So do you only ever see smiley, happy caucasian people? I see smiley, happy african-americans, and asians, and females, and males, blonde hair, brown hair, no hair, and all kinds of other people. You know, people. Yet the images depicted in stock are mostly smiley, happy, white, blonde, pretty people. I thought that was what was meant by diversity. People. All people. Regular people.


If you don�t want to shoot diversity, don�t go to the webinar. If you do, go see what�s up.

So do you only ever see smiley, happy caucasian people? I see smiley, happy african-americans, and asians, and females, and males, blonde hair, brown hair, no hair, and all kinds of other people. You know, people. Yet the images depicted in stock are mostly smiley, happy, white, blonde, pretty people. I thought that was what was meant by diversity. People. All people. Regular people.


If you don�t want to shoot diversity, don�t go to the webinar. If you do, go see what�s up.

I read articles by stock agencies and they always mean multiracial and multireligious.
I see 99% white europeans, not all blond though. If I would live in multiracial society I would shoot that.

"That time you didn't want to understand what the market wants"

Well, maybe.
I just doubt that customers from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Japan, New Zealand and others don't want to see their definition of "diversity" which I bet won't be touched on webinar... I hope I'm wrong.

I see sales from these countries every day.
But I haven't yet seen a single article asking for such "diversity" in content, is there more than enough of it, really...?

I'm talking about fake reality and lack of emotional diversity. How many people turn up at their doctors in extreme body pain looking perfectly healthy with a big smile on their face?

Yes, I understand it is true
but I tried to explain another "fake reality"

I understand lack of emotional diversity because we are still in business of marketing... And "happy smile" brings sales.

But is microstock really used only by "global"=(american) corporations who need this specific kind of "diversity"?
And never by local companies worldwide?

Or those markets aren't that important? I won't be surprised if not (and even would understand why).

Just would be great to know that here is one and only "client" we all work for... And make decisions based on this knowledge then.

Quote from: Trippy on May 25, 2019, 16:08

I'm talking about fake reality and lack of emotional diversity. How many people turn up at their doctors in extreme body pain looking perfectly healthy with a big smile on their face?

Yes, I understand it is true
but I tried to explain another "fake reality"

I understand lack of emotional diversity because we are still in business of marketing... And "happy smile" brings sales.

But is microstock really used only by "global"=(american) corporations who need this specific kind of "diversity"?
And never by local companies worldwide?

Or those markets aren't that important? I won't be surprised if not (and even would understand why).

Just would be great to know that here is one and only "client" we all work for... And make decisions based on this knowledge then.

So are you saying that the US is the only country that would ever buy images showing diverse people? No other country in the world concerns themselves with wanting their local customers/employees/whatever to know they sell their product/deal with everyone and anyone, regardless of race, or religion, or whatever? Hmm.

So are you saying that the US is the only country that would ever buy images showing diverse people? No other country in the world concerns themselves with wanting their local customers/employees/whatever to know they sell their product/deal with everyone and anyone, regardless of race, or religion, or whatever? Hmm.

You forgot to call me racist at the end of your message...

Yes, imagine, we sell cheese and shampoo and books in our languages to each other, we can't sell it with asian and african models, because they aren't here, don't speak our language and not interested in buying our baguette tomorrow...

And when I travel to Asia, I don't see a blue-eyed european girl on billboard selling me soda. What a surprise! They're definitely uneducated and unprogressive bigots

If you look at American adds for big pharma there is a complete disconnect between audio and visual.
"This product will destroy your liver and possibly kill you." Big smile.

Just take a look at the Adobe 'Recent Top Sellers'. Fake realities and big smiles everywhere.

It's sad but it sells.

Diversity is great but we need more reality. imho

Everyone�s reality is different. 🙂

We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.

I live in Europe and see all kinds of races everywhere, every day.

Me too, in Old Town today and in the most touristic spots as usual.

Or do you mean London, Paris and Frankfurt with "global" corporation offices again?

Any place considered a city really. It can be different in smaller towns and countryside, but that's the case everywhere.

Sorry, but I can't "unsee" my neighboors and children in kindergarten and all other people who aren't expats who came for work for 2 years in a bank or drives uber eats for 1 month and goes back home, but who actually live in the country with their families and are citizens.
Where I live here is no children in schools of other race, I haven't seen, means they don't stay here and don't bring families. And most of the time those who come for work don't even speak the local language, only english because they work for international company and it's all temporary for them...

I believe you might have different experience. Europe isn't a small place

I live in Europe and see all kinds of races everywhere, every day.

Hmm, I was going to say, 'come here and have a look around', or my French friend's area of Alsace, but then you qualified the 'everywhere' by saying:

"Any place considered a city really. It can be different in smaller towns and countryside, but that's the case everywhere."

And actually, I was in Bucharest a couple of weeks ago and saw extremely little racial diversity there..
I'm working on my pics today, and that is certainly the case from my street scenes all over the Old Town, and in one of the major parks in the city centre.

Population of United States is approx. 327 mln. Population of the planet is more than 7 bln.

The United States is slightly more than 4% of the whole world population.

Sorry, you can't be a "global" company, if you reflect the views, values and issues of just 4% and ignore 96%!

It would be great to have local "Heads of Content" too, who understand the whole picture and interact with each other. It will be better for business in the long run, if you want to sell to more than 4%...

Population of United States is approx. 327 mln. Population of the planet is more than 7 bln.

The United States is slightly more than 4% of the whole world population.

Sorry, you can't be a "global" company, if you reflect the views, values and issues of just 4% and ignore 96%!

It would be great to have local "Heads of Content" too, who understand the whole picture and interact with each other. It will be better for business in the long run, if you want to sell to more than 4%...

On the other hand, what has traditionally sold best as stock images has been content which is styled in a US way, smiley, happy people - very different looking to UK styling, far less that preferred in other markets. And although the US is only 4% of the population, a disproportionately large proportion of my micro sales (iS) is to the US, even though I have very little US content and no 'styled' images.
Whether the US making the lion's share of micro sales, probably overall, is chicken and egg or not, I couldn't possibly say.

And although the US is only 4% of the population, a disproportionately large proportion of my micro sales (iS) is to the US, even though I have very little US content and no 'styled' images.
Whether the US making the lion's share of micro sales, probably overall, is chicken and egg or not, I couldn't possibly say.

I think it's a chicken and egg thing.
My IS sales are only 30% US last month, then goes Germany, UK, France.

We all shoot what is popular on the main page and since US was the first and only market for a while and top producers like Arcurs were obsessively focused on that style, we were copying it too, maybe not even realising it.

But now market is truly global and it won't work anymore in the future.

I tried to find european interior decor content for a blog, there is NONE. And who in their right mind say that there is no market for it?!

maybe they were going to say that not all images should be styled for the US market.

Oh yes, like on Stocksy, right?

Well, maybe...

And of course it is predominantly US at this moment, how they can grow a customer base in other areas if they go everywhere with this "important diversity" again and again and again and nobody understands what are they talking about and why should they buy that irrelevant content!

We don't have such problems here, sorry. We have other problems and social issues.

95% of Stock image used today is disgustingly fake and far from reality but also dirty cheaps and this is because you can see it everywhere. Fake emotions fake diversity fake smiles and acting. Clients basically don't care, good enough for most of them. It is what it is.

I agree that the push for fake "diversity" would be better spent in pursuing a closer step to realism but we are sooooooo far from it.