A photo posted by the Carter Center on Monday has people asking questions; Former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter looked tiny sitting next to President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
Jill Biden, 69, is kneeling next to Jimmy Carter, 96, while Joe Biden, 78, is doing the same with Rosalynn Carter, 93, and the Bidens seem to stand out.
“We are excited to share this wonderful photo from @POTUS and @FLOTUS visiting to see the Carters in Plains, Georgia! Thank you President and Mrs. Biden!” the Carter Foundation tweeted.
No, the Bidens haven’t been hit by gamma rays to grow to incredible proportions, and the Carters aren’t on some kind of Benjamin Button trip.
Jonathan Alter, who wrote a biography on Jimmy Carter, told The Washington Post that the Carters “are not small people, but they are medium to small among presidents and first ladies,” and that the former president and former first Lady are respectively 5 feet 10 inches tall and 5 feet 5 inches tall; Joe Biden is just under 6 feet tall while “the first lady is about half a foot shorter,” according to the Post.
Most likely it is because a wide angle lens was used in the photo and its size was distorted.
“Wide-angle lenses bring you closer to the subject and fit closer to the frame, but in the frame, objects closer to you and at the outer edges start to warp,” said TODAY lead studio photographer Nathan Congleton.
Congleton also noted that it can be difficult for a photographer when they don’t have a lens wide enough for a group shot like that of presidents and their wives.
People had a bit of fun with it, including a Twitter user who dramatically zoomed in on the Carters in the photo.
“There. I fixed it,” the person tweeted.
Mike Scollins, escritor de “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, tweeted a photo of Rick Moranis and Marcia Strassman from the movie “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” and wrote: “Joe and Jill Biden this afternoon.”
Former TODAY co-host Katie Couric also shared the photo on Instagram, writing, “The Carters look so small. That’s it.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com.