Travel and lifestyle dominate Alamy’s image trend findings for 2018.
UK-based stock image provider Alamy has recently chimed in with their insights into the most popular stock photography trends as of the start of 2018. If you’re among the photographers in the UK and US who regularly contribute to the stock image site, you might want to learn about their fearless forecast.
By searching through thousands of images bought by their customers, Alamy has pieced together the most prominent themes in the UK and US. Design consultant Ned Selby shares an expert’s perspective into the stylistic differences that are trending between the two markets, and explains the rationale behind the emerging trends.
In their overview, Alamy has found that the UK market continues to be after authentic-looking photographic styles and natural looks and feel. The US market, meanwhile, retains a “big appetite” for imagery with a “staged” appearance.
Alamy lists four image trends that will dominate this year’s creative projects: travel, lifestyle, wildlife, and graphics and patterns. Among these, travel and lifestyle remain to be the most popular.
Their data shows an equal split between local and international destinations for both UK and US markets. This suggests an interesting view into “forget-about-it escapism vs stay-at-home patriotism.” Lifestyle imagery also dominates the stock image demand for both markets, although they depict the trend differently. The UK sees more “on-the-go content” pretty much powered by mobile photography, with strong focus on healthy living, fitness, food, families, and relationships. Â The US has a little bit of that too, with a lot of business lifestyle imagery thrown in. The more obvious difference, however is the “recurring US/UK split:Â polished and aspirational vs real-life and natural.”
As for the other two trends, wildlife could be an offshoot of the travel trend, while graphics and patterns reflect how businesses today are “becoming ever more refined” in the way they present themselves. The US market went for a variety of wildlife subjects and more diverse outdoor settings, but the UK had a particular fondness for bird-watching imagery. While graphics is obviously design-centric, we can see why patterns could also be big this year for photography. Case in point – Salvador Cueva’s pattern-centric New York City snaps.
Check out Alamy’s blog post to learn more about their 2018 image trend report.
