SUPER RARE
“I had no money in my bank account. Not a single dollar. I knew I needed to get onto NFT platforms. I just had no money and no way to do that.”
Tyler’s Journey is an exceedingly talented street photographer from Toronto, Canada, with a unique entry to NFTs and the web3 space.
“NFTs are the future and are a great opportunity for artists to retain ownership of their work that we never really had before. It is the future of collecting.”
His father was a film photographer and videographer in the 1980s and 1990s, sparking Tyler’s interest in art. After leaving high school, he joined film school for two years. But, he never pursued it in earnest as a career. Instead, he became a landscaper.
Sadly, his father passed away some years ago, shaking Tyler to his core. “I woke up unsure of what I was doing with my life. I packed up my life, and the next day I moved to Toronto to live on my cousin’s sofa in Toronto.”
He survived a few difficult years but clutched his camera and pressed on with his dream of becoming a professional photographer in Toronto. That was only to happen in 2021…
Tyler hustled to join web3 and the NFT space as only he knew how. He discovered a mobile app that he played. After weeks, he earned $600 in Bitcoin and Ethereum, which he immediately used to mint photos on OpenSea.
He joined Twitter in 2021 with zero followers. He describes himself as a “web2 photographer” because he relied on Instagram and its community. Starting at scratch on Twitter and in the NFT Twitter spaces, he went to work to grind a following and engagement on the social platform. He spent up to 20 hours a day building his community, connecting with people, and sharing his art.
Within a month, his following jumped to 12,000. “It was a proper grind. It was a lot of hard work. And I haven’t stopped.”
Everyone knows that artists make bank on Foundation and SuperRare. He had no invites to either platform. One of his connections on Twitter, Teexels, embraced Tyler and his art and offered him a Foundation invite within 24 hours of their meeting online. “We became best friends – and we speak every day.”
Tyler took a break from the grind for two weeks. His break was interrupted: he received an invitation to join SuperRare – directly from the platform’s curators. “I’m very lucky and very blessed because I know how hard so many artists want to get onto SuperRare.”
