One With Nature

About

One With Nature, also known as Arnold Schwarzenegger Among the Animals, refers to a viral photograph of the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger surrounded by forest animals. Starting in 2017, the photograph gained popularity as an exploitable and a reaction image in reference to various environment-friendly activities.

Origin

In January 2009, the fifth monthly edition of Italian magazine supplement IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle was published.^[1] The cover of the edition featured a photograph of Austrian-American actor, politician and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger sitting on a stone in a forest, surrounded by a group of animals, presumably stuffed or photoshopped in.

Spread

Before November 2017, the cropped version of the cover saw inconsistent use as a reaction image on 4chan.^[2] On March 30th, 2013, Redditor douchechilllll posted the photograph to /r/pics subreddit, where it gained over 2,100 upvotes. On March 31st, Redditor The_Luv_Machine posted the image to /r/photoshopbattles,^[3] with several users responding with photoshopped edits.

On November 10th, 2017, Redditor thelittlegnome made another post in /r/photoshopbattles which gained over 35,500 upvotes.^[4] In comments, multiple users posted edits of the image. On November 11th, 2017, Huffington Post reported on the thread.^[5]

In the following months, the photograph gained popularity on Twitter, Reddit and other online platforms as a reaction image, often paired with captions about environment-friendly activities. For example, a January 30th, 2018, repost of a meme by an unknown user to /r/wholesomemes subreddit gained over 20,000 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). Another post using the image, made by Redditor ThatSoundsIllegal on June 6th, 2018, accumulated over 17,100 upvotes in six months(shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References