50 Stunning Examples of the Droste Effect

The Droste Effect is a Dutch term for a specific type of recursive picture.
An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of the image within itself in a recursive manner.
In theory, the picture in picture effect continues deeper into the picture ad infinitum, but it really only goes as far as the image resolution will allow while still being visible, but it still has the feeling of being never ending.
The advent of the digital age has taken the old Droste effect to a whole new level.

The effect is named after a particular image that appeared in various forms on the tins and boxes of Droste cocoa powder, one of the main Dutch brands.
It displays a nurse carrying a serving tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a box of Droste cocoa depicting the same image (shown on the right).
The brand’s effect, maintained for decades, became a household notion. Reportedly, poet and columnist Nico Scheepmaker introduced wider usage of the term in the late 1970’s
In the 1950’s, one of the famous graphic artists Maurits Cornelis Escher. took the Droste effect to another level with his incredible drawings, and mapped images to a spiral.
In the series of images below you can see how Escher starts the image with a man looking at a photo and as you look further, this image will take you deeper into a never ending loop of the same image.

Today the creations of the Droste effect are mostly done using digital images and there are some helpful solutions to make it easy to create your own piece. Are are some amazging examples and videos:
Further Resources and Tutorials:
How to create the Droste Effect with Adobe After Effects
Wolfram Blog: Droste Effect with Mathematica
Escher’s Droste Effect – Subblue
Josh Sommer’s tutorial
Flickr Droste Effect