What can be seen as the NFT craze seeping into the mainstream gradually, a man sells his selfies as digital art for $ 1 million.
This 22-year-old man reportedly from Indonesia took selfies for years and listed them as collectibles on the largest NFT marketplace Opensea. As he listed them, the price picked up the pace and fetched him approximately $1 million.
Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, who is a computer science student from the Semarang city of Central Java, Indonesia converted his NFTs after taking photos of himself for nearly five years between the ages of 18 and 22. Let us understand, his motivation behind these pictures, the current status of his NFTs, and what it means for the NFT space.
Selfies For $1 Million: Behind The Scenes
In an interview with AFP, Ghozali mentioned that he took these selfies for nearly five years during his college days, in order to make it a way to look back at his graduation.
What started out as a hobby for the Indonesian, turned out to be news that made headlines around the world, and made him a sensation. So much so, that many of his fans, and NFT enthusiasts started getting his photos printed on their hoodies and flexing them on Twitter.
Furthermore, there have been songs made about the NFT headline-maker and his NFTs by artist Jonathan Mann, who has been making a song each day for the last 13 years and selling them as NFTs, a route quite similar to Ghozali’s. It is quite apparent, that Ghozali never intended to make millions out of candid, daily life selfies. Many assume that it was initially a joke, that made him fortunes.
Ghozali Everyday: What’s in The NFT?
Gustaf Al Ghozali listed his NFTs under the name “Ghozali Everyday” on Opensea in December and made a subtle announcement using his Twitter handle.
The tweet that went up on 11th January this year, simply read “Uploading my photo into nft lol” along with a link to the collection and a screenshot of the listing. The NFT collection simply includes a picture of the Indonesian, in front of his computer for nearly five years. The pictures seem to be from his somewhat normal-seeming schedule.
For instance, one of Ghozali’s pictures has him taking a selfie in a tie, mentioning “This photo was taken while trying to get a job after graduating from school 2018” on Twitter.
Ghozali was quoted as “I was thinking it might be funny if one of the collectors collected my face,” further continuing “I never thought anybody would want to buy the selfies, which is why I only priced them at $3.” in an interview.
How Did The Selfies Perform?
After listing his selfies as NFTs on the platform, Ghozali was startled with the response it got. Taking to Twitter, he mentioned his collection’s one-day sale.
“Can’t believe people actually bought my photo #NFT 35 already sold in one day”, Ghozali tweeted through his Twitter handle. He listed his selfies at a price of $3 in the beginning. However, as the selfies gained momentum, he ended up fetching up to 0.9 ETH, nearly $2,500 (at the time of publishing this article).
Ghozali became a millionaire, merely five days after listing his selfies on the NFT marketplace, Opensea. Seeing the momentum rising, and a variety of anonymous buyers, he took to Twitter again and tweeted, “You can do anything like flipping or whatever but please don’t abuse my photos or my parents will very disappointed in me. I believe in you guys so please take care of my photos.”
In the same month, celebrity chef Arnold Poernomo stumbled upon his NFT collection, and bought some of the images from the collection, further promoting them on his social media.
As per OpenSea, the last sale on one of ‘Ghozali Ghozalu’ images has taken place around 17 days ago for 1 ETH, or $2,565 (at the time of publishing this article) to a number of different sellers.
What’s Next For Ghozali?
In another tweet, Ghozali clearly mentioned that his intention was to use these images for a trip down memory lane during his college days. He wanted to create a timelapse video out of the images taken.
The young artist, being a responsible citizen, also made his first tax payment on the profits generated from his NFT proceeds. As of 18th January 2022, more than 400 people have purchased the NFTs featuring Ghozali. However, according to Ghozali, he intends to use this money and invest it into completing his daily life selfie project until he graduates college.
Although, he has mentioned in an interview, that he is yet to tell his parents about the money, “who would be wondering where I got the money from.”
Conclusion: Where’s NFT Headed?
While the cryptocurrency space hasn’t had quite a start in the year 2022, the enthusiasts are confident about an optimistic year ahead. As prices of cryptocurrencies slide further, with Bitcoin reaching $37,700 (at the time of publishing), the NFT space doesn’t seem too affected.
According to DappRada, the money generated by NFT trading went up from $10.7 billion in Q3 2021 to $11.9 billion in the first 10 days of 2022.
It seems quite probable, that Ghozali was influenced by Beeple, and his art Everydays: The First 5,000 Days, which involved the digital artist making a piece of art for 5,000 days and listing it for sale, fetching $69 million. As the craze around NFTs rises, and more such headline-making transactions take place, there are a few questions about the intrinsic value and utility of these collectibles.
What’s to be seen is, how well the markets and bigger stakeholders from the society are able to make NFTs more purposeful, if they can. Although, these instances only tend to prove the democratization of the art that NFT has brought in and the craze behind the entire technology.
