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We Need To Talk About Stock Images

A picture can be worth a thousand words or it can be worth nothing

Jacqueline Dooley
Grief Book Club

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Not a stock photo — Illustration by author

Writers love a good stock photo to set the tone for a piece. Masked orderlies hovering beside a gurney? Yes, please. The silhouette of a person standing on a mountain, a beach, in a field, on a trail lit by golden light? Sign me up! That haunted woman lying in bed, curled up in the fetal position, face hidden behind a shock of dark hair? She’s perfect!

Photo by Yuris Alhumaydy on Unsplash

But that’s kind of a problem.

She’s perfect for my essay about grief and your listicle about how to stave off burnout and that one expert’s article on sleep paralysis. She’s everywhere. I’ve been keeping score.

Selection of articles that use the same stock image — Screenshot by yours truly

This poor woman. She’s unhappy, distracted, grieving hard, and so damn tired of being tired. Don’t even ask her about her PMS. It’s truly nightmarish.

It’s true that you won’t see all of these articles appear on your screen at once, but it didn’t take me long to gather them together…

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