Technology journalist and broadcaster David McClelland chairs a debate on the current and future state of stock libraries
David McClelland
Neil Bennett
Editor of Digital Arts
Richard Curtis
Digital Imaging specialist at Adobe UK
Sophie Ebrard
Photojournalist
Paul Sanders
Former picture editor at The Times
Gavin Campbell
Freelance graphic designer and illustrator
David McClelland
Tech journalist and broadcaster
‘Woman on telephone in call centre’, ‘people shaking hands’, ‘man with furrowed brow in front of laptop’… the stereotypes and gloss associated with stock library photography can be spotted, even to the untrained eye, at a glance. But is this unappealing trait a thing of the past? And if so, do stock images now present a credible and cheaper alternative to commissioning clients? Our panel of experts explore the market to find out what stock photography is today, where it’s going, and whether professional photographers should be jumping on the stock library bandwagon.
So generally, what do you think about the authenticity of stock?
Gavin Campbell: I’ve been using stock libraries for about 16 years. There’s always the issue of having stock that looks like stock, and I think that over the last 10 years there’s been a great need for me to get hold of stock that doesn’t look like stock, that looks more creative. So I think it’s getting better, but I think there is still a lot of unwanted stereotypical stock. It is always difficult when the client requests stock that you don’t like and you have to work with it, but I take those images and make them a lot more than what they really are. I don’t just go into Lightroom to edit the colours and stuff, I chop them up, get rid of the backgrounds, change the hair, the eyes, I’ll do whatever needs to be done. I’m creating a number of sites right now that are related to fashion brands… so they need stock photography that’s fashion-orientated. And you can see that the stock imagery is trying to be fashion-orientated, but if you compare it to some of the best fashion photographers’ work there’s still a margin or a gap in terms of the look and the feel, the poses and so on.
Okay, so more creative stock. Stock that doesn’t look like stock?
Paul Sanders: That was the thing we always used to aim for, when I was working at The Times. If we needed a person drinking a cup of coffee, we would never buy from the stock agency because it was over-lit. It was always perfect, and you don’t want perfection because it’s not believable, certainly in a newspaper. We would get letters in asking ‘Why are you using a stock picture of a person drinking a cup of coffee?’ It was lit with three lights, made too bri
