The value of a self portrait

 Thinking about the value of a self portrait (now selfie) throughout history, it’s interesting to see how the act of marketing oneself has become so mainstream. Not only has it become mainstream through advances in technology and the presence of social media but it has the power to create great wealth for the user. As Virginia Oldoini first showed us how to use ones visual/tangible self-image to, “enhance social status and political activities” (pg.69) through the distribution of calling cards, she is to be remembered as a catalyst of self marketing through visual media. One correlation to modern day self promotion I find most interesting is something I just recently learned about and believe will be a huge part of the art world in the near future. This being NFT’s or Non-fungible tokens. In a nut shell an NFT is a digital asset, primarily art in digital form that is to be exchanged on the internet through cryptocurrency. For instance, Elon Musk has sold an image of himself as well as even a screenshot of a tweet of his for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency on the platform. This practice is in fact a meme come true. Personally, seeing someone sell such a thing , labeled as art just because of their social status is a little annoying although it’s completely understandable. What it shows and how it really pertains to this reading is that the snowball that Oldoni created is only going to get bigger as self images become more monetized and widely shared.