Last week, Joe Biden and Jill Biden visited former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter in Georgia, where Biden marked his first 100 days in office. Naturally, there was a photo-op, but as perhaps you can see, there is nothing particularly natural about it.
The photo gives the uncanny effect of having been shot in a doll house, though it was reportedly taken in the Carters’ home in Plains. While modest—the two-bedroom is worth an estimated $167,000—it was indeed built for humans to live in.
None of this explains why the Bidens look so big or why the Carters look so little. Jill and Joe Biden both tower over Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, even though they’re kneeling beside them. It looks as though they might hit their heads if they stood up.
Are the ceilings low? Are the chairs the Carters are sitting in small? Are the paintings on the walls hanging unusually close to the floor? Is there some kind of forced perspective at work? It is plausible that the Carters have shrunk in old age, but not enough, I would guess, to account for this fun house mirror-like effect. A quick Google search tells me that Jill Biden is 5’6 to Jimmy Carter’s 5’10; Joe Biden is 6’0 to Rosalynn Carter’s 5’5.
To put it in internet parlance: Make it make sense!
Jezebel has reached out to a spokesperson for the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, which released the photo, and we’ll update this blog if we hear back.
Until then, we’re all left to puzzle over this mysterious image and imagine what it would be like to be one of the many people who shared it on Twitter and earnestly replied, “Love this!”