The first and largest subscription-based platform, Storyblocks, providing stock images and video for creators, today announced the launch of “Queer Spaces and Faces.” The campaign aims to increase the visibility of underrepresented communities in media through the curation and production of inclusive content that accurately reflects today’s world. The new media collections add authentic representations of LGBTQIA+ communities in media, while also remaining true to the intersectional foundation of the community by exploring themes in race and gender.
To build the collections, Storyblocks commissioned a cohort of six LGBTQIA+ filmmakers to each create collections of more than 50 videos portraying people, places and communities underrepresented in digital media today. At the forefront of the campaign is supporting intersectionality within the creative community, and ensuring all creators are understood and celebrated, whether it be in relation to social or political identities.
Storyblock’s senior director of brand and creative, Sydney Carlton, says “Through our “Queer Spaces and Faces” campaign, we’re setting the standard for the industry at large to ensure that diverse and represented stories are not simply met or produced as a quota, but provided as a necessity for telling real and impactful stories.”
According to an annual report released earlier this year by LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, LGBTQ representation on television decreased during the 2020-21 season for the first time in five years. However, a recent Gallup poll found that the number of adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender has steadily increased over the past four years, with one in six adults in Generation Z identifying as LGBTQIA+.
Carlton adds, “By changing the face of stock media, our goal is to equip everyone from advertisers and filmmakers to emerging creators and freelancers with the tools they need to accurately depict not only the world we live in, but the world we want to build for future generations.”
To kick off the second iteration of the Re: Stock initiative, Storyblocks is introducing collections from Daisy Gaston; Ryan McLendon; Sannchia Gaston; Aiden Korotkin and Shannon Beveridge. An additional collection will be released in June 2021 by Sav Rodgers, founder and executive of the Transgender Film Center. These collections represent a wide range of the community’s demography and will dive into themes such as black male love, queer artists, and the idea of “chosen families” or nonbiological bonds that are forged by folks within the LGBTQIA+ community for the purpose of authentic love and support.
Aiden Korotkin, a cinematographer involved with “Queer Spaces and Faces” campaign says, “Having the opportunity to show the vastness of society in a media format that has been historically behind the times was a huge honor. ‘Re: Stock’ allowed me to turn the mirror to represent — through my art form — what exists in society, and create a collection that reflects that true nature of the modern world.”
