When Snoop Dogg buys your family photo: Personal project leads to memorable sale

Wes Eisenhauer is going into the family vaults for his latest project.

Even Snoop Dogg is watching – probably. Maybe. More on that in a minute.

The Sioux Falls artist, musician and photographer launched a website Wednesday that celebrates a two-month road trip across the western United States that his parents took in 1978.

It features 50 photographs taken by his mother and father that Wes found in a box. They were preserved as 35 mm Kodak Kodachrome slides, which provide brilliant color and high-quality digital images.

The project is called “The Last Time We Were Young.” The title reflects the period in Jeff and Deb Eisenhauer’s lives, just before they settled down, had children and embarked upon the new adventure of family.

There are wonderful images from landmarks such as the Grand Canyon, simple moments such as bathing in a stream and iconic American travel.

“I’ve had these photos for a while,” Eisenhauer said. “I was taken aback by how beautiful they were.”

Most of the shots were taken by his mom.

As a professional photographer, Eisenhauer said he’s impressed by the composition and exposure, all done with a basic 35 mm film camera and a tripod.

“It’s a beautiful glimpse into my parent’s life before they had children,” he said.

His mom was a big influence on Eisenhauer’s photography as he expanded from a music career as a co-founder of the Sioux Falls band Soulcrate Music. She always had a camera and took pictures, but this collection is from a different era.

“It’s one of the most impressive things I’ve seen my mom do,” he said. “To her, they were just a box of old slides. To me, it was like, ‘Mom, these are incredible.’ ”

Which is cool and all, but Snoop Dogg?

Eisenhauer is also a businessman. He co-owns Kickturn Studio with his wife, Becca, and Isaac Show. Together, they produce video, music and photography for a variety of clients, including the South Dakota Department of Tourism and NASA.

“The Last Time We Were Young” is also a business venture. The photos are available for purchase as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

NFTs are an emerging platform for artists of all types.

There are apocryphal stories of people selling clip art and signatures for ridiculous amounts of money. But there’s also a practical and growing side of the NFT movement.

Briefly, using blockchain technology, artists make pieces available for purchase. Most transactions are through the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, that pioneered the NFT movement.

All sales are public and recorded in the blockchain. Owners can sell their NFT, just like other forms of art. In this case, the original artist or curator also can get a percentage of subsequent sales.

For instance, Eisenhauer makes 10 percent of any sale after the original. The currency automatically moves to his account with each purchase.

The sale is an auction with a base price in ETH, the Ethereum currency. Each photo in “The Last Time We Were Young” starts at .15 ETH. The value of an ETH in dollars varies from day to day with the market.

Here’s where Snoop Dogg enters the picture.

On Wednesday, a well-known NFT collector by the name of Cozomo de’ Medici purchased one of the photos, a sunset against a double Ferris wheel, somewhere near Interstate 84 in Idaho.

“Cozomo de’ Medici sent me a DM on Twitter saying he thought the meaning behind the project was beautiful,” Eisenhauer said. “Five minutes later, I received a bid on one of the pieces from them.”

After much speculation, in September Snoop tweeted “I am @CozomoMedici.”

So it would appear that Snoop Dogg – world-famous hip-hop artist, cannabis promoter, high school football coach and recent star of the Super Bowl halftime show – purchased a photo that the mother of a Sioux Falls hip-hop artist took in 1978 on a vacation in Idaho.

Still, it’s Snoop Dogg. Who knows?

“It definitely isn’t certain that Snoop is behind the account,” Eisenhauer said. “But it’s cool nonetheless.”