We have all been there. You’re building a website or designing a pitch deck, and you go looking for a photo of "teamwork." What do you find? Five people in crisp white shirts, sitting in a sun-drenched office that looks more like a sterile laboratory than a workplace, all pointing at a blank tablet with frozen, haunting smiles. It’s fake. It’s plastic. It’s exactly why Death to Stock Photos became a thing in the first place.
Back in 2013, the internet was a different kind of wasteland. High-quality photography was locked behind the massive paywalls of Getty or Shutterstock, or it was buried in the "free" bins of sites that looked like they were designed in 1998. Founders David Sherry and Allie Lehman saw the gap. They didn't just want to provide images; they wanted to kill the vibe of the "corporate mannequin."
What the industry gets wrong about authentic imagery
Most people think "authentic" just means "not a suit." That’s a mistake. True authenticity in visual media is about texture, grain, and the specific imperfection of a moment. When Death to Stock Photos (DTS) launched as a simple email list, it wasn't trying to be a massive library. It was a rebellion. They sent out monthly packs of themed photos that felt like they were taken by a friend who happened to be a world-class photographer.
The business model was actually kinda brilliant for its time. By using a subscription-based membership, they funded photographers to go on trips and create "photo essays." This wasn't about a guy in a studio shooting 500 variations of "man holding coffee cup." It was about a photographer in a cabin in the Pacific Northwest actually living the experience.
Why the "Stock" look actually hurts your brand
If you use those glossy, over-lit images, your audience's brain shuts off. Seriously. There is a psychological phenomenon called "banner blindness," but it applies to imagery too. Research from the Nielsen Norman Group has shown that users ignore "fluff" photos that have no information value. When a visitor sees a generic stock photo, they categorize it as an ad and stop looking.
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You've probably noticed that the most successful brands today—think Shopify, Airbnb, or even smaller boutique agencies—use photography that feels documentary in style. They moved toward the Death to Stock Photos ethos because it builds trust. Trust is hard to win but incredibly easy to lose with a single photo of two models shaking hands over a lens flare.
The messy reality of the "Free" photo explosion
Then came Unsplash and Pexels. Honestly, they changed the game, but not necessarily in a way that helped everyone. While these sites made high-quality images free for everyone, they created a new problem: visual exhaustion. Suddenly, the same photo of a "minimalist desk with a MacBook and a succulent" was on 50,000 different blog posts.
When everything is beautiful, nothing is.
DTS pivoted. They realized that "free" wasn't the goal—"proprietary" and "unique" were. They started focusing on more artistic, sometimes even "weird" photography that didn't fit the standard SEO-optimized mold. If you’re a business owner, you have to ask yourself: do you want to look like everyone else for free, or do you want to pay a little to actually stand out?
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Creative licenses and the legal headaches nobody talks about
Let's get into the weeds for a second. Most people just right-click and save, or they grab something from a "free" site without reading the fine print. Using Death to Stock Photos or similar premium services usually gives you a more robust license.
Public Domain (CC0) is great until it isn't. Some sites have changed their terms over the years, leading to "license creep" where images that were once free might fall into a gray area if the platform changes its business model or if a photographer claims their work was uploaded without permission. DTS uses its own custom license. It’s straightforward. It protects the creator and the brand. It’s the "adult" way to handle creative assets.
How to actually use these images for growth
Stop thinking about photos as "fillers" for your white space. That's a 2010 mindset.
- Treat images as data. Use heatmaps like Hotjar. You'll see people skipping over generic photos. Swap them for something from a library like DTS and watch the engagement stay on the page longer.
- Color grade your stock. Even if you buy a pack, don't use it raw. Toss a filter on it or adjust the levels to match your brand's specific hex codes.
- The "Human Test". If you look at a photo and can’t imagine that person actually exists in the real world, delete it.
The impact on the photography economy
We have to talk about the photographers. The "race to the bottom" in stock photography ruined the livelihoods of many professionals. When you support platforms that prioritize quality over quantity, you're essentially subsidizing the arts. It’s not just "buying a photo." It’s making sure that the person who spent five hours waiting for the perfect light at a construction site actually gets paid a living wage.
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DTS was one of the first to vocalize this. They talked about "creative ethics" long before it was a trendy LinkedIn topic. They proved that there is a market for people who care about where their pixels come from.
Actionable steps for your visual identity
Don't just go out and delete all your photos today. That’s a headache you don't need. Instead, start an audit. Look at your top five most visited pages. If those pages have "handshake" photos or "smiling headset lady" photos, replace them immediately.
Go to a site like Death to Stock Photos, or look for niche creators on platforms like Adobe Stock (the "Premium" or "Editorial" sections) who have a distinct style. Look for grain. Look for shadows. Shadows are good. Real life has shadows.
You should also consider commissioning "lifestyle" shoots once a year. It sounds expensive, but if you compare the cost of a $2,000 day-shoot to the lost revenue of a "fake-looking" brand that nobody trusts, the math starts to favor the custom work. If you can't afford that, a membership to a high-end curated library is the next best thing.
Stop settling for the visual equivalent of elevator music. Your brand deserves better than a generic "Death to Stock" vibe—it deserves images that actually say something. Move away from the sanitized, the perfect, and the plastic. Get real.
Next Steps for Implementation:
- Audit Your Assets: Identify any "high-utility" pages on your site that are currently using generic, over-used images from free repositories.
- Define Your Aesthetic: Decide if your brand is "Industrial," "Vibrant," "Moody," or "Minimalist." Use these keywords specifically when searching premium libraries to avoid the generic "business" results.
- Mix Custom with Curated: Use custom photography for your "About" and "Service" pages, and use curated libraries like DTS for blog posts and social media headers where you need more volume.
- Check Your Licenses: Ensure every image on your site has a documented license to avoid future legal disputes as copyright enforcement bots become more prevalent in 2026.