In honor of Kobe Bryant, who was installed in honor of the late NBA star after his death in 2020, the NFT cryptograph platform announced today that it will auction previously unseen photos of Bryant as NFT today.
Photographer Davis Factor took these images early in Bryant’s career in 1999. In a video interview shared by Cryptograph, Factor said the photo shoot took place at a meatpacking factory in downtown Los Angeles and needed a generator to power the light because there was no electricity in the building.
The black-and-white photos offer a glimpse of the NBA legend from his debut in 2000 to the greatest achievement of his career, including five NBA championship wins with the Los Angeles Lakers. Cryptograph will release eight photographs in a single print as NFT collections.
It’s part of Kobe Bryant’s NFT collection. Photo Credit: The Davis Factor
All proceeds from the auctions will go to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, founded by Bryant’s widow Vanessa, for the benefit of young athletes and underserved communities. The organization is not involved in the NFT project, but Tommy Alastra, founder of cryptographaf, said in a statement to decrypt that ” the company is in contact with the organization to ensure that all sales proceeds are transferred to a secure location.
Cryptograph sees itself as a philanthropic-oriented platform for selling NFT created on the ethereum blockchain. Earlier this month, the platform released NFS, based on the latest photo shoot of Chris Cornell, best known as a Soundgarden singer, taken by photographer Randall Slavin.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale went to Phoenix House, a nonprofit dedicated to drug rehabilitation programs, and the sale was carried out with the blessing of Cornell’s widow, Vicki. As with the photo shoot at Cornell, any future sale of Bryant’S NF on the secondary market would give Mamba the opportunity to buy it.;
