About
Stock Photo Cliché refers to a variety of eccentric and seemingly arbitrary themes often found in stock photography, such as “women laughing alone with salad” or “people kissing computers alone.” Such images have been traditionally used in various contexts for publications, but individual collections of single-theme stock photos have proven to be a powerful force of lulz especially in absence of any context.
Origin
Brief History of Stock Photography
Common depositories of stock photographs weren’t easily accessible to public until the arrival of large corporate agencies like Getty Images and Corbis in the 1990s. More recently, onilne-based microstock photography sites like iStockPhoto, ShutterStock and Fotolia have become popular destinations as well, where citizen/amateur photographers can submit their own work for distribution.
Women Laughing Alone With Salad
While the market for stock photography has been steadily expanding since the 90s, an ironic appreciation for stock photo cliches didn’t become widespread until Women Laughing Alone With Salad was posted on The Hairpin on January 3rd, 2011.
Spread
Quantcast Traffic Stats for TheHairPin.com
The Hairpin post on “women laughing alone with salad” quickly turned into a viral development when it was picked up by BuzzFeed, Mental Floss, Gawker, and Metafilter.
Others began posting out other examples and variations, notably in a Reddit thread and the KYM forums.
Derivatives
People Kissing Computers Alone
(BuzzFeed)
Women Proud Of Their Two Apples
Men Laughing Alone With Fruit Salad
