Atatürk’s photograph in NFT format, which received a registration certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, went down in history as the first NFT in the world to be registered as a work of art by a state.
Atatürk’s signed photograph, which he presented to journalist Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın two months after the Battle of Çanakkale, has been converted into NFT. Seventy years ago, the negative copy produced for printing in the newspapers in Afyonkarahisar was combined with the positive photo and turned into an NFT.
Atatürk Photo Kept in a Special Box for 14 Years
İbrahim Küçükkurt, who published the photograph signed by Atatürk in the Kocatepe Newspaper, of which he is the founder, gave his negative Atatürk signed photograph, which he kept with great care, to Onur Bayram, who was a reporter in Afyonkarahisar at that time, in 2007. Bayram, who has kept the negative photo for 14 years in a custom-made box that will not wear out so that the negative photo will not be damaged by the effects of light, moisture and time, has created the digital photo by transferring the negative photo to the computer during the pandemic process and bringing it side by side with the positive photo. Bayram, who converted the digital photo he created into NFT, said:
“NFT artworks have become popular during the pandemic period. In the simplest terms, NFT can be explained as digital title deeds of works of art. I converted this historical photograph in my hand into NFT with the name ‘Photo1918’”
Stating that Photo1918 is the first NFT in the world to be registered as a work of art by a state, Bayram said, “Hundreds of thousands of photos, videos and similar digital images are converted into NFT every day. However, the NFT Atatürk photograph had to be different from millions of other NFTs. For this reason, I applied for registration to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Copyright last year, and received the ‘Registration Certificate for Fine Art Works’. Thus, the Atatürk photograph NFT became the first work of the world to be certified as a work of art.”
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