Blockchain and Smart Contracts in Photography

Blockchain is the technology that gave birth to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies; it is also a technology that will revolutionize a number of industries, including photography. Blockchain coupled with smart contracts is poised to bring a set of tools to photographers that will guarantee ownership, uniqueness, and complete license control - in perpetuity.

Join us to learn about and explore what blockchain and smart contracts are.

Meet Maria Kessler

Maria Kessler is a veteran of stock photography houses such as FPG, Dynamic Graphics, and Jupiterimages. Maria also helped launch ImageRights International, an image recognition software service that finds unauthorized image uses and secures retro-active image licenses. Her image experience includes managing key photographers, overseeing global shoots/productions, collection acquisitions, distribution partners, strategic sales agreements, and managing rights issues. Maria also held a variety of positions, in addition to president, of the image industry’s trade organization, Digital Media Licensing Association (DMLA). Her career has focused on various aspects of licensing and rights.



Edward Klaris is the Managing Partner of Klaris Law PLLC, a media and intellectual property law firm, and he is C.E.O. of KlarisIP LLC, a consulting and managed services firm specializing in intellectual property rights & royalty management, digital asset management and master data management. Ed has been an adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School since 2005 where he teaches media and intellectual property law. He is Senior Advisor to Desilva & Phillips, a premiere media investment bank. Ed serves on the Communications Committee of Human Rights Watch and is a member of the Communications Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

For more than eight years, Ed was Senior Vice President of Intellectual Property Assets & Rights at Condé Nast, where he led a group of about 50 people managing and monetizing all of the company’s media assets worldwide. Ed was General Counsel of The New Yorker for more than six years; he was Media Counsel at ABC, Inc.; and he started his career defending media and entertainment companies against libel, privacy, newsgathering, copyright, and other claims in courts around the country. Ed was the Chair of the Communications Law Committee of the NY State Bar, and was Chairman of the Board of Pilobolus Dance Theater for thirteen years.