Woman Laughing Alone With Salad

To see a stock image is to know you’re seeing a stock image.
Frog on a palm frond.
Shadowed man gazing contemplatively at a colourful sunrise.
Young friends making faces inside photo booth.
Siblings prepare for school, looking in the mirror
as they fix their ties.

A stock photographer is equal to psychic,
arch-nutritionist, stylist, personal shopping assistant.
Anticipator of future needs, sentiment, market trends.
Stocking the annals of the internet with meme-able content.
Grumpy cat. Stock photo Harold.
Distracted boyfriend.

Shutterstock site visitors are disproportionately women
browsing from work, who don’t have children,
who do have master’s degrees.
Real life female mechanic at work.
Young woman driving camper van.
Man watching balloons rise above desert landscape.

The world as seen through the stock image
is creaseless, glossy, naturally free-from.
Muslim mother wearing hijab places loving hand
on young daughter’s head as they walk down airport jet bridge.
Mature gay couple watching film in bed together.
Cheerful mixed-race couple planning their future home.

Stockpiles of smiles. Sanitised, clear-skinned
young women waving from classic convertibles.
Couples jumping off boats and riding
scooters into sunsets.
Sometimes dominated by girls in swimsuits on fathers’ shoulders
and women laughing alone with salads.

Shutterstock. Getty. Cavan. Dreamstime.
Catalogues in place of you.
Pick and mix lovers. Miscellanies of mothers.
Beautiful mature woman in living room.
Woman with smart phone cooking in kitchen.
Middle-aged woman in forest.
Woman laughing alone with salad.

‘To see a stock image is to know you’re seeing a stock image’ and ‘who don’t have children, who do have master’s degrees’ is from Megan Garber’s ‘The Tao of Shutterstock’ The Atlantic 18 May 2012.

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From Magma 86, Food

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