This NYE Photo Is A Work Of Art, Literally

It didn't take long for 2016 to feature one of its first viral stories. A New Year's Eve photo in Manchester, U.K. has blown up online since the beginning of the new year, although perhaps not for the reason you'd think — namely, for depicting a bunch of drunk people being drunk. Of course, being a photo of New Year's Eve, it does have its share of drunken revelers: One guy is reclining in the middle of the road (yet miraculously holding on to his upright beer), while police swarm another who flopped down near the sidewalk.

Taken by freelance photographer Joel Goodman, it sounds like your quintessential New Year's Eve photo, but that's not what caught the fickle attention of the Internet. BBC producer Roland Hughes noticed the photo when it was originally published in the Manchester Evening News with the caption, "Police hold on to a man while another lies in the road." Impressed with its composition, Hughes tweeted the photo, comparing it to a "beautiful Renaissance painting."

Other Twitter users apparently agreed, and soon, the photo was being analyzed within an inch of its life. More than 26,000 retweets later, the Internet has noted that it fits the Golden Ratio, makes for a great watercolor, and wouldn't be out of place in a museum.

Users quickly zeroed in on the best part of the painting by far: The man laying down in the middle of the street.

Someone clearly has his priorities straight. Let's all aspire to his level of cool in 2016. (And major props to Goodman for taking such a well-composed photo on the fly.)

Image: Giphy