New Year's Eve snap becomes master-tweet

The image, captured by freelance photographer Joel Goodman, was published in a gallery on the <i>Manchester Evening News</i> website but later blew up on Twitter. Photo / Supplied

The New Yew Year's Eve photo that appeared in the Manchester Evening News has been used in memes recreating George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam.

It's a moment that has been shared around the world and now a New Year's Eve reveller has revealed exactly what is going on the amazing photograph.

The image, captured by freelance photographer Joel Goodman, was published in a gallery on the Manchester Evening News website but later blew up on Twitter.

BBC News producer Roland Hughes tweeted the image, describing it "like a beautiful painting", and it has since been shared more than 20,000 times and been dubbed the "Creation of Manchester".

Painting recreating a Manchester Evening news photograph from New Years Eve. Photo / File

"I started getting bombarded by Twitter users pointing out similarities with the paintings of Hogarth, Caravaggio, Gericault and Lowry," he explained in his BBC post.

It has since sparked a host of memes and been viewed by millions.

Hannah Kirby, who is wearing a red dress in the photo, explained to the Manchester Evening News that two of her friends were floored in a scuffle, with one of them snapped appearing to be relaxing on the road while reaching for a beer.

"[On New Year's Day] my dad rang and said I was in one of the photos. I went to look on the website and I couldn't believe it. Hilarious!" she told the Evening News.

"He wasn't casually chilling and reaching for his beer. There was a bit of commotion went on and he was knocked over but managed to save his bottle of beer."

Referring to the other man appearing to be restrained by police officers, she added: "He didn't get arrested, he was fine in the end."

The freelance photographer who took the snap said: "Mostly, a shot like that is just about being in the right place at the right time - I just happened to be in the right spot."

Painting recreating a Manchester Evening news photograph from New Years Eve. Photo / File