Photographer of 'Distracted Boyfriend' Meme Explains Process

One of this year's more popular memes has been the "distracted boyfriend" meme in which a girlfriend looks at her boyfriend in disbelief as he turns around and eyes another girl right next to her. Perhaps the most clever and fitting adaptation (for us) yet has been the above image from the D850 Facebook page. The relatively new photographer behind the original image spoke to Wired about his process and how he captured his most popular stock photograph yet.

The "distracted boyfriend" shot, however, isn't Antonio Guillem's most popular stock photograph based on those who have purchased it. That particular image has only sold 700 times compared to what Guillem claims to be a more typical over-5,000 sale count for his more popular stock photographs. It's in the image's popularity as a meme in which the image has gone truly viral.

Guillem moved on from his previous 3D-design job when the recession hit Spain, which hit his construction clients particularly hard, and transitioned into photography. Three-and-a-half years later, he was selling 1,600 stock photographs per day. While his trick could be attributed to the fact that he uses the same three models in a lot of his work, it could equally be thanks to his attention to detail. After all, as he explains, it's not easy to capture the perfect, natural, believable look for a shot like this.

https://twitter.com/BlvckGrip/status/899652486474215424

Still, it's a solo shot of one of the models in the meme that was the most lucrative from this shoot, with over 13,000 copies sold. While Guillem is making little from the popularity of the meme's themselves, for now, at least, he's not interested in taking legal action against anyone re-purposing it unless it puts the models in a bad light.

The full story is worth a read and can be found on Wired. But first, enjoy a few more of our favorite "distracted boyfriend" memes:

https://twitter.com/haarleyquin/status/899935787227262976

https://twitter.com/ItMeIRL/status/900772097152221184

And of course, this meme photograph was one of many other stock photographs taken in the same session:

[via Wired]