Almost every day another blog publishes a story ridiculing and putting down stock photography. They highlight images found on some of the major stock web sites that no one in their right mind would ever want use, except as a joke. Some examples can be found
here.
It is hard for me to understand why anyone bothered to set up and shoot most of these photos, but if these web sites are actually paying to use the pictures (rather than just grabbing them) maybe it makes sense.
Now Getty has taken the ridiculing of stock to the next level. With the help of Vince Vaughn and his co-stars Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco they have created a set of photos that mimic some of the better selling images found on iStock. Currently iStock if offering
free use of 4 photos for the next three weeks as a way of helping Twentieth Century Fox promote Vaughn’s new movie “
Unfinished Business.” Eventually there are supposed to be 12 images available.
With iStock sales declining 15% in Q4 2014 compared to Q4 2013, I guess they had to do something.