3 questions to ensure your images center DEI
Written by Niki Juhasz
We’ve all heard the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words. And that’s true – but in marketing and advocacy, the images aren’t just about the pictures themselves and the words they represent. They are also about the feelings they evoke and the narratives they help shape.
Are your pictures making people feel included and seen? Or stereotyped and tokenized? Did you focus on representation alone without considering what the story behind the image is actually saying? Today, we’re exploring the first few questions we always ask to help us share authentic visuals that represent our communities.
Are we representing *our* community well?
What’s representative – REALLY representative – of your community and your stakeholders? We recommend starting with your demographics to make sure your images are empowering, true to life and not tokenizing. For example, if you’re a school district and 90 percent of your teachers are white – but eight of 10 photos on your website feature Black teachers, then this isn’t an authentic representation of your district. Who we highlight and who we chose not to include says a lot to our audiences.
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Are we relying on stereotypes?
I think we’ve all seen a version of this photo: two teenagers or young adults, often in a festival-like or celebratory setting, wrapped in a rainbow flag. While this image may represent some LGBTQ+ lived experiences, it leaves a huge demographic unseen – and may be seen as offensive in some cases, too. It’s important to think about who we are trying to represent, and what their daily experiences actually look like.
In this scenario, that may be an older gay couple enjoying a vacation together, or a group of friends, including non-binary members, out to dinner. The most “obvious” representation is not always the right or inclusive one.
Images can reinforce negative stereotypes as well. For example, if your nonprofit offers affordable housing support, don’t feature pictures of a mom with her kids sitting on a curb with worn bags. Focus on strength-based photos – like a family enjoying dinner together at a table – instead.
Are we showing real lived experiences in diversity?
A woman of color on a solo hiking adventure in her state park. A single father caring for his young child. A person with a larger body type presenting at a board meeting. These are just a few research-backed examples of the types of images that are missing in our current visual storytelling landscape. It’s important to show people of color, with disabilities, in different age categories, with various body types, of different religions and varied lived experiences leading, succeeding, experiencing and enjoying life. Think about what the world around us actually looks like when choosing photos.
Resources to Help
Look – we know this work is not easy. (I’m by no means an expert myself, and am committed to continuing to learn and grow.) But it is necessary and critical in building the equitable, inclusive world we all want to live in. We have a few resources to help along the way:
Citi and Getty Images Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Imagery Toolkits. These resources are meant to help build authentic, inclusive visual storytelling into our work and are full of great data, too. You can download them here.
Starting Point for Stock Photo Websites. We know finding equitable, inclusive images can be tricky. There are several websites out there, such as Vice’s Gender Spectrum Collection and EDUimages by All4Ed that offer more inclusive options.
