A photograph depicting New Year’s Eve celebrations gone awry in central Manchester has been compared to a Renaissance masterpiece

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A photograph of a Manchester street strewn with revellers is being lauded online for artfully capturing a uniquely British New Year’s Eve celebration.

The striking image, shot by freelance news photographer Joel Goodman, first appeared in a picture gallery on the Manchester Evening News website, and was brought to Twitter’s attention by BBC producer Roland Hughes.

Roland Hughes (@hughesroland) So much going on this pic of New Year in Manchester by the Evening News. Like a beautiful painting. pic.twitter.com/szKKRM4U4i

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The image, likened in its composition to a Renaissance masterpiece, depicts police wrestling a man in the foreground, crowds watching near a Greggs bakery in the back, and a gentleman in blue, reclining on the bitumen, reaching for a nearby beer.

Hughes’ post was retweeted more 25,000 times, his suggestion the photo looked “like a beautiful painting” inspiring some on Twitter to turn it into one.

Ben Darlow (@kapowaz) @hughesroland @ajlanghorn I had a go at turning it into a watercolour with Waterlogue pic.twitter.com/MmbiZ0SsD3

Its aesthetic appeal was no surprise, one Twitter user pointed out: the photograph hewed to the Fibonacci Spiral used by greats such as Leonardo Da Vinci to achieve balance and mirror the beauty of nature.

Roland Hughes (@hughesroland) Thanks to @GroenMNG for proving the golden ratio can be applied to this pic: pic.twitter.com/Fa1EYSV6ih

Others took the prone man as their muse, riffing on his outstretched form and sage expression, which they compared to God himself in Michelangelo’s 1511 masterpiece, the Creation of Adam.



Another placed him at the banks of the river Seine in George Seurat’s 1884 work, Bathers at Asieneres.

Roland Hughes (@hughesroland) And there's more - good work @johnbeck_ pic.twitter.com/N6me1jnn2E

Others saw in his hopeful reach as a shining symbol of liberty.

Quoted by the Manchester Evening News, Goodman he said the appeal of the image might lie in its unusual subject matter.

“There are plenty of photographs published that show people having a great time. It’s much safer and easier photographing happy, willing people posing than photographing angry, drunk people candid.

“That’s not a criticism of the former, but it’s one reason why the latter might stand out.”

He said he was “flattered” that his photograph had been compared to Renaissance art, but said he was merely “in the right place at the right time”.

Or as American photographic pioneer Ansel Adams put it: “Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.”

• This article was amended on 4 January 2016 to correct the spelling of Ansel Adams’s first name.