It can be difficult to find diverse stock photos for women of color, body types, and alternative lifestyles. This list has many cultural, ethnic, and alternative stock photography sources for bloggers and content marketers.

Diverse Stock Photos: The World is Colorful…

…but sometimes it’s hard to find good quality ethnic and culturally diverse stock photos in content marketing!

Recently, I had a perspective client mention on a discovery call (book your free, 30-minutes here), she couldn’t find people of color represented in stock photography. Adding to that, she couldn’t find plus-sized stock photography.

It made me sad, mad, and I’m always up for a challenge, so I went hunting for a few sites which would allow her to purchase or procure free diverse stock photography. Unlike my free sources for commercial use stock photography articles, this list is a collection of both purchased and free diverse stock photography.There are affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy.

Color U Bold

If you’re looking for bright, fun, gorgeous images featuring women of color, Color U Bold is your new best friend. And y’all – her flatlay game is strong (she has a course on it, it’s so strong).

Jasmine is giving away 50 images (free, commercial use) for signing up (I signed up and they’re GORGEOUS)! Oh, and friends: this article on phone photography mistakes (and how to fix them) is choice reading. I might have a professional gal crush here.

This is one her her FREE images. See what I mean? Beautiful.

Creative Market

CreativeMarket has always been one of my favorite sources for stock photography and there are some amazing artists who focus on women of color, body types, and alternative lifestyles. Here are a few:

• Beauty Blow Flow – one of the BEST on CreativeMarket for women of color and all body types!
• Stefan & Janni – gorgeous, professional, and diverse.
• Isha Gaines – y’all, I just added so many of her stunning images to a private collection for a client.
• SkyNext – click on their ‘Collections’ tab to get started quickly.

Fotolia (by Adobe Stock)

Even if you don’t subscribe to the Adobe Stock, you can get the benefit of their vast photo library!

Fotolia allows for a package price for $5 less per month than Adobe Stock and the images are very high quality. A user can also buy credits to purchase royalty-free images with Fotolia (prices start from $1 for a small-sized image).

Focus Fitness

For FREE people of color stock photography for the fitness (or food) niche, check out Brian’s curated site, Focus Fitness. In addition to free commercial use, this site has images of items and food related to the health and fitness genre.

I’d like to note this site also includes men, too, which my clients and I find lacking in the diverse stock photography options. This is a curated source which can save you hours of searching.

50 Shades of Black Stock

First of all, it needs to be said: 50 Shades of Black Stock is one of the BEST website names. I chuckled for a good 5-minutes straight!

Second, if you sign up, you’ll get 6 free stock photos. Boom.

Create Her Stock

Read the about page on Create Her Stock. She’s written a social commentary beautifully and her business was born from making a difference. There is nothing better than that. And psst: her images are highly praised.

You can join up for only $7 per month – that’s a literal steal, y’all!!

Deposit Photos

You’ll need to utilize the search bar, but I’ve been able to find a plethora of women of color images within the depths of Deposit Photos!

I’ve found diverse stock photos, representing Arab, Asian, African, and Indian from Deposit Photos. And don’t worry about niches represented – you’re covered for the fitness, business professional, and food niches.

Additionally, DepositPhotos has stock photographs in the fitness, professional, and parenting, family niches for plus-sized and under-sized body types. This also includes images for under-sized and even anorexic images, which are hard to find in stock photography resources.

Summary

There are so many great sources to find diverse stock photography featuring women of color, alternative families, and so much more. Be sure to pin this to help others find great sources for stock photographs.