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Inside the image factory: stock photography and cultural production

Inside the image factory: stock photography and cultural production A substantial share of the photographs that are used in advertisements, product packaging, corporate marketing and website design are supplied by the stock photography business. Nevertheless, this global, billion-dollar industry, dominated by a handful of transnational corporations, remains largely invisible to consumers and has been almost totally neglected by cultural analysts. This article attempts to redress that neglect and lift the veil on a powerful force in contemporary visual culture. First it places stock photography in social and historical context, examining the consolidation of the business in its modern form in the 1970s and 1980s and setting out its core practices and discourses in the broader context of commercial culture and advertising. Next it employs the key industry terms `success' and `meaning' to offer an integrated analysis of stock photography both as a system of cultural production and as a mode of representation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Media, Culture & Society SAGE

Inside the image factory: stock photography and cultural production

Frosh, Paul
Media, Culture & Society , Volume 23 (5): 22 – Sep 1, 2001
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References (5)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © by SAGE Publications
ISSN
0163-4437
eISSN
1460-3675
DOI
10.1177/016344301023005005
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A substantial share of the photographs that are used in advertisements, product packaging, corporate marketing and website design are supplied by the stock photography business. Nevertheless, this global, billion-dollar industry, dominated by a handful of transnational corporations, remains largely invisible to consumers and has been almost totally neglected by cultural analysts. This article attempts to redress that neglect and lift the veil on a powerful force in contemporary visual culture. First it places stock photography in social and historical context, examining the consolidation of the business in its modern form in the 1970s and 1980s and setting out its core practices and discourses in the broader context of commercial culture and advertising. Next it employs the key industry terms `success' and `meaning' to offer an integrated analysis of stock photography both as a system of cultural production and as a mode of representation.

Journal

Media, Culture & Society – SAGE

Published: Sep 1, 2001

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