The investing outlook for tech startups may be more mottled than a Claude Monet—but Christie’s said it sees a way forward, reports The Wall Street Journal. The London-based auction company is launching a venture-capital arm called Christie’s Ventures that supply seed funding to young companies whose technologies could ultimately help collectors buy and sell more art, digital or otherwise. Read the full Story >>
The shortlisted candidates for Leica’s Oskar Barnack Award photo competition has been announced. Named after the inventor of the Ur-Leica, the competition focuses on photography of a documentary or conceptual-artistic nature that deals with the relationship of humanity to the environment. Curators, gallery owners, art directors, photo editors and photographers from around the world nominate work to be considered. Among this year’s finalists: Lynsey Addario, Victoria Razo and Rafael Vilela. See also: The Washington Post. Read the full Story >>
New data has revealed that the average engagement for traditional Instagram feed posts, such as photos, has decreased by 44 percent since 2019 — and this decline, notes PetaPixel, can be directly traced back to the app’s introduction of Reels. Social media marketing platform Later analyzed 81 million Instagram posts — excluding Reels and IGTV content — between January 2019 and February 2022 and found that in 2019, the average engagement rate for in-feed posts was about 5.6 percent. But by the end of 2021, that rate decreased to an average of about 2.9 percent. Traditional video feed posts saw the greatest decline, while carousel posts, otherwise known as photo dumps, consistently performed the best in terms of engagement for in-feed posts. Read the full Story >>
Ronen Goldman is a conceptual photographer based in Tel Aviv, Israel, whose work, from personal projects to commercial assignments, embody a level of surrealism. A perfect showcase of this is his recent work for FreezeM. The lab, located on Kibbutz Nahshonim, has climate-controlled facilities for growing and monitoring larvae in efforts to create and distribute sustainable animal feed: insects--specifically, the Black Soldier Fly (BSF). … Read the full Story >>
