TONL: because stock photos suck

Joshua Kissi and Karen Okonkwo, founders of TONL.

Here’s a great resource I love to share with others (I have no incentive for doing so, I just think they are awesome.)

TONL is in the business of “premier diverse stock photos” which is a much-needed offering in today’s continually white-washed culture. When searching for photos, I am often continually disappointed at how homogenized the offerings are. To me, it matters to use my platform to try to equal the playing field, and one simple but powerful way is to use images that showcase as diverse of a variety of people as possible. As TONL puts it:

“Our voices and visibility matter. Photography and storytelling can help humanize and hopefully diminish the stereotypes and prejudice against black and brown people, especially. We wanted to challenge the stale, homogenous look of traditional stock photography by showcasing the many ethnic backgrounds of every day people.”

If you are someone who uses stock photos, consider using TONL as a resource! In addition to having lofty goals, they have fantastic photos. I even like their newsletter, which tells very compelling stories about the people they feature.

(Featured image and image above are both copyright to TONL, naturally.)