An introduction to what I’m calling Friendly Claiming

First let me answer the most obvious question: Why issue my Voyages photographs as NFTs?

In 2017, I went ‘crypto native’, soon after falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole. It has now gotten to the point where outside of flying airliners and my art practice through photography I can’t think of doing anything else. 

Aside from providing an immutable record of provenance, NFTs are also an ideal coordination mechanism for community. The life of the constant traveller is inherently lonely and isolating. Voyages was always on some level about calling out to and finding my fellow tribe of travellers and wanderers. This is my hope for Voyages. That each of these photographs finds a home with someone who feels the way I do about the world.

So…Friendly Claiming?!

I want the act of acquiring your Forever Voyages to be a personal, bespoke experience. If you are reading this you already know I’m an NFT ‘degen’ myself. I’ve minted many mints, and seen many artists try different, creative ways to find their audience and be fair to their collectors.

How do I create an experience that is fair, feels personal and is un-hyped?

Here is the idea cloud I worked with :

• Invitation only, or announcement within a circle of friends / followers / fellow community members.

• Friends of friends: Invitees are welcome to pass on invitations to their circle.

• Interaction, Conversation, Dialogue. Hopefully all leading to more depth being added to each Voyages photograph for both Artist and Owner.

• Collector decides price. (See: Alfred Stieglitz)

• “Delegated Copyright”

• ‘Artist Gated Mint’

In summary, we choose each other, you choose the Voyages that speaks to you and our dialogue adds more layers of depth and meaning to each Voyages that is claimed in this collaborative way.

Here are the Friendly Claiming steps:

1. I invite you to browse the Voyages Gallery here

2. If the work vibes with you, you choose a photograph you like, or create a shortlist.

3. DM me on Twitter or Farcaster (or reply to the discord invitation post) with the Voyages ID of the picture(s) that speak to you the most. It would mean a lot to me if you could add a short note about you, the traveller. I’m interested in learning about the traveller, the adventurer, the Voyager in you. At this step, if you wish, you could also indicate your preferred [MAKEITYOURS].Voyages.eth ENS subdomain so I can reserve it for you.

4. Alternatively you can DM me with questions or comments on one or many Voyages and we can start a conversation. As you saw above, I’m hoping for this to be a bespoke and interactive experience, a conversation between artist and collector. I want you to get to know me. And I’d like to get to know you, dear Voyager.

5. If your preferred Voyages is taken (in the order I receive DM’s or discord replies) I will let you know and either suggest another that I think you might like or go down your shortlist to the next available Voyages.

6. Once we have a photograph selected, I will create a “Thanks Page” of your preferred photograph and allowlist your preferred address using the Thanks.page app extension to Manifold. It will look like this: https://www.thanks.page/bryan

7. If you would like to have editions of your Voyages (for eg. to give out as gifts or memberships) this is possible using Manifold’s edition minting feature. This would mean that some Voyages would be 1/1 while others might be an edition of 10/20/69/420 etc… I haven’t thought this through fully and I’m not sure if it’s a direction I’d like to go in just yet. But it’s super intriguing to me so let’s talk! UPDATE: I’ve started doing this and it’s FUN!

8. You can Browse all VoyagesWithLove Editions here.

9. If you know of a gallery or platform that might find Voyages worthy of consideration, I’d love to talk.

10. In the inspiring spirit of Alfred Stieglitz's incredible career as gallerist and his work with Little Galleries, The Intimate Gallery and An American Place, you can choose to pay as much or little as you like. I’d suggest erring on the side of lower than higher. These are artworks. I have no roadmap, no staking for $SKY tokens, no 3D avatars dropping soon(TM). You can have the work for free. I invited you to claim because I want a Voyages to be in your possession.

11. Note that I said Possession, and didn’t say Collection…many of you have Notable Wallets! I know your addresses are watched. So if you prefer, you can claim your Voyages from an undoxxed wallet address in step 6 or 7 above.

12. Choosing to claim as ‘anon’ and in peace also automatically ensures your name is not displayed in the “Owned By” field under your Voyages in the Main Gallery. It would say “Anon Voyager” instead.

13. (I say the following with utmost humility) Many of the people I’m reaching out to and hoping will own a Voyages are artists whose work is wonderful and important. If you have art that you’d like to trade for one of my photographs instead of a payment, even (especially!) if it’s a proof or sketch, that would mean SO MUCH to me.