The World According to Stock Photos of Women

Stock photography is one of my favorite things about the internet. It's so corny and mysterious and strangely telling—like this weird mirror universe where everyone wears the same camisole and eats yogurt all day with confused white babies. It's like a window into Heaven for the most boring person in the world.

Because stock photos trade in generalities, specificity is financial suicide. And without specificity, people can't be people—we can only be groups. Women can't work on cars without being either sexy or stupid. Fat people can only do fat-related things, like be frustrated about shopping, or not fit into a pair of jeans. In stock photography, there can't be any backstory required, because if the photo comes with its own story it's useless in the marketplace.

continued here:

http://jezebel.com/5...photos-of-women

love this one:

Monday, 7:00 am. I wake up in my completely white bed. Everything in my house is white, including me.

I have done some stock photo modelling before and I agree it is a weird thing. Whilst its supposed to be portraying every day life situations and moments, the whole thing is very unrealistic. It's like the idea we have in our heads of how things should look.

For example, the picture of the woman sleeping in a white bed, white room looking absolutely flawless. If someone took a picture of me sleeping in real life, it would look NOTHING like that at all. I think the same would go for most people.

I've assisted for stock stuff before, and I'm glad I never really had to shoot it myself. Everything is just so sterile. But at the same time, I know several of us in the shoots almost wished life really was all that joyous and carefree. You know the "first-world problems" meme doing the rounds on the 'net? "Stock-world problems" would be the next level up.

Still, that post is pretty hilarious. We definitely did the MUG TIME! picture. Haha. And the jumping. Who doesn't jump all day?

(Also, am I allowed to post in here? I just came for the photo part )

I'm not sure I agree. I've just discovered stock photos recently so I don't know much about them. But I don't think they are meant to show everyday moments but rather express an idea or a feeling - for example the calm of doing yoga. I don't think anyone would like to look at a real picture of someone who's just woken up!