American model Emily Ratajkowski announced a few days ago that she would sell her NFTs in order to regain control of her digital image and identity, which in the world of fashion and film is often exploited by anyone with no profit going to actors and models.Â
In a step toward my ongoing effort to reclaim and control my image, I’m thrilled to announce my first conceptual artwork to ever come to market, an NFT entitled Buying Myself Back: A Model for Redistribution.
— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) April 23, 2021
As she wrote in a thread on her Twitter profile, the NFT will be entitled “Buying Myself Back: A Model for Redistribution”.
According to Emily, women should be able to control their own image as they see fit, whereas the internet often exploits them without them having any control or gaining from it. With NFTs Emily wants to be in control again, being paid whenever someone wants to use her photographs.
“The digital terrain should be a place where women can share their likeness as they choose, controlling the usage of their image and receiving whatever potential capital attached”, Ratajkowski explained on Twitter.
Thus, on May 14th, her non-fungible tokens will go up for auction thanks to a partnership with the art house Christie’s, now also famous for having sold the most expensive NFT in history, namely that of the American artist Beeple for over 69 million dollars for the work “Everydays: The First 5000 Days”.
Emily and non-fungible tokens
Back in 2020, the model expressed her view of the industry in New York Magazine in an article entitled “Buying Myself Back”, in which she denounced the fact that her image was not really her own and that in the past she had even been taken to court for having published a photograph of herself on Instagram, taken by a paparazzi who had not given her permission to do so.
