Colorstock | We See Color

I recently signed on with a stock photo company known as Colorstock.  Their unique vision is what drew me in and I’m excited to partner with them for what I hope will be long term.  I asked them to share with my readers exactly what it is they do and what sets them apart from other stock photo companies (see below).  If you’re a business owner looking for diverse images for your website and social media accounts they are not to be missed!

Stock photos. The phrase alone may bring to mind cheesy images of people laughing or awkwardly staged photos.  They get a bad rep for lacking authenticity and nuance. Stock photography, however, can be both of those things and so much more.

Whether it’s through social media or blog posts, using stock photos can be crucial to finding dynamic images that engage target audiences.  Consistent visual storytelling through the use of stock images connects audiences to brand images.  Harnessing the skill of connecting carefully selected photos to enhance visual storytelling can be the difference in a new follower, reader, or subscriber. Photography links to a brand and resonates with an audience, relating an engaging image to a specific vision and purpose.

The importance of stock photography use is exactly what sparked Colorstock’s creation. Colorstock launched in 2015 tackling the stock photography industry’s lack of diverse images and setting to solve a huge problem by representing various ethnicities and races in stock photography. These realistic and nuanced portrayals of people of color doing anything and everything —from eating brunch to vacationing at the beach—are crucial for companies and brands looking to reflect the diversity of the people they serve. Colorstock sees color where other stock companies fail to.

Basic Google searches for stock photos yield some pretty monochromatic but unsurprising results. When an image search for “young boy stock photo” or “family vacation stock photo” bring up varying shades of beige, entire groups of people are alienated and literally left out of the picture. The subjects that are left out of stock photography are often people of color. When people of various races are not represented in a medium that is so crucial to developing brand image, message, and intent, something is wrong.

Understanding the importance of using stock photography and the impact it has on developing an audience is essential. Utilizing culturally intelligent stock photos is a first step in reaching diverse audiences and telling unique stories.

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Colortstock is the first curated stock photo marketplace featuring nuanced and diverse photos of people and color. We’re changing the hue of stock photos.