Welcome to the project page of my genesis NFT collection, ordinary ENCOUNTER.

<Before starting>

As far as I can remember, the strongest feeling I've ever had was the joy of meeting people who are different than me, from their physical traits to their cultural background. This collection aims to bring together 50 portraits of people I've met and/or become friends with while traveling around the world. If you visit my website you might notice that I used to classify my work by places. But as I entered this new space, I decided to enter a new creative logic. After wandering around NFT collections, I noticed so many ways of organizing content. It opened my eyes on my own work and I decided to gather the essence of why I photograph and travel: ENCOUNTERS.

<The context and vision of the project>

I traveled by my self from 2017 to 2020. I visited many countries, moved with many types of vehicles and I met a lot of people. What I remember the most is them, the people with their stories and lives. My trip was what I wanted to make as a photographer, using local transportation being close to the "ordinary" people and go randomly with the flow. I've seen so many incredible images of Masaai, Amazonians tribes and other very "exotic" communities. I love them and cherish them and the work about their lifestyle! But, I would like to make my own contribution to the world of photography by hopefully sharing something that is unique and a little different. I decided that I want to show the people "only a few look at" through the randomness of meeting them while traveling. We don't look at them because they are probably not exciting enough by their pain or not attractive enough by their exotisme, I don't really know. But this is what I want, these humans in between (the extremes). In this collection, you wont see dark images (some are actually) neither enlightening portraits (some are too). You will just see people stopping a moment for my camera. Alongside the portraitures, as I give great importance to the stories, you will have the opportunity to own a part of the event behind the shot or the person's life itself. If you are curious about others and their lives do not hesitate to check on these people. Their ordinary lives are, in my opinion, worth being noticed.

<How will the NFT mint work technically?>

A maximum of 50 ordinary encounters will be minted. The collection will be available on Foundation.app/@sai-pe . All the images will be minted with a reserve price of 0.2 ETH. At start, I will mint only the first image, «  ordinary ENCOUNTER #1 ». Once an image gets sold, two new images will be minted. The aim of this page is to provide you with the 50 images in advance that will be minted. But, to give you the same pleasure of randomness I had while traveling, the order of the mint and the stories will be kept secret until minting.

<What happens after it's sold out?>

If this genesis collection is limited to 50, the global project of ORDINARY ENCOUNTER is as humankind: infinite. In other words, I wish to dedicate my entire life to this project (and I mean it). I wish to wander the world to meet people and share their lives again and again. Because I still have a lot of images of my three year trip, I already work on the second collection which will be named « ORDINARY encounter », it will display daily life scenes I witnessed around the world. Many of them will show the people present in « ordinary ENCOUNTER », some others will be some kind of street photography.

<What happens with the money?>

I'm still in contact with most of the people you see (thanks to technology). As you will notice many of them are quite poor and live in harsh conditions. I will try to see if there is anything they need for their community. Knowing from them what could be built or improved, I would try to fund some of their projects. I'm saving a minimum of 20% of everything I earn in a second wallet. These funds would be allocated to help these people who offered me their identity and intimacy.

I think that's it. Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I hope I can answer all...

Stay kind, stay curious.

Enjoy the trip :)

Leo Deru