Trends vs Cultural Diversity?

How important are trends when shooting stock photography?

We keep a very close eye on trends. We need to be at least a year to a year and a half ahead of the current trend.  When we think a trend would go in a certain direction, we sometimes discover that our predictions were slightly off track. We then adapt what we shoot accordingly. For example; we realized we had to stop shooting and producing the hipster vibe a year and a half ago.  

Today’s hipster is more bow tie; still very self-conscious and reserved. But we also see the opposite trend, the everyday style or “dress to fit the situation” style, as in “do not be afraid to be a football guy one day and a casual guy the next”. The whole everyday style is definitely going to be strong, more mainstream without being so self-conscious about the clothes.   

Self-expression will move towards more subtle means in the future and no longer consist of full-on character costumes, for example, adding trendy items such as eyewear or watches.

Is cultural diversity reflected in stock photography today?

I wish there was more of a reflection of culture and diversity in stock photography as a whole than what there is today. Real lifestyle images are extremely dependent on incorporating culture and diversity in order to be seen as ‘authentic’ life, but the general stock industry favours commercial potential instead.

We are focusing more on shooting culturally specific shoots - from traditional Muslim and Jewish home settings as well as diving into diverse subjects such as homosexuality. These are culturally diverse subjects for which there is a continuous niche demand – they will not be super-sellers but they will have a long shelf-life.  

 I wish buyers would be more open to buying diverse authentic images as I believe it would be more interesting for the industry and to shoot. Unfortunately, minorities are under-represented in terms of production, as well as sales.

Because of all the fuss about using politically correct terms, I think we have become over-sensitized to so-called 'racial diversity' issues. Most image buyers will buy the “safe choice/ neutral and politically-correct” image, simply to avoid making a choice. It’s a shame. It’s basically political correctness shooting itself in the foot. We purposefully focus on broadening our collection with African lifestyle images and by showcasing models from various African countries.