• The photographer of the egg that broke Instagram's world record as its most-liked photo is shocked it became a meme.
• "Never ever I could think that it would be a sensation like this," he told INSIDER. "Egg is just an egg."
• The egg, he said, isn't pretentious: "It is not hunting for anyone’s attention. It is simple egg."

Serghei Platanov, the photographer who originally shot a photo of an egg that defeated Kylie Jenner's record for the most-liked image on Instagram, told INSIDER he was shocked his photo became a phenomenon.

"My goal was to take a simple picture of an egg. For fun. Never ever I could think that it would be a sensation like this," Platanov wrote in an email. "Egg is just an egg."

Platanov originally posted the egg photo on Shutterstock, where he uploads photos of richly colored food on stark white backgrounds under the handle gresei. The title was simple and elegant: "eggs isolated on white background."

On January 4, the person running the Instagram account @world_record_egg posted Platanov's photo in a bid to get it the most-liked image on the platform.

"Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram," they wrote. "Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this."

Much to Jenner's chagrin, the account succeeded. Its tally is now at more than 45 million likes. The person running the egg account has since monetized it, selling shirts with photos of the egg and saying they'd send a small portion of the proceeds to charity.

Platanov said he doesn't use social media, so he wasn't aware his photo went viral until other people told him about it.

"I do not use social networks," he wrote. "It was unexpected for me to find out about such a meme campaign when people started reaching out to me, and it was even more incredible to find out about the number of likes that this meme scored."

He also said that his photo doesn't pretend to be anything other than a simple brown egg. Therein lies its beauty.

"It does not pretend to be an image for getting fans, it does not pretend to be a Fabergé egg or imagining 'Would I look better if I am colored for Easter, what color fits me best,'" he wrote. "It is not hunting for anyone’s attention. It is simple egg."

Platanov's response is similar to that of Antonio Guillem, who shot a Shutterstock-hosted photo that became the "distracted boyfriend" meme in 2017. Guillem told INSIDER at the time that he didn't even know what a meme was.

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• An Instagram influencer apologized after saying it was a 'miracle' someone returned her iPhone in a 'scammy' Indian city

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