Stock photography refers to pre-existing photographs licensed for specific uses, rather than created on commission for a single client.
These images are produced by by photographers, professional or amateur, and distributed through agencies that manage licensing, pricing, and delivery.
Stock photography supports advertising, publishing, web design, corporate communications, and countless digital media applications. The industry includes several tiers, including macrostock, traditional stock, which is high-priced, often rights-managed images; midstock, with mid-range pricing and quality; and microstock, which is low-cost, high-volume, royalty-free images, often sourced from large contributor communities.
Stock photography emerged in the 1920s, when agencies began archiving reusable images for editorial and commercial clients. Over the next century, the field evolved dramatically. Early archives were built between the 1920s and the 1960s, when agencies built physical libraries of transparencies and prints. Photographers submitted curated collection for licensing during this period. Commercial expansions took place during the 1970s through the 1990s. Stock became a major revenue stream for photographers, rights-managed licensing dominated, and agencies like Getty Images and Corbis began consolidating archives. During the 2000s, online platforms replaced physical archives, and microstock emerged, selling images for as little as $0.25 per download. Amateur photographers gained access to global markets. In the 2010s and 2020s, agencies adopted AI for tagging, search, and curation. The industry expanded into video, vectors, 3D assets, and templates. AI-generated imagery began influencing workflows and licensing models.
Stock photography spans nearly every visual genre. Common styles include lifestyle (people in everyday situations), business and technology (corporate environments, teamwork, digital devices, and innovation themes), nature and landscape (scenic views, wildlife, and environmental concepts), conceptual imagery (metaphors such as "success," "growth," "security," or "connection"), food and hospitality (culinary scenes, restaurants, ingredients, and food preparation), medical and scientific (healthcare professionals, lab environments, anatomy, and research), and abstract and backgrounds (textures, patterns, gradients, and minimalistic compositions).
Modern stock imagery reflects cultural, technological, and social shifts. Buyers increasingly prefer authenticity over staging, representation and inclusivity (multigenerational families, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and non-Western cultures and lifestyles), remote work and digital life (images of home offices, virtual meetings, and hybrid work environments), sustainability and climate themes, and AI-generated imagery.
Stock photo licensing determines how an image may be used. These include Royalty-Free (one-time fee for broad, repeated use, non-exclusive, most common in microstock, and flexible for web, print, and advertising), Rights-Managed (pricing based on specific usage, may offer exclusivity, and common in high-end macrostock collections), Extended Licenses (allow larger print runs, resale items, or merchandise, and often an add-on to RF licenses), and Editorial Use Only (for news, commentary, or educational contexts, cannot be used commercially, and often applies to images with unreleased people or trademarks). These licensing structures are explained in detail by iStock's licensing guide and Pixsy's overview of image licensing fundamentals.
Stock agencies operate under several business models. Macrostock agencies offer rights-managed and premium royalty-free images. With high-priced, curated collections, they tend to have lower volume, but higher revenut per image. Microstock agencies have large contributor bases, offering low-cost, high-volume royalty-free images, with subscription and credit-based pricing. Popular with marketers and content creators, subscription platforms offer monthly or annual plans offering a set number of downloads. With Marketplace models, contributors upload directly, and agencies take a commission on each sale. Enterprise licensing offers custom agreements for large companies, and includes bulk licensing, API access, and brand-safe collections.
Based on global recognition, market share, and industry influence, the leading stock agencies include Getty Images, iStock by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Alamy, Depositphotos, Dreamstime, 123RF, Pond5, and Getty's Editorial Partners (AP, AFP, etc.).
These and any other stock photography agencies or informational sources are appropriate for this category.
