From bed to gym: how feminism influenced the image of a woman in photo banks

Stock photos reflect the modern culture of society: they appear in advertisements, in magazines, blogs and on street billboards. Over the past ten years, the best-selling photos of women in the Getty Images agency have changed: from almost naked models to active heroines whose appearance does not matter much.

In 2017, the choice of marketers and media is to be independent, physically active and not stop in front of obstacles during the race, or in front of printed circuit boards.

In 2017, this photo from Banff National Park became the best-selling in Getty for the query "woman". "There is a sense of strength, freedom and self—confidence here," Pam Grossman, director of the Visual trends department at Getty Images, expressed her emotions from the picture.

In 2007, according to the same request on Getty, it was best to buy a picture of a half-naked woman lying on a bed in a towel.

If earlier there was a request for languid half-naked girls (or housewives who laugh alone over a salad), now these are women who demonstrate physical or professional abilities.

In 2014, Getty, together with the nonprofit Sharyl Sandberg Foundation, launched the Lean In project to promote more modern, diverse and inspiring female images. Now there are 14 thousand photos in the collection.

So far, one of the 15 most downloaded photos of the Lean In collection in 2017 is a woman soldering a printed circuit board. Among the other 14 pictures are four fathers playing with children, three athletes, three women engaged in science and design, and four office heroines. Each of the women in the frame is alone. And back in 2014, when the Lean In project was launched, pictures of women at work or in the family were uploaded the most: among them was a pregnant woman leading a business meeting, and a father playing with a child while his mother was working at a computer.

And this year, the list of favorites is likely to include models who climb over the wall alone or do push-ups. This is how the new trend of the photobank looks — gritty woman (hardy, harsh or dirty women). According to Pam Grossman, these are strong heroines who are literally covered in sweat and dirt, but do not worry about it. She connects the trend with last year's US elections, when Hillary Clinton competed with Donald Trump in the final vote.

The number of "female protest" requests on Getty has quadrupled over the past year, "female developer" requests have tripled, and "female CEO" requests have increased by 47%.

According to Grossman, such changes in the market were caused by social networks: "For the first time in history, people can represent themselves, so they require brands to make them visible too."

At the same time, even those photos that depict "atypical" behavior for men or women refer us to familiar standards: for example, if a father walks with a baby instead of a mother, then he is necessarily bearded and muscular, as if the shooting should emphasize his masculinity.