Stock photos tend to lag behind the culture. They fill business photos with just men, or under-represent minorities, or only show people filling outdated cultural roles. It’s an issue we run into a lot at Lifehacker, where we have to illustrate upwards of 15 posts every day on a limited photo budget, and want to represent the full range of our audience. So we’re excited about the many free photo libraries popping up that include diverse options or emphasize under-represented groups. The latest is the Gender Spectrum Collection from Broadly.
The Vice-owned news site had trouble finding illustrations for their articles by and about transgender and non-binary people, especially ones that didn’t include clichés like “trans person puts on makeup.” So they went and made some of their own. The collection guidelines offer advice on how to responsibly and accurately use the images. They also link to a few other stock photo resources, several of which we’ve previously covered.
In addition to sites with a specific focus, you can find a decent range of diversity on the free sites Unsplash, Reshot, Pexels, and Visual Hunt. Different sites allow different uses of their photos, so check whether you can use a photo commercially, and whether you need to credit the photographer.