I've collected a list of sources of stock photography that includes diverse populations, including queer and trans, people of colour, people with disabilities, etc. See below for an explanation of what's included, as well as tips for finding more diverse photos.
Diverse stock photography
Diverse stock photography, including photos of LGBT, queer, trans, non-binary, non-white, disabled, elder, and larger-sized people.| Name | License | Searchable | Queer/Trans | Non-white | Disability | Elders | Body diversity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadly Gender Spectrum Collection | Free | Y | Y | Focus on trans and gender diverse people | ||||
| Burst | Free | Y | Y | General stock photography site with many diverse photos available through search | ||||
| Create Her Stock | Commercial/paid | Y | Y | Women of colour focus | ||||
| Disabled and Here | CC-BY | Y | Y | Y | Y | Featuring disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) | ||
| Diversity Photos | Commercial/paid | Y | Y | Y | ||||
| Iwaria | Free | Y | Y | African people, places and culture | ||||
| Jopwell Collection | Free | Y | Business focus | |||||
| Jopwell Collection - Intern Edition | Free | Y | Business focus | |||||
| Mocha Stock | Commercial/paid | Y | Y | Includes videos and illustrations | ||||
| Nappy | Free | Y | Y | Focus on people of African descent | ||||
| Pexels | Free | Y | Y | Y | Y | General stock photography site with many diverse photos available through search | ||
| Picnoi | Free | Y | ||||||
| Rawpixel | Various | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | General stock photography site with many diverse photos and illustrations available through search; can be filtered to only show free images. | |
| Representation Matters | Commercial/paid | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Focus on body positivity/health at every size | |
| TONL | Commercial/paid | Y | Y | |||||
| UK Black Tech | CC-BY | Y | UK Black, Asian and Middle Eastern (BAME) people in tech | |||||
| Unsplash | Free | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | General stock photography site with many diverse photos available through search |
| Women of Color in Tech | CC-BY | Y | Y | Technology focus |
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Hi, I'm Alex. I'm an independent researcher, writer, educator and activist based in Ballarat, Australia. If you appreciate my work, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon. Even $1 a month helps!
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How this list was created / guidelines for inclusion
- Any "general" website must offer free images, and also have plenty of images in at least two "diversity" categories to be included.a
- Whether a site is qualified for a category is based on searching for relevant terms and seeing if a good selection of images show up.
- The terms I searched for include:
- Body diversity: health, fat, body image, plus size
- Disability: disability, wheelchair, prosthetic, braille
- Non-white: black kids, muslim, asian mother, latina, ethnicity
- Queer/Trans: queer, transgender, lgbt, lesbian, gay
- Elders: elderly, old woman, retirement
If you have any to add to this list, drop me a line!
More tips on finding and using images
- Creative Commons licenses allow you to use images free of charge, simply by attributing the creator and adhering to some other simple terms. For most uses you'll want to find images that are licensed as CC-BY (attribution required), CC-BY-NC (non-commercial use only), or CC-BY-ND (no derivatives - which means you can't edit the image, but you can use it as is). Those with "SA" (share alike) require your work (eg. any artwork you use making that image) to be licensed under the same terms. "CC-0" licenses allow you to use the image without any attribution at all.
- Here are some more ways to search for CC-licensed images:
- Creative Commons Image Search
- Google Image Search Advanced Search can help you search for freely licensed images, as well as by image size, aspect ratio (wide, tall, square) etc.
- Wikimedia Commons - all images on this site are freely usable, either under a Creative Commons license or because they're in the public domain.
- If you have an image and want to know where it came from, get a better resolution, find related images, or determine the license terms, you can use one of the following:
- TinEye image search
- Google Image Search - "search by image" by clicking on the camera in the search bar
- Google Image Search used to have a handy "View Image" button that took you direct to the full resolution image. These extensions re-enable it in Chrome and Firefox.
- A "view background image" extension can also be handy. Here are versions for Chrome and Firefox, that add an item to your "right click" menu when you mouse over a part of a website with a background image.
- As you search for images, and find ones that aren't quite right for your current needs, save them anyway and create an image bank for later use.
- If you are downloading images with licensing terms you need to keep track of, use file tags to note things like "CC-BY", and keep a spreadsheet in the same folder with a link to where you got each image.
Contributors
- Kendra Albert @KendraSerra