“You can’t be what you can’t see.”
I feel sorry for photographers these days. Inexpensive “stock” photography is all the rage now, especially when budgets are an issue (which is almost always). I love the stock concept images that give truth to the adage, “One picture is worth a thousand words.” But I am not sold on the stock photos of people. Everyone looks so fake, so perfect. But Seattle-based Getty Images is apparently trying to do something about that. Starting with its photo files of working women and families.
When it comes to using people shots in your marketing, I highly recommend that you create your own image bank. Your employees, customers and members don’t look like perfectly groomed plastic stock people.
But custom photography can be expensive and I need to continually sell my clients on the value of the investment as it relates to building an authentic brand.
And photography today is definitely trending authentic.
The good news/bad news is that now everyone is a photographer. Digital cameras and cell phones are at-the-ready and companies are getting more comfortable using amateur shots and inexpensive stock-images-for-hire.
But the trouble with stock is that everyone is using the same stereotypical stuff. Especially when it comes to the people shots.
Enter Sheryl Sandberg, a Facebook executive and author of “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” who advocates for women achieving leadership roles.
She announced yesterday that her nonprofit organization, LeanIn.org, has formed a partnership with Getty Images, a stock photo agency with an archive of 150 million still images and illustrations. Together they will be offering a special collection of images that they feel “represent women and families in more empowering ways.”
This is a first for Getty: jointly creating a collection with a nonprofit that will pocket 10% from the licensing revenue.
So will that be the demise of the perfect people pictures?
It’s a start.
In the new collection, gone will be the perky blonde executive woman in the power suit with the leather briefcase and sensible heels (feeding a baby in a high chair).
In her place will be the working woman sporting a tattoo sleeve working comfortably at home with a baby on her lap and a laptop on her desk.
Older women will be shown participating in meetings with young millennials (imagine that…).
Women in the workforce will be portrayed with updated hairstyles, casual clothes and the latest digital devices in hand. (No stylist needed).
Young girls will be shown working on computers, not playing with dolls.
And men will figure more prominently in parenting roles, especially as it relates to father/daughter interactions.
“When we see images of women and girls and men, they often fall into the stereotypes that we’re trying to overcome, and you can’t be what you can’t see,” Ms. Sandberg said in an interview.
I like the “can’t be what you can’t see” quote.
But I worry that this new collection will begin to look as unauthentic as the current crop of stock images if it gets too extreme.
There will be plenty of shots available of women lifting weights, painting houses, performing surgery and driving trucks.
And the dads will be changing diapers, setting the table and braiding their daughter’s hair.
(I’m personally holding out for the shot of the man taking the meeting notes. Talk about a breakthrough…).
Visuals are immensely powerful and aspirational.
That’s why image-based communication is taking precedence over the written word: Pinterest, Instagram, and cell phone cameras rule.
We all need models to model the lives we want to live, the people we want to be.
I’m a huge fan of that.
But I think I’ll pass on the tattoo sleeve look for now.