JureKralj
Jure captures moments and emotions with his photographs in his artistic way. That’s what stands out and that’s why I’m glad he’s here for these interview.
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Tell us something about yourself. What do you do outside of art and how did you get into art?
I am just an ordinary and unemployed man with a camera from Slovenia. I am in my thirties.
My passion was always sports (I was a professional handball player) but somehow injuries stopped me from being who I really want to be. My school times passed so quickly and I did not finish the university degree. Sincerely I miss school now when I am older. But I always admire art, photography, paintings and all of that.
Then one day I decided that I should try some of it. As a kid I always loved to draw cartoon characters and strips. I was not so good at it so I rather try photography.
I have loved taking pictures since 2014 when I bought my iPod touch when I travel to Spain. I was with one of my friends who did not have nice photos. She always complained that I didn’t know where to put her in the frame and it was so annoying at the time. But when I came home they were pretty good pics!!
I started to like putting things in frame and bracketing. Later I started putting filters on everything.
It’s always funny when I remember this story of my start because something that annoying can be your most beautiful thing in the future.
Later I was the main photo editor for automotive magazine: EVO and I have done lots of shootings privately and corporate.
I have more than 15 exhibitions locally and across Europe. My physical works have been sent to 10 different countries across the world.
Now I am pursuing my career in web3.
I LOVE to travel and I LOVE animals! I was also a 5 year Greenpeace volunteer and 5 years volunteer of animal society and their rights.
I just want to enjoy the only life I got.
How did you find your way to the NFT space and when did you join?
I found the way to the NFTs by myself actually. I started my investing journey in late February 21’ and there were always some commercials about NFTs. I did not know what that was. The more I searched the more confused I was. So I started to be curious and I created my Foundation account and OpenSea profile. When I started to mint my first pieces I saw that you need to pay for everything and at the time I had no $ available to spend. So I forget about that.
The more I explore the more I think photography is not good for NFTs because everything was animated and flashed videos.
One or two months passed by and I saw that photography is on FIRE as NFTs.
That time I decided to try my luck! I hit the barrier. FOUNDATION invite! This was a frustrating time and some random day one friend appeared and sent me that invitation which makes my journey possible! All the rest is history.
What is your motto in life?
Don’t dreams just be dreams.
How would you describe your art in maximum 5 sentences?
Probably I will describe my art as very different, unique and kind of dark (but it’s not dark).
I love to experiment and do a lot of abstractions and that’s how I wish to tell people my stories, feelings,..
I am that person who seek beauty and love in all categories of my work not just one.
What tools do you work with?
I own Nikon D850, Nikon D7100 (two bodies) and have some lenses: Sigma 50mm Art, Sigma 24–70mm Art, Tamron 70–200, GoPro, DJI Mavic, DJI Pocket.
What inspires you in your art?
My art is inspired by many, many factors. I love documentaries with unknown phenomena which affect my art a lot. I love to listen to people’s stories and sometimes you find yourself in the middle of it like they are reading your art.
Obviously I see other people’s art and I get inspired by the type of photography or by topic. You can see inspiration in any way you look.
How much time do you invest in your art per week?
I think it’s 90/10. 90% of the time trying to promote myself and making sales and connections / 10 % working on my photos.
But I made a choice that I will spend more time working than being my own marketer.
How important is marketing?
Most important thing is marketing. How you will present yourself in the community and world.
Artists with good strategies are selling like crazy and we smaller artists need to follow or try to create something different to be more unique. I personally love to spoil collectors and people who I love. So that’s why I make my own chocolates and send them as gifts.
I love to do my brand a lot but sometimes it’s quite expensive and then all is related to the sales you made.
How much time do you invest per week in sales, e.g. on Twitter?
I think I’m spending a lot of time online promoting me and my art.
I spend like 4–5h on average a day for sure! But you need to be present otherwise the trend is going away from you.
How do you go about marketing your art? Are there any tips or tricks?
I love to connect with people but not just for sales I just love exploring the world, joining Discord servers and group chats on Twitter.
Your best collectors will be your friends so it’s very important to make them. I’m also shilling from time to time to collectors who I know are real, not some bots farming followers.
Maybe there are shortcuts to success but I don’t do them because you can get scammed or somehow outcast by real people who believe that you are an authentic and genuine person.
I think the best trick is to be you. People will love that!
What marketplaces are you in and why those?
t the moment I am present in several platforms on the web3.
Majority of my mints I have on OpenSea platform and I have some on the Foundation platform. This is all I have on Ethereum blockchain.
Then I have some on Paras.hq. This is a Near protocol blockchain, and I have one mint for now on the Solana platform Exchangeart.
Best option for me is the Ethereum blockchain because it’s the most used. I once was scammed through Solana because someone sent me fake solana and my 2 NFTs were gone.
Do you remember your first sale? Tell us about it.
I probably will never forget about my first sale dance and showering tears hehe.
It was Late May 21 where I put my first photo on sale at Foundation platform. I paid like 120–150$ for minting and listing on this one. I was broke instantly and prayed that this money would not be wasted.
I put my first price for my first mint 0.3ETH. About 3 hours later I got the famous email that someone made a bid. I started shouting and screaming and dancing around the kitchen. I was all over the world.
Then 1 hour to go one more bidder came and raised the bar to 0.35 ETH. It was incredible!
Are you a collector yourself?
Actually I collected some pieces from other artists!
Yesterday I purchased 2 pieces from other photographers and It felt so good that you made dreams come true to someone else.
They were so happy and humble! True and sincere feelings and I love it!
What were your 3 biggest challenges?
Biggest challenges are daily appearances. At the start of the journey the biggest challenge is that people see you. To become visible in space. When I started it was much easier than a year later because it had become very crowded.
Then is the huge and probably biggest challenge to promote yourself and someone push the button of buying your art!
Third, I think it is to make a good community of people who will follow your path, be supportive of your work and cheer with you with every good news you will post.
What were the 3 best experiences?
My best experiences are that I made a lot of new really good friends! We are in touch every day and love it — like a family!
I get constantly criticized about my “hobby” and I just love what I do and this community gives me so much appreciation of me as a person and even more of me as an artist.
This was the most beautiful experience of my life — to join Twitter!
Where do you see yourself in 1 year?
Probably to be one of the successful artists in this space hehe. I hope I will still be present here in this space because currently I am unemployed and I have time to be online for such long hours.
My dream is to be a noticeable photographer even in small circle of people.
How do you see the development in the NFT space since you joined? What was positive, what was negative?
I saw a lot of changes.
I saw so many great artists leave this space after succeeding.
Some huge collectors disappeared from this space and I am sorry to say that. Last time I saw a lot of scam, a lot of bad and negative people joining this space and it’s really sad.
But I met so many beautiful people here and made really nice friendships. We artists start to form groups and channels where we help each other every day and I see that as a very nice thing.
Thank you very much for the interview Jure.
