Why We Look at Celebrity Death Photos

Reuters/Mike Segar REUTERS/Mike Segar

Jen Doll 5,298 Views Feb 15, 2012

In the media frenzy following the death of Whitney Houston, informationhas trickled out slowly, in often sensational individual pieces. She haddied... She had possibly drowned in a bathtub... She had beenphotographed just nights before at a Hollywood club yelling andapparently bleeding from the leg... The question of foul play entered thepicture briefly, but was quickly quashed... Houston had hada "premonition" about her death... Her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown,was hospitalized not once but twice following the news... And, finally,less sensational, and sadly, rather expected: Drugs and alcohol aresuspected in Houston's death.

These facts (as well as "facts" that couldn't hold up) keep coming out viathe press and are briefly amplified by social media. The truth is, wewon't know the facts for a while, but tell that to a readership seeking tobe titillated and disturbed by these pointless tidbits. (Need more?Houston's hotel room has been reoccupied.)

Yesterday, TMZ posted a photo of the Beverly Hilton hotel bathtub thatHouston died in. The picture quickly circulated among the mediaorganizations who publish such things; this blogger saw it in the New

York Post. Despite a feeling of disgust, I clicked ­­ and felt immediatelyashamed. Did I need to see the grainy picture of a tub in whichsomeone had breathed her last, a tub with a gravy boat floating at thebottom, usually filled with olive oil, a "beauty secret," according to TMZ?No, I did not. And while I didn't take the photo, seeing it made me feelnearly as morally reprehensible as, one would hope, the person whodid.

Haven't we been here before? In terms of celebrity deaths, neither thepiecemeal dissemination of the details nor the tragic overtones havebeen unusual. Paparazzi photos of Houston before her death or theroom she died in only differ from the photographers' primary bread­and­butter (i.e., photos of living celebrities, often in completelycommonplace scenarios or activities) because they have to do withdeath. They're not news: They're death porn.

Can a picture of a dead or dying celebrity really be considered amethod of "healing"? As Dodai Stewart points out in Jezebel, theNational Enquirer's cover "re­enactment" of Whitney's death, whichinvolved hiring a woman to stand in for Houston's dead body, is sick.Does it offer anything close to "closure"? Does the photo of the tub? OrHouston's last meal? Or images of the singer looking un­well before herdemise? Yet there they are, cropping up on TMZ and The Post for allthe world to see.

TMZ, of course, makes its money on such photos, and the site doesn'ttry to act like anything it isn't. Mainstream media outlets presumablyrepublished these pictures to grasp at any pageviews that might arise,so hungry for clicks we all are nowadays. Equally hungry for somethingmore—more outrage, moral and otherwise, perhaps—we click, thoughwe're likely to come up feeling emptier than before.

That humans arefascinated with death isnothing new. Likerubber­neckers passinga car crash, we stare andgawk and feel sick, sad,and secretly glad that it'snot us or someone welove. This is even moreextreme in the case ofcelebrities, who havelived their lives in aspotlight, their everyhookup, "baby bump,"divorce, and in the end,death our presumedproperty. What's missing

is empathy, the understanding that while we may feel they're ours, they(and their families) deserve privacy in death. The end of a celebrity's lifeis not just this season's "tent pole event": It's really and truly the end ofsomeone's life. What we can do, under the best case scenario, is grieveand try to understand why this happened. The worst case scenario hasus judging, criticizing, and mocking.

An industry source told The Atlantic Wire, "I think it is very disturbing,this relish with which we all enjoy a celebrity divorce or, even worse,death. I'm not sure if this is driven by the media or the audience they aretrying to please. When OK! featured an unconscious Michael Jacksonon their cover the week the singer died, it didn't sell as well as thecelebratory tribute magazines on sale at the same time. We live in anage beyond sugar­coating a celebrities life and demise, but I'm not surewe ­­ in the industry ­­ haven't gone too far in revealing the secrets ofthe stars."

At this point, pretty much everyone with an Internet connection haslikely clicked on that tub photo, or chosen not to click. For most of us, it'sanother piece of "content," something for our eyes to briefly rest onbefore we click away to a kitten video or a news update about theelection. But for Houston—and her family, friends, and fans—it's muchmore than that. When we forget that fact, we're denying Houston herhumanity. We're also denying our own.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email tothe author at jdoll@theatlantic.com. You can share ideas for stories onthe Open Wire.

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