[Work in Progress, feel free to request editorship]
About
Stock Photos are free license photos used to describe certain situations, and typically involve people whose models usually portray demographics or stereotypes. Stock Photos are known for their crude illustrations of otherwise normal situations involving odd gestures or facial expressions, cliches and sometimes unusual situations.
History
Stock photography dates back to the mid-1880s with the invention of the half-tone printing press used then by newspapers to reproduce photographs, however in 1920 a company called RobertStock was founded, which was the first major stock photography company. The popularity of stock photography grew in the 1980s when stock photographs were first made specially for publication in the stock photobooks such as “Sell & Resell Your Photos”, eventually leading to stock photographs being sold through the internet, starting with iStock in 2000. Notable Stock Photography websites include Getty Images, Shutterstock and iStock.
Online Presence
Stock photos are often mocked online for their surreal or unrealistic portrayals of everyday life. Stock Photos are commonly captioned, edited or used as reaction images on sites like 4chan, Reddit or Tumblr.
On January 31st 2012, the r/stockphotos subreddit was created, but was replaced by r/wtfstockphotos a day later. Both subreddits were made to share stock photos that users found funny, awkward or bizarre. As of April 2015, the subreddit has over 19,000 readers. On October 31st 2013, the r/youdontsurf was created, where users took stock photos and captioned them. As of April 2015, the subreddit has over 165,000 readers.
There are also some “single topic blogs”: on Tumblr about stock photos, such as Awkward Stock Photos, WTF Stock Photos or Overly Specific Stock Photos. To see more posts on Tumblr tagged with “#stockphotos”, click here.
Related Memes
(WIP)
Captioned Stock Photos
Captioned Stock Photos are a series of stock photos with captions depicting vulgar dialogue between the models in the photograph, often using the Comic Sans font. These types of images are often shared on the r/youdontsurf subreddit and Tumblr.
Notable Examples
