This image has been circulating online since at least 2012, accompanied by the claim that the likeness of an owl was not created by photoshop, but rather by dropping two
Hula Hoops snacks into the coffee.
This is not true.
The real story is that this image was definitely created by using photo manipulation software. A pair of owl eyes, such as the ones below, was digitally layered onto the coffee.
The original creator of the image remains a mystery, but it achieved Internet fame on Sep 26, 2012, after conceptual artist Stuart Rutherford posted the picture on Twitter with the comment, "Who'd a thunk dunking a couple of Hula Hoops in your coffee would be so beautiful."
The image, with Rutherford's Hula Hoops story attached to it, quickly went viral, helped along by media sources
such as the Daily Mail.
But a day after posting the image, Rutherford
posted a note on his site explaining that he hadn't been serious about the "Hula Hoops thing." That was just a random story he had invented.
You can see from my tweet that I have suggested it was formed from dropping a couple of Hula Hoops in what appears to be a frothy coffee. The truth is, I am not sure if they are Hula Hoops or not because I am not the original Photographer/Artist of that image. I just took the image at face value and saw a kind of beauty in it being created this way. So I tweeted it for you all to enjoy and draw your own conclusions. Ok, well that’s a lie, I lead you into believing the Hula Hoops thing. Was it Photoshopped?, was it fortunate happen-stance? or was it rather the work of a very clever mind with the foresight to plan the beautiful results? I don’t honestly know as for love nor money have I been able to track down the original artist and therefore credit them accordingly
The image has been posted several times on reddit, where it was
debunked by user MrDorkESQ, who even posted an explanation of exactly how you can use photoshop
to make your own "hula hoops in coffee image."
MrDorkESQ notes that, "The first copy of the coffee image I can find on the web was posted by
Anton Sergeev on the Russian version of facebook, VK.com, on September 10th 2012." So maybe Anton Sergeev was the original creator of it. Or maybe not. We still don't know.
Comments
Then
9 Semtember 2011
http://vk.com/photo5194581_267116064?all=1 - photo was posted to VK.com
and to my account on photoshare service http://www.nerve.ru
http://nerve.ru/work.asp?id=27778&user_id=1847&mode_view=all&mode_sort=date
I have RAW files from this session 😊
I was wrote to Stuart and to Daily Mail office this after Daily Mail publication but any answers from there 😊