Much of the trends foundin advertising photography apply and can be adopted to stock photography shoots. Most of these trends have already been in the trend arena but they are developingwith more complexity.
Following are simply some words that are influencing these trends and that I’ll be focusing on.
Authentic Everyday Colour Cross-cultural Diversity Mindfulness Narrative Offbeat Senses Wellbeing
Authenticity and Narrative
These two trends come hand in hand working harmoniously to appeal to the art buyers and ad clients. Sharon Ber, art director at (PDN) refers to the “look of authenticity and genuine storytelling” continuing to influence advertising photography. She goes on to say that “photographers have been trying to tell commercial stories in a way that read closer to real life. It has a more spontaneous feel – as if the photographer was capturing moments among their own friends, their own family.”
She adds that “the images feel as if they could be from a social media feed and in turn they lend themselves to that platform perfectly. Advertising needs to connect with consumers in a way that makes them feel as if they are not being sold something. So as sponsored ads become the norm on social media, the inverse has occurred in commercial photography. Instagram-like images become what advertisers want, but with professional lighting techniques”.
Alison Glidewell, Alamy’sCommercial Senior Account Manager concurs with this saying that “ad agency clients are still after authentic, real life imagery centered around the family and ‘quality time’. Advertising messages are less aspirational in terms of material wealth and are about ‘treasured moments’ with loved ones; friends and family”. She continues “images need to reflect that, so need to look like they’ve been taken by a family member or friend, should be unposed and unstaged and capture a genuine moment in time. Think natural light, believable environments. Imagery will increasingly be cross-culturalwith more of a documentary style of photography in play.
To illustrate this there are some compelling videos of the new which basically films a real family in the UK. The Brand Marshave launched a new for the Maltesers brand, which shows people of varying abilities in ordinary environments. This very much shows disability as everyday and in a positive light. Alison concludes that “The family make up is changing rapidly, so we need mixed race families, adopted children, two families merging”. To illustrateher observations she suggests watching current .
Fashion photography, often a barometer for trends in advertising is using more diverse models. Last year Nick Knight photographed model , who has vitiligo, a chronic skin condition. And browsing in the recent Guardian Weekendmagazine, I noticeda fashion feature with clothes horse Shaun, a transgender model.from the Guardian reveals more about fashion’s adoption of transgender models. This is a big change and members of society who were on the periphery for one reason or the other are very muchcoming into the mainstream – the outsider has become the insider.
Senses and Technology
These two themes may appear to contradict themselves but technology is being developed to heighten our senses and ability to engage in new realities mainly through virtual reality (VR). So while there are two threads here, each are about emotions and harnessing our sensory wellbeing. We humans have tended toremove ourselves from technology so as to connect with ourselves and nature. Which is why increasingly we are seeing more images of people fully employing their senses be it in the great outdoors or relaxing at home. Interestingly enough there was recently a radio program discussing whether some boredom is actually good for you! So it’s less about showing action but more about feeling, discovery, special experiences, connectionand reflection. This mirrors the rise in popularity of meditation namely mindfulness, themes of wellness and farm to table cuisine. Brands are exploiting this and amping up the importance of these values – the Sainsbury’s ad above is an excellent example where the most important thing at Christmas above all is to spend time with your family so the protagonist in the story decides he has to clone himself!
Style Trends
Stylistically theongoing trend in advertising photography is a more subdued and subtle use of post production tools – advertising clients are seeking a more ‘natural look’. In about advertising trends from , photographer Jörgen Reimercomments that“internationally, the enormous retouching/photoshopping projects we’ve seen in recent years – you know, cars flying through the air, the kind of visuals you can see but do not believe – havebecome a bit less. I think advertising photography in the future will return to morebasic photography, there will still be some photoshopping going on but not to the extent that still prevails this moment.” And from Budapest interestingly describes the rise of an almost “pseudo-Renaissance where artists are mixing all art forms with technology to reach that same goal, that of a ‘perfect’ and complex work.” Chiming in with this perspective, you’ll discover inwritten by leading artists that a new development in VR could possibly‘revolutionise the digital art industry’.
One factor thathas not been mentioned which I think could be influential is theradical shift in the global political climate. I’d be interested to hear any comments, thoughts on the impact of this if any on the visual language used in advertising as well as other trends, macro or micro that you’ve spotted.