TY - JOUR
T1 - Inside the image factory
T2 - Stock photography and cultural production
AU - Frosh, Paul
PY - 2001/9
Y1 - 2001/9
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Advertising
KW - Catalogue
KW - Commercial discourse
KW - Culture industry
KW - Genre
KW - Visual communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035732621&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/016344301023005005
DO - 10.1177/016344301023005005
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AN - SCOPUS:0035732621
SN - 0163-4437
VL - 23
SP - 625
EP - 646
JO - Media, Culture and Society
JF - Media, Culture and Society
IS - 5
ER -