Recommended Resources
Founded by Andy Sitt in 2000, the business was first known as Inmagine, and sold premium large-format photo prints. In 2005, Inmagine set up 123RF, which offers royalty-free stock images, videos, and audio clips. Unlike its previous business model, 123RF allows photographers around the world to sell their art on the platform using a crowdsourcing model. Asset types include photos, vectors, video, audio, fonts, and AI-generated images. Searches can be made by orientation, color, and license type.
https://www.123rf.com/
Alamy is a global stock-image marketplace offering a library of over 400 million images, including photos, illustrations, vectors, 360-degree images, and videos, with editorial, creative, and archival collections. Its collections may be accessed by searching with an (uploaded) image, by category navigation, or through curated collections and inspiration. A blog provides trends, tutorials, and editorial spotlights to help choose imagery. Licensure data is also available.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-images/
Founded in 2004 and acquired by Shutterstock in 2009, Big Stock Photo rebranded to the shorter name in 2010. It is a royalty-free marketplace with a 7-day free trial, millions of searchable photos, vectors, and videos, as well as web-based licensing and downloads available worldwide. The site provides advanced filters (orientation, people count, license type, age group, ethnicity, category) to narrow results quickly. Support hours are noted on the site, along with contacts.
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/
Launched as a royalty-free stock image in 2000, Dreamtime is a community-based royalty-free stock media marketplace headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. It offers a large searchable library of images for buyers and a contributor program for photographers and creators. Its royalty-free microstock marketplace connects contributors and buyers, with images reviewed by editors before publication. Prices and download plans are provided on the website, along with a blog.
https://www.dreamstime.com/
Based in France, Epictura is a European royalty-free stock image bank that sells image subscriptions and single downloads. It advertises between 70 million and 250 million images, offers multi-user accounts, and lists contact details in Perpignan, France. Its address, telephone number, and email are posted on the website, along with its plans and prices, licensing information, contact details, and other data, including subscription and single-download options.
http://www.epictura.com/
Fotosearch is an online stock media aggregator run by Publitek, which sells both royalty-free and rights-managed photos, illustrations, video, and audio. Licenses are printed before purchase and the website aggregates content from many publishers so that clients can license and download assets directly. Fotosearch distributes content from many different stock agencies and publishers rather than producing all assets in-house. The site is available in several languages.
https://www.fotosearch.com/
Getty Images Holdings (stylized as gettyimages) is a visual media company and supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for businesses and consumers, with a library of millions assets. The company targets three markets: creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), the media (print and online publishing), and corporate (in-house design, marketing, and communication departments). An AI-generator is also available, and its pricing plans are listed.
https://www.gettyimages.com/
Image Source is an online stock photography provider offering a curated family of specialty image libraries, including Disability Images, Masterful, Design Pics, and Connect Images, for rights-managed and royalty-free licensing. The website presents itself as a hub for high-quality, inclusive visuals. Its primary offering is curated, high-quality stock photography across multiple specialized libraries. The site lists both licensing types, permitted uses, duration, and territory for each image.
https://imagesource.com/
Founded in 2000, iStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images in 2006, and rebranded iStock by Getty Images. iStock is Getty Images' consumer-focused, royalty-free stock library, a searchable marketplace of photos, vectors, illustrations, and video with both budget-friendly and premium collections. Its primary collections include Essentials (everyday, lower-cost) and Signature (premium, handpicked), and access can be obtained through subscriptions, credit packs, or single-image purchases.
https://www.istockphoto.com/
Rolf Hicker is an award-winning travel, nature, and wildlife photographer who sells fine-art prints and stock images, and runs small, ethical wildlife tours based out of northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. His website hosts his primary portfolio and tour information. Stock photography is available for immediate download, sold directly by the photographer to avoid agency markups. Over 17,000 downloadable photos spanning global travel destinations and wildlife subjects are available.
https://hickerphoto.com/
Founded in 2002, Shutterstock is a US-based provider of stock photography, stock footage, stock music, and editing tools. Shutterstock maintains a library of around 200 million royalty-free stock photos, vector graphics, and illustrations. Originally a subscription-only site, Shutterstock expanded beyond subscriptions into a la carte pricing in 2008. Besides stock images, the website includes an AI image generator and AI search assistant, as well as data licensing information.
https://www.shutterstock.com/
