This Week: Stock Photography

This week--at my new and already beloved job--I'm shooting a series of student, faculty, and technology-related images for use in any upcoming marketing media I might produce (in the future). It's one of the more nebulous undertakings, as I have no idea what my graphics needs will be a year from today...or even whether I'll be using the pics. Needless to say, I'm shooting faces, hands, ears, full bodies, devices, and locations indiscriminately.

MSU Academic Quad, during fall rain

Working in predominately white environs for my entire career, I already knew of the scarcity of people of color in stock--frankly it was never much of an issue...eventually a image with one or two black /brown folks eventually turned up in my searches (and I always opted to show those marginally diverse images in lieu of more homogeneous). Well, today at an HBCU (historically black college/university), where ratio is flipped to that of the nation (80% African american to 20% other races, ethnicities, and nationalities), it's important. My designs and communications have to reflect this diversity... so one or two tan faces is a crowd just won't cut it.

Female student, visiting MSU website on Surface tablet

Hence my exciting photo project. I'm using student employees, colleagues, and faculty to fill out my arsenal of useful images; plus www.unsplash.com for some beautifully-shot, yet not too specific images.