The co-working office Rebecca Alexander has chosen for her latest collection has all the hallmarks of good stock photography—minimalist space, clean lines, lack of bold colors. On this Saturday, she is walking around with a detailed list of shots of plus-size folks in a work environment, confident in her directives to the photographer. She knows what she wants.
A model named Hannah is leaning against a wall, phone in hand. “We need a powerful Hannah taking a call,” Alexander says. Hannah gives her best “in charge” face. “Great, now pretend you’re on a phone call that sucks. We owe it to the internet to give people a choice.”
Alexander is on a mission to diversify media. As the Portland-based founder of AllGo, an app for the plus community to rate the comfort and accessibility of public spaces, she is keenly aware of the lack of positive visibility for bigger bodies. Her project, the first free, exclusively plus-size stock photo library, is a small start in confronting America’s pervasive fat bias.
A recent Harvard study shows that although rates of bias against sexual orientation and race have gone down over the past decade, they’ve gone up for weight. We see this play out in medical spaces, where doctors routinely blame weight for all health issues, in workplaces where plus-size employees are less likely to be promoted, and in mainstream media, where thin bodies are the norm.
“Stock photos are not going to solve these deep-rooted problems,” Alexander says. “But they will inspire people to do better.”
