This Unsplash picture could be the world’s most seen (and it’s taken with a Galaxy S7)

That Unsplash, as one of the world’s largest stock image databases, naturally creates an enormous reach is not news. But it is always exciting to see how the pictures make their way from the website to sometimes very prominent locations.

This time it’s about a very special one, because it could well be one of the – if not the – most seen on the planet. The official and publicly available statistics do not suggest this yet (as of August 4, 2020 it is at 1.7 million views). Moreover, it was also shot with a smartphone, more precisely: a Samsung Galaxy S7. It shows a peaceful street in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, was uploaded on August 21, 2018 and is – without wanting to offend the photographer Inma Lesielle – certainly a good one, but not incredibly striking.

Jerez de la Frontera is a very old city. A lot of people think downtown is a place full of shops, but it’s not. The real center is this. It’s abandoned and the houses are falling down, but people prefer to keep going shopping at the new stores. – Inma Lesielle on Unsplash

But now we want to finally reveal the secret: It’s the standard background for the greenscreen effect you can use with TikTok. If you tap on the effect and just want to try it out, you will first of all be teleported to this little town in the Spanish province of Cádiz.

Remember: TikTok has 800 million active monthly users on Earth, more than 2 billion times the app has been downloaded. Moreover, the green screen effect is not just anyone, but one of the most popular in the app and quickly tested – so the street is probably famous around the globe without even knowing it.

How I found out about this in the first place is due to Inma Lesielle herself. She too has only recently been made aware of it and has shared her story with the Slack community. She obviously believes in the movement and philosophy behind Unsplash and combines this with an appeal to all members.

Once again, we demonstrate the incredible change in culture that Unsplash has made, being able to make a simple photo taken with the mobile phone become one of the most viewed photos on the internet!

Greetings to all, take care and keep sharing Unsplash’s philosophy 

Inma Lesielle on Slack

And if you don’t believe me, go check it out for yourself.