Selena, Proof of Life

The photographer Mert Alas was prepping a shoot with Selena Gomez when he posted a behind-the-scenes image on Instagram that immediately burned through several thousand people’s brains, including mine. It was intimate in that specific way Mert Alas photos always are—technically a backstage shot, functionally a declaration.

Selena had been on a break, stepping back from everything to deal with her health, so any evidence of her continued existence had taken on a slightly outsized significance. You find yourself checking the accounts of her friends, the Instagrams of whatever photographer happened to be lucky enough to be in the same room that week. This was better than any of that. Mert Alas with a camera, Selena Gomez in front of it, the result landing in your timeline like a small correction to everything wrong with the world.

I’ve maintained for years that she is correct—not in any arguable sense but factually, as a matter of record. The former Disney kid who became one of the most streamed artists on the planet and somehow also the most unassumingly beautiful human being currently operating. Anyone still unconvinced is welcome to review the evidence. I stand by everything I’ve ever said. Heil Selena.