One of the most enduring and engaging photos of Joe Biden’s inauguration doesn’t feature the president at all. An image of independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has caused quite a stir on the internet and spawned thousands of photoshopped memes on social media.
In the photo, Sanders is donning oversized mittens and a practical brown coat, sitting socially aloof on a folding chair with legs and arms crossed. It’s this photo of the former Democratic presidential candidate that has been transposed through time and place, depicted in historical moments, movie scenes, famous paintings, and more.
Brendan Smialowski, a Washington-based photojournalist who handles politics for the telecom service Agence France-Presse, shot Sanders’s photo.
“That photo really isn’t that great,” Smialowski told CNBC. “It’s not the most beautiful composition in the world.”
He had watched prominent guests at Thursday’s inauguration ceremony, most notably Republican sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley who have been criticized for attempting to reverse the presidential election results.
“I saw Senator Sanders out of my other eye, sort of fiddling with his gloves. It was just a nice moment when he crossed his legs and crossed his arms,” said Smialowski. “I threw the camera at him.”
The rest is history. The photo quickly found its way across the internet coupled with amusing captions, then cut and pasted in several iterations.
Ashley Smalls, a Ph.D. student at Penn State, shared the photo on Twitter, writing, “This could have been an email.” Her tweet has garnered over 1.1 million likes and 139,700 retweets as of Saturday morning.
“When I saw the photo of Bernie, he just reminded me of myself in the back of a meeting, waiting for it to be over,” Smalls told CNBC. “Most of the responses were people saying ‘this is me’ or ‘mood,’ and I’m glad we’re all connected.”
Smialowski didn’t immediately notice the buzz around his photo, he said, but he got a few emails from his bosses saying people were having fun with the image. Later, when his email and social media notifications blew up, he knew his photo was going viral.
“I don’t think a photojournalist would like their work to turn into a meme,” said Smialowski. “But it’s nice to see that people are creative with something.”
The photojournalist said he enjoyed seeing versions of the meme that Sanders put in paintings, especially when it turns out that the creator has put some extra effort into Photoshop to integrate the senator into the art.
During an interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Thursday, Sanders said he had no idea that the photo of him had turned into an Internet sensation.
“I just sat there to keep warm and pay attention to what was going on,” he told Meyers.
Sanders credited Jen Ellis, a Vermont teacher, for making the mittens he wore. According to Ellis, the mittens are made from recycled wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles.
The Senator’s campaign store has released a sweatshirt with the meme, with 100% of the proceeds going to Meals on Wheels Vermont. The crewneck is now sold out.
When asked why he thinks Sanders’s photo resonated so strongly with people, Smialowski said, “Senator Sanders has a very well-defined brand and image. He is who he is and he feels good about that and it makes a big difference. part of his politics. “
“It was a nice slice of life,” said Smialowski. “It’s just Bernie who is Bernie.”