Getty Images and GLAAD have teamed up in an effort to improve transgender representation in the community.
What We Know:
- New guidelines were released Wednesday by Getty Images and GLAAD. Getty Images is one of the world’s largest stock photo agencies, while GLAAD is a national LGBTQ advocacy organization. These guidelines will help photographers around the world capture the transgender community more accurately as well as give them more media representation.
- The guidelines were put into place in hopes of giving the transgender community representation. Increased photography of transgender individuals will help normalize these individuals.
- In an interview with NBC News, GLAAD’s director of transgender representation, Nick Adams, commented on the collaboration. “Stock images tell a story without words,” Adams commented, “When those images don’t reflect the full diversity that exists within the transgender community, then our story isn’t being told in an authentic way.”
- There has been a demand for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people in Getty Images stock. According to Campaign Live, “keyword searches on Getty Images for “transgender” increased 129% year-over-year, searches for “nonbinary” increased 334%. “In the past, trans images in stock photography have included many tropes and cliches or even replaced actual transgender people with impersonal symbols like flags,” Adams said. The demand for these images motivated Getty Images to collab with GLAAD.
- The guidelines give models the control over how they are referred to in captions. This will allow for no assumptions to be made of their gender identity. Photographers have also been given guidelines to make transgender subjects comfortable and empowered while on set.
- Simply shooting the individuals is not the goal. The photography will not perpetuate harmful stereotypes of the trans community as well as create tokens of the individuals. Guy Merrill, global head of art at Getty Images and Stock, talked of the importance of the images, “We are not looking for our contributors to go out and just shoot some portraits of transgender persons. That is not the point at all,” Merrill said. “It’s that level of nuance that brings in that authenticity in terms of people you choose. It is all those small moments that really kind of authentically tell that broader story.”
While Getty Images will not be able to force any company to use their new stock imagery of trans and nonbinary individuals, it will expose companies to the imagery as well as give them more options to include the individuals.
