As a photo editor, I look at countless stock images, which run the gamut from lovely personal photographs that are licensed by stock sites to contrived, borderline-absurd scenes. This week, I visited the DIS Image Studio, at Suzanne Geiss Company, in SoHo, a fully functional temporary photo studio that is devoted to the production, and exploration, of stock images.
The Image Studio was created by DIS Magazine, a self-described “post-Internet lifestyle magazine about art, fashion and commerce.” When I was there, the core DIS team—Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, Nick Scholl, and David Toro—was photographing models in an array of fabricated situations, including a woman reclining on an ironing board and two smiling office workers shaking hands over a printer and holding a piece of paper. Throughout the month, a cast of collaborators—including Frank Benson, Xavier Cha, Francis Carlow, Ian Cheng, Anne de Vries, Bryan Dooley, Dora+Maja, Lizzie Fitch, Max Farago, Bea Fremderman, Harry Griffin, Jogging, Hee Jin Kang, Josh Kline, Boru O’Brien O’Connell, Rhett LaRue, Jordan Lord, Alistair Matthews, Shawn Maximo, Takeshi Murata, Katja Novitskova, Pin-Up, Magali Reus, Timur Si Qin, Ryan Trecartin, Andrew Norman Wilson, Haley Wollens, and Anicka Yi—will take work as stock-image producers.
The studio is fully functioning through February 24th, and images can be purchased at disimages.com. Below is a selection of the photos taken thus far, followed by a Q. & A. with DIS.
What was the impetus for creating this stock studio, and why the interest in stock imagery?
We were attracted to the weirdness of stock photography. The generic, homogeneous banality and also the hyper-specificity that happens when you mix too many tags. For us, it’s a way of negotiating with things that make us uncomfortable rather than things we just Like. We’re interested in manipulating the idea of a stock image being “a code without a message” by allowing messages to seep into the equation while still maintaining its status as a multipurpose image commodity. We’re less concerned with the mode of production than with the conditions of circulation, which in our case is hopefully wide-reaching.
It’s a mixture of Skymall catalogues, aspirational lifestyles, and art references. For one recent story that focussed on disrupting the family-friendly side of stock imagery, we searched stock sites for “wholesome” imagery—finding that term meant fruits and vegetables, household chores, and healthy-lifestyle choices. We combined these elements with censored nudity, off-kilter Old Navy styling, and an unhealthy obsession with flip-flops. Many shoots focus on expanding the existing options of stock Web sites, and changing meanings by adding/combining new elements/keywords.
How were the participating artists determined?
We chose the specific artists involved because we felt that their work would translate really well into a stock commodity and also because we thought they would have an interesting, critical approach to the medium. We asked them to create work that was essentially a stock extension of their own.
What are the differences between a stock image created at DIS Image Studio and a stock image found on Getty, Shutterstock, etc.?
While we’re still focussed on depicting a certain level of generic relatability that’s pervasive in stock imagery, our goal is to create and commission stock products that are as viable in the art market as they are in the commercial market.
Do you believe there is a market for the stock images that you are creating?
Sooner or later, definitely. Some for the commercial market and others for the art market. We’re excited to see how they overlap.
