas Bendiksen - YouTube
Jonas Bendiksen is a Norwegian photographer represented by Magnum. Read more about him here: Jonas Bendiksen • Photographer Profile • Magnum Photos
The Book of Veles took the photography world by surprise by using AI and photographic tropes to create a fictional view of fake news creation. The translation from a photobook form into NFTs that Jonas has created, shows his experimentation and is a great step towards true NFT native photography. If we want to engage larger audiences to photo NFT we have to move beyond the JPG. Just like with photo books, where you have to take in account paper, ink, printing methodes, design, sequencing, storytelling, etc. Digital space is a new space with it’s own charesteristics to take into account. NFT could be interactive on chain or off chain, you can program them in many ways, we should use the full scope of what NFT bring. I think with this project Jonas Bendiksen is showing the way. By collecting it RAW DAO will show the way to the space how to move forward.
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Glad our discourse has kicked off!
Among several great nominations, the one that most captured my interest was Pietro Paolini’s Buscando a Bolivar. This is such an important work, much beyond beautiful. Contemporary South America feels so culturally detached from our inspiring historic roots. Browsing the collection feels like revisiting an Eduardo Galeano book. Like Pietro really managed to draw from the ground of contemporary South America the open veins from our melancholic story of attempted but never really achieved emancipation. What a great find, glad Pietro did this and brought this work to NFTs.
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Completely agree. This nomination really hit close to home and managed to capture so much of South American culture. And it’s a breath of fresh air to see work that is from another region other than North America or Europe, I think it’s important that we discuss and collect this kind of work.
Thanks to member @JoseCactus for this nomination!
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Just visited the World Press Photo exhibition here in Amsterdam where Jonas Bendiksen’s ‘The Book of Veles’ is exhibited and took this installation shot. Very hard to photograph since the photos are exhibited on mirrors. (It’s hard not to photograph yourself 
)
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo-contest/2022/Jonas-Bendiksen/1
The World Press Photo Jury says about this work:
The Book of Veles is a fresh, conceptual project on a highly relevant topic. The photographer consistently maintains a strong narrative throughout the project and intelligently portrays what it means to be living in an age of disinformation. The use of an innovative technique combined with symbolism and irony adds meaning throughout the body of work and makes a bold political commentary. Furthermore, the photographer addresses the moral authority of his own photographic work and presents a form of meta-analysis – using photography as a tool to comment on the state of photography and highlight how vulnerable we are to fake influences in a shifting industry.
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+1 for Pietro Paolini, I think this is wonderful work that is underappreciated. There are so many layers of history in this project but also a sense of wandering or yearning that is unresolved, leading to poetic yet poignant images. Strongly support this nomination by @JoseCactuss.
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