(no subject)

[owlectomy]

I have not had anything to post for ibarw but that does not mean I am not reading, and thinking, and getting outraged when appropriate--or simply annoyed.

Today I was making a flyer for the book clubs I'm going to start at the library this fall, so I searched the stock photography sites to see if I could find a photo of some cute munchkins reading. Who would ideally be munchkins of color, because that reflects the demographics of the library, and I do not want to send the message that reading is for white kids only.

Who wants to guess how many I found?

Zero.

Mind you, I didn't search all the way through the pay stock photo sites, but I searched at least a couple hundred pictures. And I found more pictures of dogs reading books than people of color reading books.

Comments

[danaseilhan.livejournal.com]

Hm. I already knew the stock photography sites I use want photographs of people doing interesting things, but thank you for giving me an idea of what to supply them. Because I live in a neighborhood that seems to be majority POC, and there are kids, and there is a library nearby. And I could in theory pay the parents to photograph the kids and do the model releases and the whole nine yards.

In theory. Hm.

(Have you tried bigstockphoto.com, meanwhile? I know there are at least some photos of POC there, but not if there's anything like you're looking for.)

[danaseilhan.livejournal.com]

Hey, here you go. The huge majority are still white kids, but there are a few good ones of children of color:

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/search.php?q%5Bst%5D=child+children+reading+book+books&queryppn=3&queryprpp=36&queryppin=5

I was expecting there to be more photos to choose from but this is one niche that hasn't been beaten to death yet.

I still think I might advertise at the laundromat for models. If I watch my finances I will have some money every month that I can use to pay them, and hopefully I will make at least some of it back.

Did you try Getty Images?

[meaghanchan.livejournal.com]

"reading, kids, diverse" on Getty Images gets me 5 pages (not all relevant) including this cute one:

http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/classes/FrameSet.aspx?&UQR=zjamzg&pk=4&source=front&lightboxView=1&txtSearch=reading%2C%20kids%2C%20diverse&selImageType=7&chkLicensed=on&chkRoyaltyFree=on&chkNLM=on

I don't know if you have the ability to pay for something like this (Getty's not free) but it's something.

Re: Did you try Getty Images?

[meaghanchan.livejournal.com]

OK, sorry, that link doesn't go to the image I wanted it to go to.

Re: Did you try Getty Images?

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I could maybe find a little money to pay, but those images cost more than our entire summer programming budget. ;)
But thanks for looking!