Verified provenance
Every Limited Edition print from Lost Collective ships with a C2PA verified manifest. The manifest is the digital companion to the hand-signed Certificate of Authenticity. Together they record what the photograph is, where it came from, and who made it.
What C2PA is
C2PA stands for the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. It is an open technical standard for digital content, developed by a coalition that includes Adobe, the BBC, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Sony, Truepic, and others. The standard lets the recipient of a digital image, video, or audio file verify where the file came from and what has been done to it since.
Most viewers will never need to think about C2PA. It sits underneath the file like a manufacturer's stamp on the back of a chair. When you need it, it is there.
Why Lost Collective ships it
The Lost Collective archive is the work of one photographer, documenting decommissioned buildings, factories, hospitals, hotels, and power stations across Australia and Japan since 2011. Provenance is what makes a limited edition print a limited edition print. The C2PA manifest is the digital part of that provenance. The Certificate of Authenticity is the physical part. They are paired.
The wider context matters. AI-generated images now fill marketplaces, stock libraries, and social feeds. The standard that distinguishes a verified photograph from a synthesised one is C2PA. Lost Collective sits on the verified side.
How to read a manifest
Each limited edition product page has a C2PA verified provenance link in the Authenticity row of the print datasheet. Opening it loads the manifest viewer with the signed assertions for that specific print.
You can also verify any C2PA-signed image with the Content Credentials verify tool at contentcredentials.org/verify. Upload the file or paste the link. The viewer shows the same record without going through Lost Collective.
The pair
A Lost Collective print carries two pieces of provenance.
The Certificate of Authenticity is hand-signed paper. It travels with the print. If you sell or gift the work, it goes with it. Edition size, number, and title are all on it. See the Certificate of Authenticity page.
The C2PA manifest is the digital record. It signs the file the print was rendered from. It does not change when the print changes hands. It is anchored to the original capture.
Either alone is a strong claim of provenance. Both together is the standard Lost Collective ships against.
Certificate of Authenticity · Product information · About Lost Collective · Browse the collections