This Photo of Someone Smiling in Front of a Burning House... Sold for 600 Million Won

This photo was taken 16 years ago at a residential fire scene in North Carolina, USA, capturing a subtle smile of a young girl.
[Photo by NYT]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A photograph featuring NFT (NonFungible Token) technology was sold at an online auction for about 600 million KRW. The photo captures a young girl with a subtle smile at the scene of a fire.

According to major foreign media on the 29th (local time), the NFT of this photo, taken 16 years ago at a residential fire scene in North Carolina, USA, was recently sold at an online auction for 180 Ether (the unit of the cryptocurrency Ethereum).

On that day, 1 Ether was approximately 3.25 million KRW based on the Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone's rate, making 180 Ether about 580 million KRW.

NFTs assign unique identification values to digital content using blockchain technology, similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and have recently emerged as a popular investment target.

Joy and his father.
Photo by NYT

The little protagonist in the photo is Joie, who was 4 years old at the time. On a Saturday morning in 2005 in North Carolina, USA, she went outside with her family to visit the fire scene.

The fire was intentionally set by firefighters, and since the ignition was controlled within a designated area, there was no risk of the fire spreading. Neighbors gathered to watch the scene, and firefighters even handed hoses to the children.

Joie's father, an amateur photographer at the time, asked Joie, who was watching the fire scene, to smile, and the photo taken then is the one known as "Disaster girl."

This photo became publicly known after winning an award at a photo contest in 2007.

Joie's childhood photo with a subtle smile at the fire scene later became an internet meme in the United States and was used humorously by being edited into various disaster scenes.

Joie told the NYT, "I enjoyed seeing how creatively people used my photo," and "I laughed a few times myself watching my photo being edited into various incidents."

Currently a senior at the University of North Carolina, Joie is studying peace, war, and defense. She stated that she will use the money earned from this auction to pay off her student loans and donate to charity.