Getty Images, the world’s leader in visual communication, and
LeanIn.Org, the women’s non-profit founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, are celebrating one year of partnership with the anniversary of the
Getty Images Lean In Collection – a curation of images devoted to the powerful depiction of women, girls and the communities who support them. Images from the collection have been licensed in over 65 countries, including Qatar, Kuwait and Korea, with sales doubling since the collection’s inception in February, 2014.
Thousands of images have been licensed through the collection across a wide variety of industries, with two of the biggest sectors being financial and tech organizations – industries that are actively trying to attract more women. The most successful images globally can be viewed
here.
It is interesting that in the U.S. that the
three most popular images licensed in the US were all taken by men – two by Thomas Barwick and one by Ezra Bailey. You don’t have to be a woman to understand the roles women are playing in today’s world.
Speaking on the anniversary, Getty Images Co-Founder and CEO, Jonathan Klein said: “From the creation of Getty Images 20 years ago, we have been guided by the belief that imagery can change the world. Getty Images partnership with Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.org to break down stereotypes and kill the cliché is changing the conversation about the depiction of women in visual communications and has delivered impressive bottom line results.”
“Men and women should be equally represented at the boardroom table and at the kitchen table. To get there we need reform of our policies, we need to encourage women to fulfill their ambitions and we need to encourage men to do their part in the home - but we also need to address how women and men are depicted, because you can’t be what you can’t see,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, author of Lean In and founder of LeanIn.Org. “We are thrilled to be able to partner with Getty Images on this project and our shared commitment to literally repicture women, men and equality.”
More than 2,000 images have been added to the collection since the launch, bringing the total to over 4,500, with new content being added each month. The collection is hand-curated by Getty Images’ global trend experts and LeanIn.Org, led by Getty Images Director of Visual Trends Pam Grossman and LeanIn.Org Contributing Editor Jessica Bennett.??Usage is growing in the US, UK and Canada, and growth is also being seen in a diverse range of countries including Russia, Mexico, Singapore and China.
The success of the partnership with Lean In has inspired Getty Images to address how other key concepts are communicated visually through the company’s RePicture movement, such as RePicture family and RePicture love, calling for content that breaks down stereotypes and celebrates the world in its raw and authentic form.
The Getty Images Lean In Collection is available to be licensed at
gettyimages.com/leanin.
Click
here to view a video that explores the success of the partnership in greater depth.
While “thousands of images (from the collection) have been licensed” we have no way of knowing how many of those images would have been licensed anyway if there had been no collection. Also, the fact that this relatively small collection of highly currated images was promoted heavily, and that the images were given favorable positions in the general search returns order, certainly contributed to the volume of use.