It all started with a gallery of NYE photos published by the Manchester Evening News.

Public displays of affection, vomiting, fighting, arrests… the gallery had it all. But one photo by Joel Goodman stood out from the rest.

 

 

It’s been dubbed, ‘Creation of Manchester‘, a nod to Michelangelo’s famous painting, Creation of Adam, in the Sistine Chapel.
 
The photo caught the attention of BBC News producer, Roland Hughes, who was captivated by the image and tweeted out the following:

 

 

From there the good citizens of the Internet did their thing. Remixing and reinterpreting the original image, injecting their take on the viral photo.
 
First came the paintings

 

 

 

 

 

Then came the nods to the classics

 

 

 

 

The stage was set for memes and ‘shops

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, the art critique (hover over image for annotations)

 

 

I love you Internet. Don’t ever change