The Women Who Drone Collection Launches on Getty Images
You read that correctly. Do not adjust your screens. Women Who Drone is officially partnered with Getty Images, one of the largest distributors of visual content in the world. The Getty Images Women Who Drone Collection features the aerial content of female drone pilots around the world. This is very exciting news and a sign of WWD's stellar growth since its inception in October 2017.
For those of you who are unaware, Getty Images, Inc. is a widely used media licensing agency that sells stock photos, video, music and multimedia products. Their business serves customers in over 100 countries and was the world's first online image licensing agency. Getty Images is responsible for modernizing the stock photo industry, and this partnership is an important step in accomplishing Women Who Drone's goals of inspiring women and girls to join the UAV industry.
Through Getty Images, women can share their aerial photography and cinematography and be compensated for it on a large scale. The collection is currently open to female drone pilots who are Certified Drone Pilots in the U.S.A. as well as Women Who Drone's Brand Ambassadors in other countries. To become a Brand Ambassador, check out the application process here. By providing them with a platform, Getty Images is increasing the visibility of female pilots and giving more creators the opportunity to sell their content and prosper. This in turn exposes other women and girls to drones and the UAV industry, encouraging them to channel their creativity into the tech world.
This is not the first time that Getty Images has tackled this issue and shown an interest in inspiring women and girls. Getty Images has worked with other well-known brands that focus on women and created collections for this purpose. Last year, Refinery29 expanded their partnership to create their No Apologies collection, a library of images composed with the intention of "accurately representing women’s bodies, diversity, and the experiences that women face in their everyday lives." Women are looking for body positive and authentic images to identify with and this collection is meant to be an answer.
Another collection conceived expressly for the empowerment of women is their Lean In collection which currently features around 6,000 curated images. Pam Grossman, Director of Visual Trends at Getty Images, states that part of her job is "broadening what beauty and power can look like." As a result, Grossman collaborated with the non-profit Lean In to launch the collection with the goal of these images changing the current perception of gender roles. Together in 2014, they curated a collection of stock media that reflects the diversity of backgrounds and careers of everyday women and girls, describing their collection as "a library of images devoted to the powerful depiction of women, girls and the people who support them."
Ultimately, this collaboration serves as an addition to the growing media presence of women and girls in diverse roles in society. Media influences much of our perception from an early age. We encounter many forms of media in our daily lives, and what we see can become what we expect from the world. The increasing visibility of female professionals normalizes women working in roles typically shown to be occupied by men.
Visit our Getty Images collection here.
I am a writer and an artist based in Georgia. Specializing in illustration, graphic design, and video art, I love to explore the new ways technology intersects with art. I think drones have done amazing things for photography and video art, making what would previously be costly and difficult more accessible. As a complete novice, it was only recently that I saw what independent artists could do with their drones, and I continue to be impressed by the sights that drones are able to explore and the images they can capture. Instagram: @tyesha.ferron
