# Winter's Grasp #002 by Nathan Bauman

**Published by:** [jonnyk](https://paragraph.com/@swapdifferent/)
**Published on:** 2022-07-21
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@swapdifferent/winter-s-grasp-002-by-nathan-bauman

## Content

Prelude: On December 3rd, 2020 I turned 27 years old. On December 3rd, 2020 I was quarantined in my childhood home sick with that c-word flu thing. My whole family had it actually. Father gave it to us. Silly guy. Who would’ve ever known that driving home from Thanksgiving, my whole family was in a car infested with it. Thankfully no one was seriously impacted and we all recovered. During this time locked inside with nothing to do, me, my mother, and my sister ended up binge watching the television series Shameless. Season one of Shameless was incredible and I’d like to share some thoughts:If I ever had a girlfriend, please make her an exact clone of Karen Jackson. I liked everything about her. EVERYTHING.Eddie Jackson was the most significant character of the first season. There’s no explanation here, just a visceral feeling I had.The scene in which Eddie Jackson takes his daughter Karen to the Purity Ball and ends up exploding on her with a vitriolic diatribe that left the viewer writhing in discomfort was profound. Shakespearian I think.Write Up: I grew up 40 minutes away from Manhattan. For the past five and half years, I’ve lived in Manhattan. To me, New York is home. Being a ‘New Yorker’ will forever be imbued into my identity. When I saw this shot captured by Nathan I collected it because it distills the essence and feeling of New York in a single photograph. Let’s explore:Winter’s Grasp #002 by Nathan BaumanTo be fair, New York doesn’t always look like this. This is New York captured perfectly in the thick of the doldrums of winter. I love the rugged darkness. I don’t really notice the person in the middle of the frame. My attention is drawn beyond them. Onto the hot dog stand (quintessential New York), the snow on the curb, the dark facade of the building, the dimly lit cars, the construction apparatus, and the moody sky. This is New York as I imagine it in my dreams. Extremely cold, but balanced out by the elicitation of feelings of optimism and potential. Per Nathan’s description, this photo was captured in December of 2020. For me personally, I see December 2020 as somewhat of an inflection point. Upon recovering from that sickness alluded to in the prelude, I returned to my apartment the week of December 28th, 2020. It was at this point it dawned on me that I really needed to ‘do something.’ For the past four years I worked a job that I disliked doing. It was apparent to me that at some point, I was going to have to quit. 2020 was the year I realized that there was hope to do something else. During the period of March 2020 - November 2020, I tried many things, but failed so come December I was at a an impasse with regards to what to do next. I scrolled through Tik Tok that week hoping to find some type of inspiration and I came across a video of a user describing the incoming ‘crytpo bullrun.’ And so it began. In January of 2021 I liquidated a substantial portion of my life savings and dumped it into a crypto asset called ETH. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. This was the most money I have ever liquidated and transferred into something in my life. It was weird, but it was also exhilarating. I had experienced the crypto bull-run in 2017 (I owned Litecoin and watched it go up and then watched it come all the way back down) so I was confident this bull-run had some legitimacy. I wanted to put my money into what I saw as the least risky asset in a sea of risky assets so ETH it was. I accepted that my returns would be significantly less than if I had yolo’d into some shitcoin. In return for this I received the ability to sleep at night confident my entire portfolio would not go to $0 and the potential promise that I was in line for a significant monetary gain. So that was it. My plan was simple. Dump my money into ETH, wait it out 8-12 months and cash out with enough money to quit my job and pursue something I enjoyed. It is now December 28th, 2021 and I am confident my plan did not turn out exactly how I had intended. I say this for two reasons. The first of which is that today the price of ETH is hovering around $3,800. A lovely return from where I originally got into yes, but currently not the kind of return I can live off of for at least two years. The second reason is that along the way I discovered this thing called an NFT. My foray into NFTs began in the summer with PFP projects. To put it succinctly, up until September 30th, 2021 it was glorious. From October 2021 on (at least for PFP projects) it was for me, disastrous. In mid November 2021 I purchased my first photography NFT on Foundation. In the first week of December 2021 I purchased even more photography NFTs. And then more. And then more. And so here we are today. I’ll save the sappy shit as I expressed that in an earlier write-up, but buying from and supporting artists produces a feeling that is unequaled by any other type of purchase in this space. It is an honor to be able to support such talented people and I plan to continue to do so as we head into 2022. So…..this was supposed to be a write up centered around New York right!? Okay yes, New York. On March 31st, 2022 my current lease will expire. For the first time in my life, I am seriously considering leaving New York. I’ve been here my whole life. I’ve only ever known New York. I feel like change may be good, but I don’t know. The grass is always greener on the other side until you experience the other side and then it isn’t. The plan that I hatched in January of 2021 was to move to Miami Beach in April of 2022 to focus on becoming a photographer full-time. I may still do this, but I don’t know. Staring at this photo captured by Nathan reminds me of how difficult a decision this will be. If I leave, I will miss the glorious cold hopeful darkness that New York provides. I’ve read many times that you cannot truly grow unless you leave your home town. This is probably true for some, but not all. I guess only time will tell. Postlude: I seem to have stumbled upon some type of photography friend group in the midst of my collecting. I previously collected from Kendall Garrett who happens to be friends with Nathan. Both of them are also friends with Briscoe. Briscoe is a great guy and has a very unique and dark style of photography. I’m hoping to add a Briscoe into my collection at some point in 2022. Pretty cool how tight-knit the NFT Photography community is. Nathan Bauman is a talented photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio. You can find Nathan on Twitter Here Nathan’s work can be found on Foundation and OpenSea While you’re here, I host a Twitter Space every Sunday at 2 PM EST with Guido Disalle and Max. If you’re interested in Photography, come join us! We typically feature a handful of speakers and open the floor to the audience to come up and ask questions.

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