Member-only story
Can We Please Permanently Retire This Image? Please?
I can hear this woman gnawing on her pencil in my sleep
There is not a day that goes by that I do not see this image on here. It is absolutely, positively, without a doubt the most overused image on Medium.
Look. I get it. This is a platform for writers. Therefore, there are many stories about writing and editing. And this photo just screams “editing.” It’s a great photo. If there were an Unsplash Hall of Fame, this would undoubtedly be among the first class of inductees.
But it’s overused.
It’s like if you turned on the classic rock station on Pandora and “Stairway to Heaven” was every fifth song played. You’d get tired of it. You’d wonder what great music you were missing out on because someone chose to play “Stairway” once again.
Alternatives
Casey Botticello compiled a list of free stock photo websites that are alternatives to Unsplash, the source of the photo above.
To get photos that are royalty-free on Google Images: Search for whatever keyword or phrase you choose, then look for the menu atop the images that are your search results. Click on Tools and a submenu appears. Click on Usage Rights from the submenu. Click Creative Commons licenses from the…
