Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The Guardian

    ‘I Googled “white guy” and there I was’: stock photo models on seeing their faces in everything from ads to ridiculous memes

    Apr 08, 2023 13 minutes

    Stock images are everywhere, and you probably rarely notice them: on billboards and websites, plastered across adverts, groceries and print media. Shooting original photography takes time and money. Stock-image banks – which contain existing images that can be licensed for use in a flash – make for a cheap, easy alternative. When stock-image libraries first opened in the 1930s, customers, often magazines, would have to wait 24 hours for a physical image to be found in an archive and delivered. The internet catapulted this demand sky‑ high. Websites need a constant stream of content. Memes are an unregulated stock-photo market of their own.

    Now, stock-photo websites collate millions of images, with almost any picture you can imagine available instantly. Urgently need a lonely Santa, a flying baby or a man dressed in a suit sitting in a bath with a rubber duck on his head? A couple of clicks and it’s yours.

    By design, the models who populate stock photos are anonymous; figures on to whom all manner of messages and meaning can be projected. Here, six people – from professional posers to those who were shocked to discover they had become stock-photo models – explain how their pictures ended up in the archives.

    ‘I studied the blurry picture: surely it couldn’t be me?’

    Shubnum Khan

    I was a fresh-faced 24-year-old master’s student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, when I heard about a photographer who was offering students free portraits. A friend heard it was for his art project. I thought he was expanding his portfolio. Either way, it meant free pictures. What was there to lose?

    We went along, were welcomed and asked to sign a form. It felt pretty standard. I assumed I was giving him permission to use the pictures for his own purposes, so happily scrawled down my name. We’d been told to come in normal clothes; no makeup. One by one, attendees were called into the studio. When it was my turn, it was quick and straightforward: I was asked to do three simple expressions – happy, straight and “crazy” – then was on my way. A few weeks later I received my portraits via email. They weren’t exactly flattering. I closed

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The Guardian

    The Guardian3 min readWorld
    Historians Come Together To Wrest Ukraine’s Past Out Of Russia’s Shadow
    The opening salvo in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year was not a rocket or a missile. Rather, it was an essay. Vladimir Putin’s On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, published in summer 2021, ranged over 1,00
    The Guardian4 min read
    ‘Almost Like Election Night’: Behind The Scenes Of Spotify Wrapped
    There’s a flurry of activities inside Spotify’s New York City’s offices in the Financial District. “It’s almost like election night,” Louisa Ferguson, Spotify’s global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same t
    The Guardian4 min read
    Whether In Song Or In Silence, Shane MacGowan Exuded The Very Essence Of Life
    Shane MacGowan and I sat in near silence for two hours last year. We were at his home, just outside Dublin. I’d been warned by his wife, the writer Victoria Mary Clarke, that he was depressed and anxious, not really in the mood to talk. But nothing c

    Related Books & Audiobooks